マイク・ウォール氏とパッカーズのチョークトーク!!!

マイク・ウォール氏とパッカーズのチョークトーク!!!

[Music] What’s going on Packers fans? Welcome in to an all new episode of the Packad Podcast. I’m your host Andy Herman. You can follow me on Twitter, andyherman NFL. You can find the podcast at Packadayodcast. Thanks so much for being here today. We’ve got Mike Wall coming up in just a moment. Before we get there, I wanted to go over the news and notes that happened on Monday. Mike and I recorded a little bit earlier before some of the transactions took place, some of the uh injury news in the press conference with Matt Laflur took place. So, just wanted to go over that very quickly. Also, just a quick reminder of what’s coming up the rest of the day on Tuesday. Mike’s uh Mike Wall’s film breakdown will be coming out a little bit later in the afternoon on the video version of the podcast over on YouTube. And then membersonly Q&A coming up Tuesday afternoon as well. Make sure to check that out if you’re not a member yet. Great time to sign up. Even if you are not a member, reminder that that is open to everyone once we finish the Q&A. So, I do open it up to everybody at that point. But if you want to get it commercial free and you want to be there to ask the questions, make sure to check out those memberships as well. All right. As far as the news and notes go, it was not a insignificant day for Green Bay. In the scheme of things, the three players I’m about to talk about probably aren’t top of your mind or, you know, for what kind of matters for the Green Bay Packers uh as their season rolls along. But it should be noteworthy nonetheless that in a way it kind of felt like Green Bay lost three players on Monday. Let’s talk about the injury first. Nick Neman, their linebacker and special teams ace, who they really never planned on probably playing at linebacker, but is very much a core player of their special teams, does have a pec injury. Matt Laflur did say in his press conference that they are very concerned about it, and it does sound like this might be a bit of a long-term issue. If that’s the case, you you worry about it being a torn pec, which could knock him out a significant period of time. As far as Nick Neman goes, again, he’s probably not somebody that you’re thinking of consistently. He’s arguably their best special teams player. And you might be thinking, “Yeah, that’s fine, but Andy, their special teams is already terrible. How much worse can it get?” I don’t want to find out. I really, really don’t. It would seem that if he is out an extended period of time or out for the year, he’ll clearly go on injured reserve. And the clear and obvious player to pick up would be Christian Welch, who is familiar with the defense, probably a little bit better of a linebacker. You could maybe debate them both back and forth, but is another core special teams player. He’s worked with Rich, you know, Bashia in the past. He’s been in Green Bay in the past. He’s on the practice squad in Green Bay right now. So, that would seem like a logical replacement for Neman. But, they clearly went out of their way to get Neman because they thought he was better and he has been a stud on special teams for them so far. So, that is a potentially significant loss for Rich Bashi’s special teams and certainly one move to kind of keep an eye on to see what they do with it and to see if it is in fact Christian Welch that takes his spot or if they go in a different direction with that. You would think that they’d want another core special teams player to ultimately take his place. The next one, Micah Robinson, their seventh round pick from this past year, their seventh round 2025 draft pick, who was on the practice squad. He did not make the initial roster. He did make their practice squad was poached by the Tennessee Titans. The Tennessee Titans traded away Roger McCreary, one of their quarterbacks. He went to the Rams and then because they had an opening at corner, they picked up Micah Robinson off of the Packers practice squad. He’s gone. And Green Bay gets no compensation for that whatsoever. So, it’s a little bit of a bummer. One of their seventh round picks that they were stashing on the practice squad that I think they kind of liked in camp. Now, if they liked him a lot, they just would have kept him on the active roster, right? They they had Kamal Haden. They had, you know, a transitioned wide receiver, Bo Meltton. They they could have certainly kept him if they wanted to. Uh, but it still would have been nice to kind of keep him around. And clearly, there was another NFL team that viewed him as a 53man rosterable player. That was the Tennessee Titans. He goes over there and we’ll now get a shot with them. Kudos to him and and good luck to him in Tennessee, but a bit of a bummer for Green Bay. The other one, if you remember, when they activated Christian Watson over the weekend, Ben Sims was the player that was released. And I think everyone, myself included, just expected that Green Bay’s fourth tight end would go unclaimed and that he would end up back on Green Bay’s practice squad. Unfortunately, the team that initially signed Ben Sims as an undrafted free agent was not Green Bay. It was Minnesota. in Minnesota claimed Ben Sims when they put their starting quarterback at least as of the last