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In his pre-practice press conference leading up to the final practice of the Green Bay Packers’ mandatory minicamp, head coach Matt LaFleur outlined the timeline for practices moving forward. According to LaFleur, veterans will have next week off, while rookies will be participating in voluntary organized team activities. On top of that, LaFleur announced that training camp will start on July 29th — for those of you wanting to get a live look at the team before the preseason.
With that out of the way, let’s get into today’s action.
The Packers aren’t getting more injured, but they’re also not getting healthier. All three practices have ended with the same 17 players out of action. Below is the full list of players who are banged up:
As far as we know, the only injuries that should be lingering through the beginning of the regular season are to outside linebacker Micah Parsons (ACL tear) and defensive lineman Jordon Riley (torn Achilles). With that being said, we know little about the new injuries that the Packers’ players are dealing with.
It’s going to be tough for receiver Isaiah Neyor to make the 53-man roster, considering the player ahead of him on the depth chart, but he’s starting to make a splash in practice. Last year, Neyor was activated for a lone game, the Packers’ playoff matchup against the Chicago Bears, after spending the entire season on the team’s practice squad. Neyor was actually on the field in crunch time of that game, even though he only played three offensive snaps. Keep an eye on him moving forward.
It’s interesting that the Packers are using Chris Brooks “as a traditional fullback” at times. We haven’t seen much of that from him. Often, Brooks is used as a lone blocking back or in split-back shotgun formations. Generally, the fullback role has gone to tight ends under LaFleur, generally smaller players like Josiah Deguara or Josh Whyle.
While Nazir Stackhouse has been starting at nose tackle in 3-4 looks (with three contributing defensive linemen injured in minicamp), it was Chris McClellan who got the look at nose tackle (with Karl Brooks at 3-technique) in nickel sets with the starting defense today. Considering that McClellan has more juice as a pass-rusher than Stackhouse, this shouldn’t be too surprising.
At cornerback, Carrington Valentine is consistently getting “starting” looks over second-round rookie Brandon Cisse. This isn’t to say that the job is won (Benjamin St-Juste has been banged up all minicamp, too), but it is worth keeping in mind that this is the team’s...
