The Green Bay Packers’ rookie defensive backs struck again. Interceptions by safety Evan Williams and cornerback Kalen King highlighted the sixth practice of Packers training camp on Sunday.
Here’s everything you need to know about the day at Ray Nitschke Field.
Jordan Love’s Day
The second day of Jordan Love’s training camp wasn’t appreciably better than the first.
After going 11-of-20 passing on Saturday, he finished 9-of-16 on Sunday.
“I think it shows the value of practice when everybody else has had four practices and the importance of being out there,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice. “I don’t care who you are, what position you play, in order to get better and be consistent, you’ve got to practice.”
Love’s first two passes were closer to interceptions by Jaire Alexander and Xavier McKinney than they were completions to Dontayvion Wicks and Christian Watson.
There were some high-quality throws, though. He found Wicks over the middle against Eric Stokes for a big catch-and-run completion. Moments later, he delivered a dart to Grant DuBose on a deep in-breaking route for a gain of at least 20 yards. Wicks couldn’t quite pull in a big-time throw toward the sideline – a tough grader would have given Wicks a drop – but the ball was perfectly thrown, considering the coverage.
“He’s really smart,” rookie safety Evan Williams said. “Pre-snap, he’ll switch his count up to get you to tip a blitz or tip what you’re doing and then kind of see what you’re doing, see the movement of DBs, see drops before they happen and see a window before it appears.
“So, he’s able to fit a lot of balls into windows that shouldn’t be there, [where the throw] seems kind of impossible. It’s great for our defense to go up against a caliber of quarterback just like Jordan. If we can play as well as we are with him behind center, then we should be all right vs. a lot of the quarterbacks we see this year.”
Player of the Day
Rookie cornerback Kalen King was one of the more fascinating prospects in this year’s draft. At Penn State, he earned All-American honors in 2022 with two interceptions and 20 passes defensed. Hyped as a potential first-round pick, King had zero interceptions and two passes defensed in 2023.
While he didn’t give up any touchdowns, his fall in production and a lackluster Scouting Combine had King plummet all the way to the third-to-last pick of the draft.
On Sunday, King was tremendous. It started during individual drills, when he had excellent coverage on a deep incompletion to Samori Toure.
On a third-and-4 during an 11-on-11 period, he jumped a short pass by Jordan Love and took it back for a touchdown.
“I was just reading the quarterback, trusting my instincts, seeing the ball and making a play on the ball,” King said.
King wasn’t done. During a backups-vs.-backups 2-minute drill to end practice, he drove through receiver Julian Hicks to break up Michael Pratt’s pass at the sideline. He did the same thing moments later, this time almost snaring an interception.
Afterward, King was surrounded by reporters at his locker. Fellow defensive backs Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine joined the scrum, shouting playfully at King about his big day.
“It only gives me confidence,” he said.
Play of the Day
On the first play of the starters-vs.-starters 2-minute drill, Dontayvion Wicks ran a deep out against safety Xavier McKinney. Love zipped a high fastball. McKinney had excellent coverage and tried to make a play on the ball. Instead, Wicks hauled it down and made a tumbling grab at the sideline for a gain of 23.
“Just locking in on it,” Wicks said. “Coordination catch, tight window. Those are the ones you’ve got to come down with when the quarterback trusts you.”
Did he get his feet down?
“Yes, sir. Yes, sir,” Wicks said.
The NFL line judge, who was right there, agreed.
Packers Injury Report
New injuries: S Zayne Anderson (knee), DE Deslin Alexandre (lower leg), DE Keshawn Banks (groin).
Returned to practice: C Josh Myers (personal).
Old injuries: RB MarShawn Lloyd (hip), CB Robert Rochell (calf).
Also did not practice: LG Elgton Jenkins (veteran rest).
PUP/NFI: S Kitan Oladapo (toe), TE Tucker Kraft (pectoral).
Packers Practice Highlights
- Veteran kickers Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph each went 5-of-6 on field goals. Carlson was wide right from 51 and Joseph was wide right from 53. Both kickers closed practice by drilling a 55-yarder.
Carlson, the incumbent, is 16-of-18 during camp. So is Joseph, the Vikings’ kicker the last three years. Rookie James Turner, who kicked on Saturday, is 13-of-19.
- The competitive part of practice started with the first one-on-ones of camp.
In receivers vs. defensive backs, Jayden Reed made a remarkable catch. After initially dropping the pass, he reached forward and somehow managed to pin the ball against a leg for a tumbling grab against Corey Ballentine.
Christian Watson turned Eric Stokes inside-out, with Stokes falling to the ground and Watson making an easy catch.
Rookie safety Javon Bullard is aggressive in coverage. He got away with a tug on the back of Dimitri Stanley’s jersey on one but was flagged for pass interference against Julian Hicks. Later, Bullard was beaten deep by Samori Toure.
Jalen Wayne beat Zyon Gilbert deep, safety Anthony Johnson was beat downfield by tight end Joel Wilson and receiver Rory Starkey, and Keisean Nixon broke up a pass intended for Dontayvion Wicks.