few weeks, Carson Wentz on injured reserve with his shoulder injury. So Ben Sims is a Minnesota Viking. Michael Robinson is a Tennessee Titan and Nick Neman looks like he’s going to be out a significant period of time. Again, in the scheme of things, I I don’t assume any of you are probably losing any sleep over Nick Neman, Micah Robinson, and Ben Sims in, you know, the the overarching theme of how Green Bay is going to do the remainder of the season, but you want to keep as much depth as you possibly can. Ben Sims would have been a great number four tight end to keep around on the practice squad. Micah Robinson was a nice developmental corner to keep on the practice squad and develop and get to training camp next year. That’s no longer a thing. and of course their their core and star special teams player is certainly somebody that you would like to have around as well. Unfortunately does not feel like Green Bay is going to get any of those things and unfortunately three players kind of lost for Green Bay for the remainder of this season. That kind of does it for news and notes. Nothing other noteworthy to go over. Uh make sure you’re again enjoying this episode with Mike Wall, checking out Mike’s film breakdown later today. Members only Q&A and then of course we’ve got great episodes lined up for you tomorrow as well. Paul Fington Show, Paul Bredle, Justice Mosscada later in the week. Grades video, uh, Carmen Vitali, we’ve got you covered here 365 days a year. So, make sure to like, subscribe, comment, give those five star reviews. And now it is on to the one and only Mike Wall. Uh, you know who it is. It’s the one and only Mike Wall. You can find him on social media, Mikewall68. We are ready to jump into this Packers Steelers game and maybe look a little bit ahead to Packers Panthers as well. Mike, before we get there, we obviously had the live show on Monday. We are now recording this right after for Tuesday’s episode, but I’ll ask you again. How was your weekend? How are you doing, Andy? Doing great. Uh, bit of a bachelor weekend with my son and I here. Uh, empty empty house. So, we uh we got a puppy dog. Played with him a lot. Watched a way too much way too much sports this weekend. Like an insane amount of sports. I don’t know if I got off the couch for more than like 35 minutes at one time. But, uh, yeah, you got to have some of those weekends in your life. Did you watch any of that Barcelona, Real Madrid game at all? Whole damn thing. You know, I love that. Yeah, that was that was a fun one. Uh I I got to watch about threequarters of it. I didn’t see the end. I heard it was chaos at the end, but uh yeah, still very fun. Vinnie threw a little Vinnie Vinnie threw a little bit of a fit and um because he got taken out, which like we could talk about football or soccer offline, but you know, like there’s some players on every team and you’re like, well, okay, fair enough. Like if you’re taking him out, why is he still on the field? There was a couple of those moments, but yeah, it was it was it was interesting. I love that. I love that like u was it Carvajal got back on and just started chirping at the mall after you mean the mall after the game like kids 18 gotta love them gonna be the next big thing but like yep you don’t don’t chirp and then have a bad day you know I just I just love the atmosphere of games like that like you like that’s just one that’s so tangible and you can feel like you said well we could talk about it more off the air but uh that was that was definitely a fun one as well but we’re here to talk about Packers Steelers uh I kind of gave you the floor a little bit but just in general kind of key takeaways from this game. What stood out to you as positives, negatives, or again any kind of direction that you want to go in for for this game for the Green Bay Packers? Obviously, the tale of two halves, like you said earlier, I I I spoke on it on the live show that when Samalo went out at left guard for the Steelers and they were not able to run their jumbo package or they chose not to because that that switched Anderson to the left guard position, they just don’t have the personnel for it. I thought it completely just changed this game. It turned it on its head. They were having a ton of success. I don’t know what they were averaging per carry when they were in that that jumbo package with, you know, another 320 pounder plus the 300lb tight end. But it just, you know, from a personnel standpoint, the Packers really don’t have an answer. Um, you know, you put Isaiah McDuffy on the edge, he’s 235, their tight end’s 300 lb. You put Michael Parsons on the edge, he’s 255, their their their tackle’s 320. Now you get a double team on the three technique. I mean, it’s it’s like it’s a perfect offense until you go like jumbo defensive, you know, goal line defense and then it should open up DK Metaf. So, I mean, I I love the concept. Obviously, we ran some sort of variation of that with Kevin Barry all the time. We had a ton of success with it. And if you took that away from us, you know, we ran that six we ran one play 16 16 times a game back in like 2003, 2004. So, you take that stuff away, it kind of affects what you’re able to do for the for the rest of the game. and you certainly saw that change. So, I thought that