Following last week’s performance on the London stage against the New York Giants, the nine hour flight home offered plenty of soul searching and self-examination time. Monday and Tuesday got everybody’s body clock back in order and today, the Packers returned to the practice field to start preparing for the other Met Life Stadium tenant, the New York Jets.
The matchup of 3-2 clubs, one considered disappointing, the other resurgent will kick off at noon, the first 12:00 PM start of the season at Lambeau Field.
Last summer, Head Coach Matt LaFleur invited the Jets to Green Bay for a joint practice week prior to a pre-season game. A nice gesture for their then, first year coach in Robert Saleh. The two coaches go way back and became best friends, Saleh was LaFleur’s best man. Saleh’s offensive coordinator just happens to be Matt’s younger brother, Mike. Talk about a friends and family reunion.
Matt’s younger brother Mike LaFleur
LaFleur had little choice but to talk about it during his pre-practice news conference. He keeps in touch with both in New York, although the cell phone calls will be far less frequent and he’s coached enough games against other close colleagues like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay to treat this like any other week.
Mindful of the air miles logged since last Thursday, LaFleur kept today’s practice on the light side, a “neck-up” day he likes to call it. Only three players didn’t participate, Christian Watson and Tipa Galeai are dealing with hamstring pulls but it was a single digit that got more attention. Aaron Rodgers stayed in the building to get treatment on his right thumb. It got dinged on the doomed hail mary pass at the finish of the 27-22 loss on Sunday. At his weekly get together with reporters, first question was obvious, “how’s the thumb?”
The rest of the initial injury report had three players listed as limited participants. David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins are still trying to close in on 100%, not there yet and rookie Devonte Wyatt who is dealing with a quad injury.
The biggest smile in the locker room belonged to running back/returner Kylin Hill. He practiced with the team for the first time since he got stopped cold and blew out is ACL on a kickoff return last October 28 against the Cardinals in Arizona. By finally coming off the Physically Unable to Perform list, a three week clock has started ticking. The Packers will have until the end of the month to either bring Hill back onto the 53 man roster or have him finish the season on injured reserve. Hill told me in the locker room it felt great to be back but he’s been around the guys all year rehabbing from the knee surgery and received great support from the entire running back room. Hill showed promise as both a returner and possible jet sweep runner before the injury.
The team will hold the most vigorous practice of the week on Thursday.
