If it’s Thursday, it must be a Wednesday because the Green Bay Packers open the home schedule Monday night against the Detroit Lions.
The work week gets pushed back a day and the Packers returned to work Thursday, confident the stain of last Sunday’s 38-3 humbling by the New Orleans Saints has been wiped clean.
The negative week took a positive spin at practice when it was learned defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery tested positive for COVID. He was not with the team and Head Coach Matt LaFleur declined to comment on the story unveiled by Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Montgomery, along with the entire staff has been vaccinated and he won’t be allowed to re-join the team until he has two negative tests over a 24 hour period. LaFleur did say the NFL sent an e-mail regarding the close contact tracing investigation that was required when 8 members of the New Orleans Saints had positive test results when they returned from the opener in Jacksonville. Six were offensive coaches, there was one player and the team’s nutritionist all had positive results. The Packers however had no one else who fell under the close contact guidelines.
The first player injury report of the week had three names who did not participate including linebacker Za’Darius Smith. He’s been dealing with a bad back since training camp opened and while he played 15 snaps against New Orleans, the soreness kept him away. LaFleur is hopeful he can play Monday night but they want to make sure he’s 100% first. The other two players who sat out are both in the concussion protocol, tight end Josiah Deguara and starting left guard Lucas Patrick.
The offensive line already juggled with David Bakhtiari’s absence on the physically unable to perform list, could be in for more musical chairs against the Lions if Patrick doesn’t come out of the protocol by then. Line coach Adam Stenavich says second year players Jon Runyan and Jake Hanson are in line for the promotion. Runyan saw action last year while Hanson missed his entire rookie season recovering from hip surgery. Stenavich said he has shown dramatic improvement this summer and he’ll decide at the end of the weekend which of the two would step in if Patrick is ruled out.
Safeties Darnell Savage (shoulder) and Vernon Scott (hamstring) were limited at practice and rookie center Josh Myers was a full participant even though he’s dealing with a finger injury.
After the workout, Aaron Rodgers met with the media.
12 meets the press
Rodgers is coming off one of the worst games of his career (passer rating 36.8) in the blowout loss to the Saints and it resulted in plenty of panic cries from fans and national media circles. The quarterback had the line of the day when asked if the team’s energy has been restored in the wake of the loss and the home opener approaching. Rodgers said there was no need for restoration as team put that game behind them.
Rodgers added the process has proven successful over time as the Packers have yet to lose back to back regular season games during LaFleur’s tenure.
The Packers will honor the late Ted Thompson at halftime of Monday night’s game. Thompson passed away earlier this year. He served as Green Bay’s General Manager for 13 years and joining the organization as a scout in the early 1990’s. His very first draft choice as GM in 2005 was none other than the three time NFL Most Valuable Player and Super Bowl XLV MVP quarterback.
Rodgers said having Ted’s name placed among the team’s greats at Lambeau will be a fitting tribute.
The normal heavy workload Thursday practice will take place Friday with one more session Saturday before the Packers welcome the Lions to Lambeau for the prime time divisional matchup Monday night.