was super interesting. Um, and we just we’ve been touching on this for weeks now. The lack of run game or the lack of the ability to move people on the interior of the offensive line. While it has these like moments that we can talk about, people can complain about, I’m sure internally in the locker room, and the media room, they’re super upset with, but they’re, to your point, they’re averaging 27 point whatever points per game. And it’s like, that’s a hell of a lot of, you know, points in the in the National Football League. I think you just told me they were tied for fifth. So, it’s amazing to me how how much flak Matt Laflur gets as a play caller while putting so many people in unbelievable positions where your tight end can get 131 of 143 yards after the catch and they can score 27 points per game without a running game. It’s like it’s it’s amazing to me. the the interesting thing and I know it’s it’s not as simple as just get big guys in there. I I totally understand that. But this is one of the bigger interiors that they’ve had. Elton Jenkins 311 at center. At least that’s what he’s listed at. Um Aaron Banks is 325 when Shawn Ryan’s in there. He’s 321. Like they haven’t necessarily had those those really big guys in there in the middle. and it just it still doesn’t feel like they have the ability to to kind of move people the way that they I think would intend to when they put those three together on the interior. Yeah. So, so a lot of I think people mistake size with like power or technique with like just I can put I can go down the street and find you have five guys that weigh 300 pounds. I live in Texas, right? That doesn’t mean they can play offensive line and fair. know what you have to what you have to wa if you really sit here and watch it and we talked about on the on the live show if you sit and where we just sat and broke down one tape and we just started pointing out footwork pad level hand placement you’d go oh I understand why they don’t win because it’s it it is like 90% of this is technique one guys one guy’s technique is better than the other the p first person in contact always wins and for whatever reason like that size I mean Tucker Craft does a pretty good job in the run game for the most his techniques like um Sam Leapora when he was coming out of Iowa, he had the best like he might have had the best top 10 technique in the entire draft, lineman and tight end included. Like he’s just tight technique wins in the in the sport because all these guys are phenomenal athletes. So the people that can realize all their athleticism through their technique are the ones that are successful. on our guys right now for whatever reason and we can we can dive into that if you want but for whatever reason they’re not doing that. Yeah, and we’ve obviously talked about that and it just kind continues to be a consistent issue unfortunately for Green Bay. Um and we kind of talked about in the live show as well. It it does feel like they are trying to get the run game going early in games and then they just can’t and then by the time they decide, oh, we’re just going to throw the ball then everything starts to click for this team. What did you see both offensively, defensively, special teams? everything just feel felt a little bit off. Keshan Nixon, you know, had some of the penalties and some of the big plays given up in the the first half of this game. Their run defense, as you mentioned, uh couldn’t stop their their heavy personnel packages. I thought that was one of the the worst games for the Packers run defense, at least early in the first half. And then offensively, you couldn’t get the run game going. You had multiple drops on offense. You had two missed field goals, a muffed punt, a penalty on the opening kick return. Just the first half was was pretty nightmarish in almost every single phase. Probably thankful to only be down nine points at that time, but what did you see that went wrong besides everything that we just talked about in the first half? Well, I think that’s enough, right? I mean, the good news is they the good news is that the Steelers had to kick field goals and I and didn’t score touchdowns when they when they got down on the other side of the the the 40 and and because of that, the game was still in hand because quite frankly, the I think the game completely changes if you’re down two or three scores. Yes. Big time. uh you know you know so I think I I do think that makes a huge difference when you have those penalties when you have those drops you know it’s like it’s almost like um you’re trying to get all the bugs out in the first quarter for some reason you know with this team and and I don’t know why that is um I don’t know if it’s you know because certainly you don’t attribute drops to play calling you don’t you know you don’t attribute the PI call like some of this stuff is unfortunate um look the Packers get calls the Steelers get calls the refs are good the refs are bad right it’s it was all kind of I thought it was like even I thought it was a pretty even game. I thought, you know, I didn’t think the refs affected the game in in one way or another necessarily, right? But there are there does there does tend to be more of those kind of headscratching mistakes in in the first and second quarter