- With nobody open and pressure coming, quarterback Sean Clifford forced one to Malik Heath that was intercepted by Carrington Valentine.
- Running back Emanuel Wilson took a handoff up the middle and was blasted by safety Benny Sapp.
- On a third-and-5, Love – under heavy pressure by blitzing linebacker Eric Wilson – took a deep shot to Romeo Doubs. Valentine had tight coverage but Doubs got late separation and made a spectacular leaping catch. One problem: Doubs was flagged for offensive pass interference.
- Here was an ugly sequence: offside by defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, delay of game, a bad shotgun snap by Jacob Monk and a holding penalty.
- On third-and-6, Jayden Reed lined up in the right slot and ran a crossing route to the left. He got plenty of separation against Nixon for a sizable gain.
- Nixon got his revenge moments later when he blasted running back AJ Dillon after a catch.
Two-Minute Drills
The scenario was ball at the 30 with 1:05 on the clock and one timeout.
- First up was the No. 2s. On the first play, Sean Clifford’s pass to Malik Heath was intercepted by Evan Williams. Three defenders were in the vicinity, and Williams made an easy grab.
“Honestly, I was just reading the quarterback,” Williams said. “We were in a zone look. I felt the route combos to the front side push away from me and knew there was probably something coming from the back side. Got a dig from the backside and was just able to jump it.”
It was a pretty good way for Williams to celebrate his 23rd birthday.
“They say a pick-a-day makes the bad feelings go away,” Williams said.
- The starters’ 2-minute drill was won by the defense, as well. Jordan Love’s first pass, the Play of the Day catch by Dontayvion Wicks, gained 23 yards to the defense’s 47. However, the drive stalled.
On second-and-5, Love’s screen to Josh Jacobs was stopped for a loss of 2 by defensive end Arron Mosby. After an exchange of penalties, Love hit tight end Luke Musgrave for 4. With the clock ticking away, Love bought enough time for Musgrave to get behind linebacker Isaiah McDuffie but the pass was overthrown.
- Rookie quarterback Michael Pratt ran the backups’ 2-minute drill. Completions of 13 yards and 12 yards to Jalen Wayne pushed the ball across midfield. On third-and-3, Pratt checked it down to running back Jarveon Howard, who turned on the jets for a gain of 15. Pratt let the clock tick down perilously close to 0 seconds before clocking it with 1 second to set up what would have been a 44-yard field goal.
The coaches made Greg Jospeh and Anders Carlson kick 55-yarders, which they both hit.
Packers Lineup Notes
- With the return of center Josh Myers but Elgton Jenkins getting the day off, the No. 1 consisted of Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Sean Rhyan at left guard, Myers at center, Jordan Morgan at right guard and Kadeem Telfort at right tackle.
- For the starters’ 2-minute drill, the line was Walker, Rhyan, Myers, Royce Newman (in place of Morgan) and Telfort.
- Andre Dillard started training camp taking the No. 1 reps at right tackle in place of injured Zach Tom. After a couple rough days, he was replaced by Kadeem Telfort. On Saturday, Dillard and Telfort essentially split the first-team action. On Sunday, it was back to Telfort.
“At some point, you’d like to get some continuity amongst the starting five, but I don’t want to read too much into it. We’ve had one padded practice,” coach Matt LaFleur said before practice. “I think it’ll sort itself out the longer we get into this thing.
“Certainly, we’re shuffling a lot of guys around, there’s a lot of guys in and out of the lineup. I think there’s a lot of good that comes of that, just getting guys in different positions to help cross-train them in case something bad happens and you need to rotate guys around or whatever it may be, but we’ve still got a lot of ball before we have to make any decisions.”
- The No. 1 safeties were Xavier McKinney and Anthony Johnson. Rookie second-round pick Javon Bullard ran with the starters for Practices 1, 3 and 5, rookie Evan Williams got the call for Practice 2 and Johnson got the nod for Practices 4 and 6.
- At linebacker, the No. 1 unit continues to be Quay Walker in the middle, flanked by Eric Wilson and Isaiah McDuffie. Why does Wilson continue to go ahead of second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper? Easy. Wilson probably has made more plays than anyone on defense.
Packers Training Camp Schedule
The Packers will not practice on Monday. Then, it’s a third consecutive three-day stretch with practices at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. An off-day on Friday will lead into Saturday’s Family Night.
Quote of the Day
Coach Matt LaFleur, speaking before Sunday’s practice, on the scuffles that broke out on Saturday:
“You definitely want the guys out there competing to the best of their ability. You want guys being physical, but you want people to get out of practice healthy. That’s my No. 1 concern every time we go out on the field is, are we competing at our highest level? Are we getting better but are we coming out healthy?
“I think these guys have got to understand that it doesn’t matter what side of the ball you’re on, if somebody goes down and somebody gets hurt because we’re not being smart, it hurts everybody. It hurts the entire football team. I appreciate the competitiveness but, at the end of the day, we are a team. Football’s an emotional game and sometimes tempers do flare but, more than anything, I just want guys to compete and keep each other safe.”