with this team. I I don’t really know what it is about the team. I don’t know that they’re starting slow. I just think that for whatever reason, some things aren’t clicking. Um, it would be interesting to see if the if the Steelers had I mean I’ll just be honest with you like I don’t know what the Packers answer is if the Steelers don’t get their left guard hurt. I don’t know what their answer is. I because what they were doing was not going to be effective. I mean, there’s there’s nothing that they had there’s no adjustment they had made throughout the first half that suggested that that they had an answer for that heavy p that jumbo package and the Steelers have an entire offense out of that jumbo package. They didn’t have to take those guys off the field. And so I I really to be honest, I don’t know. I mean, if you watch the Steelers second half and and before I realize that like they were injured, Isaac Salo was injured. I’m watching. I’m like, “Okay, so that’s two series, one pass.” Like they had one running play in two in three series. They had one running play. Not jumbo packs, just one running play. And you’re like, “What are you doing?” Yeah. Like it it felt like Arthur Smith was like, “I forgot what happened in the first half. I guess I’m not even going to try.” You know, and um yeah, sometimes that happens at halftime. Like both teams are making adjustments. there’s injuries and whatnot, but it it it was it’s just the NFL is so great because they go in and you know they get they they do this little pow-ow. They get together and they come back out and it’s like something completely new. You never know why. Well, it’s funny because I had that on my my things of of what I wanted to ask you today on my list of questions for you. Uh talk talk to us. I don’t think we’ve we’ve talked about this before. What what what are what are halftime adjustments in the NFL? you you hear it talked about and then every once in a while you hear it be like yeah there’s actually not really many adjustments that take place but that there’s a very small period of time was it like 15 to I think 15 minutes is it um that you have to to go in there would do whatever you need to do and then basically come right back out how much can you get done and is there anything really that goes into a quote unquote halftime adjustment you well so I think the so a lot of players will come out there’s no such there’s no there’s no such thing well that’s not it’s not true the coaches are making adjustments they just might not tell the players right when when the players getting adjustments like on a specific play like in a like, hey defense, they’re giving us this look. When they give this look, we’re checking this. There’s here’s our new check. Offense, when they give us this look, we’re going to make this call. You know, if they’re doing a wolf blitz, we’re making a call. Blah blah blah blah. Here’s where we’re going. That’s the kind of adjustment we hear. They might be making adjustment a bunch of the coaching staff like, what are you guys seeing? All right, they’re running cover four against us. We want to attack this. We’re going to start calling these plays. We don’t know that, right? But they are m I think these these guys are making some adjustments now. They might. What’s in what’s always interesting is Arthur Smith for this game, for example, you have the left guard get hurt. They got to put Anderson in at left guard. They don’t have the jumbo package anymore. And they respond by just not running the football at all for three straight series. I mean, they won one run in three series. They go, you start going like, well, I mean, there were some penalties and this and that and the other, but you start going like, well, that didn’t make a lot of that can’t be the adjustment that they agreed on when they came out at halftime. You know what I mean? So, those are the parts where like they clearly did something and they made an adjustment. Now, whether it was the right one or not, I mean, the proof’s in the pudding. It does feel like you have to be a little bit thankful and tip your cap to the Steelers for for getting to run the ball to open the second half. Um, even with the injury, like I would have they so obviously you have three offensive linemen, you know, to back up on game day. So if even if they wanted to keep the guy that was the the extra blocker out there and put one of the other ones in at left guard, it just feels like you still could have done that on certain plays or even if you like just try it like even even if you weren’t confident in it, maybe just try it to see first because like you said it did not feel like Green Bay had many run defense solutions for what Pittsburgh was running and it’s it’s hard to imagine you know one left guard would have made that much but may maybe it would have. Um, but either way, I would have, if I were Pittsburgh, I think I would have tried it first before I just would have abandoned it the way that they did. Well, I’ll say that a different way. So, you’re the backup is going to be seismically worse than the starter. Isaac’s a good good Yeah, for sure. He’s a really good left guard. Yeah. So, whoever you put in there is not going to be nearly as good. And you’re not going to put like you’re not going to put your eighth guy in if your six guys can play. What I would what I would question is surely your seventh or eighth guy and this is where it gets like you don’t know what they do at practice but did they only have one player like like for us if Kevin Barry wasn’t playing as the as the bacon package like you said one package I don’t I’m thinking back now like I’m sure like Greg Ruger somebody could have done it but I don’t know that we would have done it because he’s 350 pound you know what I mean so like I maybe that’s the way they were thinking about it but there’s Nothing. There’s nothing unique about Anderson 74 that makes, by the way, I love the fact that they threw him a ball in the first play. And like you know, Isa McDuffy was like, “What do I do here?” Because if I take him low, people are going to give me in the locker room. But if I take him high, he’s 320 pounds. You see, he’s like, “Ah, what do I do?” He like almost like hugged him, you know? But um 74, you’re like, there’s nothing unique about his body type where you’re like, “I can’t just replace him with anybody.” So, it must be that they don’t practice with the with the backups aside from him on on those plays. That that’s the only justification I could come up with for not for not staying in that package. At least trying it like you said. Did you see anything from Green Bay specifically offensively, defensively? anything that they changed in the second half that allowed them to play better and just kind of go out and and boat race the Steelers in the second half or was it part of it being again uh you know their left guard goes out and it makes it easier on defense and and Green Bay just executed better in the second half in all phases? Well, they obviously got great field position um almost every time they got the football whether it was the turnover or just punting because they you know the Steelers couldn’t get a first down for the first what three four series. Um so I that obviously plays into it just advantage advantageous field position. Look they they found some things out with with you know the Tucker Craft stuff particularly like the two plays into the flat where you’re like they’re not even guarding him. I mean, they they they forgot who was supposed to they motioned over one time and they were gonna rock and roll the safeties and then the safeties like a sh am I in man and he’s on the other side of the field and the 55 the linebacker’s going do I you know it’s like who’s on first and they had a they did that twice with him for huge plays and so I don’t know that I mean certainly you’re you’re putting those shifts and motions in Matt Laflur’s doing that because he’s hoping that’ll happen. Yep. But with a Pittsburgh Steelers defense, you’re not expecting them to make those kind of mistakes. And so, and those were the big chunk plays, it’s like, you know, in the in the National Football League, you’re trying to create as many explosive plays as you can. Explosive plays win football games. Most teams aren’t going to go four yards at a, you know, four yards in a cloud of dust, five yards in a cloud of dust down the field. I certainly don’t know that we’re that kind of team either, quite frankly, with our running game the way it is. Yep. But you you think about with with um Jordan Love going under center play action, rolling out to his left, throwing across his body to Wilson and and then him breaking three tackles, getting that, you know, that 15 yard first down. You think about, you know, the the ball to Kristen Watson, all the balls to Tucker Craft that, you know, seem like you’re you just throwing people off like they’re flies. Those are the plays that are making these second halves huge. And I don’t know. I mean, a couple of those plays are busted plays. A couple of those plays are are designed where they’ve out schemed them, but it’s it for whatever reason it just works better. Maybe there’s some fatigue, mental fatigue with the defense. I don’t know. Maybe there’s just too much for them to look at. But those plays for whatever reason are happening in bunches in these second halfs like you pointed out earlier. And I can’t I don’t know that. I mean, does that feel like it’s a um like it’s some sort of adjustment or is it just like nah, we’re just hitting the rolodex right here and they’ve they maybe they saw the one or two things, but otherwise it’s just players making plays, man. Yeah, it feels like the latter I I do wonder just how much of this is just bizarro, you know, kind of happen stance too of like if if you go through this game and you just sort of rearrange the drives a little bit differently and you get like touchdown, punt, touchdown, miss field goal, field goal, punt and like if it just if you had the same exact amount of touchdowns, field goals, and you know, non-point scoring drives and it was spread through the course of the game, probably feels like a pretty normal game overall. It just it feels weird these last few weeks where the first halves are just everything is a slo everything is so difficult to get any points. 7.7 points in the first half the last three weeks combined and then you know you’re you’re getting the second half and you’re just going completely nuclear. I I I don’t have a great explanation for it but it’s a really interesting juxosition between the two. That’s for sure. So, generally when you’re when you start talking about like who finishes games better, who finishes plays better, like who who gets the most knockdowns, when you’re just, you know, talking about that kind of stuff, it’s a lot of it has to do with who’s in better shape. And and one of the things that we don’t talk about, I don’t know if it’s a a thing or not, honestly, is is this team just in better shape than everybody else? Like, are they are they in such good shape that mentally they’re not fatiguing because their their body’s tired, so their body’s not tired, so their mind’s not tired. like that stuff is real. Like that when you’re talking about just individual matchups, that stuff matters a ton. And maybe that is something that maybe because they’re fresher. I don’t know if they’re just I’ve never really considered the Matt Laflur Packers like really hard practice guys. Like I don’t know they beat themselves up a lot. Um but maybe part of that is like you kind of feel like the Steelers probably are under Tomlin. You just think about personas, right? So maybe one team’s fresher than the other. I mean, I I don’t I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s it’s a it’s a headscratcher. It’s awesome to watch, though, man. Like, the the amount of points these guys score in the second half. It’s like, yeah, it’s like you’re watching, you know, Technob Bowl or something. I I do agree. I I think I go back to what we talked about on the live show as well. It does feel like they have an ideal version or vision in their head of what this offense wants to look like being balanced running the football with Josh Jacobs and you know today’s the day we’re going to establish the run and then it doesn’t work and you end up with seven points in the first half and then you get to the second half and you’re just like all right Jordan passing attack let’s go let’s go put some points on the board and it just feels like everything kind of clicks into place a little bit more but I it shouldn’t still be that easy especially when you’re down 12 points the other team gets the ball first in the second half and you become relatively predictable and you’re you’re willing to, you know, play a little bit more two high safeties and not give up those big plays and make them, you know, dink and dunk their way down the field. It should be really difficult and and yet somehow Green Bay down two scorers was able to metriculate their way right down the field a couple times to open the second half. I mean, obviously the big play was early in that that first drive in the second half. It’s third and six and that’s when you get the ball popped up to Tucker Craft and Craft goes up and makes the play and he brings it 50ome yards. And so that’s that’s your big playmaking play that gets them kind of right back in the game. If they don’t convert that one, you’re three and out to open the second half punting the ball away down 12 Pittsburgh’s ball and who knows where things go from there. So that that was a huge play in the game, but um still credit to them for finding ways to put up the points. Yeah, you got players still have to make plays. It’s interesting like you start thinking about like why is this happening? How big of a how big of a finger can we point at just Tucker Craft being on this football team and and making making that kind of difference not just in this game but in really in in a a great deal of these games because you you think about the Steelers, right? They get rid of their all pro safety M Fitzpatrick. They send him back to Miami. I think they get Jaylen Ramsay who’s been a fantastic player but is not the same guy that he’s always been. you know, it’s time catches up with everybody kind of thing. But you look at a lot of, you know, like you look at the the safeties for Pittsburgh now, like I don’t I I was actually and I pointed out on the show like I was shocked about how physical they were not and how they’re you’ve got a lot of guys because of the new rules, they’re smaller. They’re more coverage guys. They’re not downhill players. They’re not enforcers. So what happens? You get a Tucker Craft and he’s just handoff handoff. you know, he’s just, you know, he’s shoving these guys away like like like they’re nothing. And part of that is just by design now. Like we if you’ve got an athletic tight end who can is violent runner or a violent, you know, running back that gets into the secondary like or a violent receiver, a DK Mechaf or some of these guys like maybe these safeties just aren’t built to tackle them. And that’s and that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing these plays like that to your point that Tucker Craft play should not have happened. That’s that that was a that was a mistake that could have been a pick and instead of a pick, it’s a 50-yard pickup. Hey friends, it’s time to get our sleeper picks in for Packers Panthers this coming Sunday, noon in Lambeau Field. I’m excited for this game and I’m going rookieheavy for my picks in this game. First of all, Matthew Golden, he’s a little bit frustrated. Hasn’t been utilized more. 35 and a half receiving yards. I’m going more than 35 and a half receiving yards for Matthew Golden in this game. I think Matt Laflur in this Packers offense will be a little bit more intentional in getting Matthew Golden the ball. I expect him to bounce back and have a big performance against Carolina. So, Matthew Golden more than 35 and a half receiving yards. On the flip side for Carolina, Ted McMillan more than 51 and a half receiving yards. So, maybe a slightly high number here, but I expect Carolina is going to have to throw the ball to try to get back in this game at different points in this game. And I’m expecting that once again, a big tall physical receiver on the outside is gonna give Green Bay some troubles. And I’m expecting Carolina is going to try Te McMillan early and often in this game. So T more than 51 and a half receiving yards. And then Ryan Fitzgerald, their rookie kicker, more than one and a half field goals made. Whether he makes it or not might be a little bit more interesting, but I expect this is going to be another bend but don’t break performance from Green Bay’s defense, which is going to allow Fitzgerald to have multiple field goal attempts. And I expect that he’s going to make at least two of those. So, Matthew Golden more than 35 and a half receiving yards. T McMillan more than 51 and a half receiving yards. And Ryan Fitzgerald, more than one and a half field goals made. The best part is that you can get a 100% match up to $100 by utilizing code packaday over on Sleeper. Again, a 100% match by utilizing code packaday over on Sleeper. Terms and conditions apply. Check those out over on Sleeper. And of course, they are available in over 25 states. So, if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? Get after it and get your Green Bay Carolina picks in for this week. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Tucker Craft, who was phenomenal in this game. Mike, you and I spend a lot of time in the in the weeds, in the minutia, looking at all the little nuances of the game. We probably haven’t spent a whole heck of a lot of time just talking about Jordan Love. He was phenomenal in this game overall. um a big-time showcase game, Aaron Rogers, Jordan Love, Sunday Night Football, and he certainly came to play. Had a couple drops early in the game which uh stalled out some drives, but um overall on the season and in this game, he’s pretty much been everything that you could possibly ask for at this point. Uh your impressions of Jordan Love in this game and so far this season? Just doing I think this game was um the standard that he wants to set in executing the game plan correctly. Yeah. Um and and being able to, you know, hit hit your your plant foot on five and letting it rip, whether it’s the backside dig, whether it’s the out from Christian Watson, whether it’s the flat route, reading the reading the coverage issues, you know, the safety and the linebacker get boggled up on who’s going to cover Tucker Craft, getting the ball to him in the perfect spot so he can, you know, keep stride and and and run up field. It’s the little things, the timing routes on the quick outs that he always, you know, continues to hit, whether it’s the the quick out or whether it’s the 10 yard out where he throws over the the overhang safety. His ability, I think, to to process quickly and in this game, maybe more so than some of the games prior to take what’s there and not wait for the next thing. Um, in games like this, if you know, for example, if if the Tucker Craft play goes poorly and it it ends up in a pick, which it could have. Yep. Right. If the Christian Watson play, which, you know, was a great play, but not the best thrown ball he’s ever thrown in his life, and and if that if that backside safety 22, who had one of the worst games of his life, I I would imagine if he if he makes a play on that ball, you know, different outcome. Yep. So, it’s it’s always one of those things with Jordan where you’re like, if those plays work, you’re like, fantastic. Right? If those plays don’t work, whether it’s and and they’re just knocked down, no big deal. But if those two plays end up in a pick, you’re having a different conversation, right? So, there’s there’s still, if you’re just looking at from a process standpoint, I think he’s doing a fantastic job overall. I you love it when and this happens whether it’s Brett, whether it’s Aaron, whether it’s Jordan, when you maybe not so much with Aaron, he’s a little more conservative with Brett and Jordan. when they when they get those 5050s coin flip balls and they go well, you’re like, “God bless America. Is this guy good?” Right? And and this is one of those games and he’s got to have a ton of them because we talked about it last week. You can’t you can’t have the quarterback of your dreams that doesn’t take chances. And the one thing that you love is you go, I feel good about Tucker Grab versus their safeties for the reasons that we just discussed. I feel good about Kristen Watson versus anybody on the field for the reasons we just discussed. They’re both big receivers, big tight ends that can run fast. Like I that’s the matchup we want. I’ll take it 100 out of 100 times. The Rodeo Dobs play on fourth down last week. You take it every time. If it connects, you feel like, oh, even better, right? So, he he’s a phenomenal football player. I like that he takes risks. Um, I think that they’re I think that for the most part they’re they’re they’re well timed, you know, and he just keeps he’s just doing such a good job of of executing the game plan as it’s put forth on paper. Man, it’s it really is impressive. I thought, you know, last week against Arizona, we talked about some opportunities to take some easy throws and some checkdowns and some things like that and he tried to force some stuff maybe a little bit more, try to make the big play. I thought this was a great example and kind of what you’re talking about of like proof of concept of how he wants to play moving forward of just seeing the open receivers, taking what’s there, letting his receivers and weapons do the heavy lifting and then when he needs to make a big play, he can still go out and do so. But it felt like he was in in great rhythm with the offense in this game. I agree completely and and going back to the Arizona game that I think that’s the contrast of of the of the two styles and and when he executes like he did yesterday and it’s not only the pass that you the decision that you make, but the way the way the ball gets to the the receiver. Is he in stride? Is it is it in on his front foot? It is on his back foot. Does he have to change direction? Like those little things make a huge difference in the ability to peck up yardage after after catch. and he’s doing like last night was just a clinic and you know that you know he’s going up against like his mentor you know who’s a hall of fame top-notch best of the best quarterback like he showed up to play guys had his back guys made plays when they were you know plays to be made and uh you look on the other side of the football and that didn’t necessarily happen as much right and that’s um it’s great to have a supporting cast that believes you and you and one the cool thing about Jordan and and being a homegrown is spending three years not starting going through the process of learning under Aaron Rogers, but being a part of this team, being a part of the the the fabric in the family, developing those relationships with this young receiving room, like that the whole story is cool, man. And and I think that that’s part of what makes Green Bay really special is is for the last three quarterbacks at least, their ability to to bring guys in or particularly with Aaron and Jordan, bring them in, sit them, make them a fabric of this team, make them make him the focal point, have that family, that unity, and then go out there and perform. It’s been fun to watch for sure. Speaking of Christian Watson, who we talked there, he comes back from the ACL MCL injury. Looks like he doesn’t miss a beat. He looks unbelievable. I I now understand why everyone when asked about Christian Watson in the building of how he’s doing, there was a rise smile and he’s like, “Yeah, he looks phenomenal.” Um, four catches, 80 plus yards, blocking on the outside, opening things for underneath receivers. You just tell how important he is to this offense. I I was I was blown away with I mean 35 snaps in his first game back. I thought for sure it’d be capped at around like 25 maybe even a little bit less. He plays 35 in this one. Came at a perfect time with Jaden Reed already out. Dantavian Wixs out for this game. I I I again I was pretty blown away with what he was able to do in his first game back. Yeah, awesome to see. He got him the ball I think the second play of the game on the quick out. Everyone’s gonna talk about the the deep pass or the or the the block on the touchdown for for Josh Jacobs, but you just love the effort. You love to see guys come back from injury and and have immediate success and certainly just understanding what piece of the puzzle he fills. We talked about on the live show like you’ve got now another guy who fills a very specific role for you on offense that a defensive coordinator has to really start going, “Oh, now I got to pay attention to that.” Like, “Oh, hell.” Like what? You know, it was one thing when Romeo Dobs was running the corner. It’s another completely different thing when Christian Watson’s running it, right? He’s just that much. He’s he’s just a freak athlete fast. So, you you love that you have the tight end who has a yards after catch. You love that you have the deep threat. You love you have the guy the golden with the ball in his hands. You love the the route specialist and Romeo Dobs. You love that you have all these pieces where coordinators are going, “What the hell do I do now?” But, you know, hats off to Kristen Watson because coming back from an ACL injury for those who haven’t been had it or been around, the confidence is the problem. You know, people always talk about like I just don’t have confidence in what I’m doing. And for him to come back and play with such confidence in and out of his breaks, being physical into contact, like it was just really cool to see. And uh you know like you see like Scataboo getting hurt yesterday and all that like you guys get hurt in the National Football League man it just sucks to see people getting hurt and so when guys come back and overcome those injuries it’s just uh you know I love it. I absolutely love it. One of the first things I talked about too was the the mental side of it of just I mean your first game back I can’t even imagine with that first cut that first acceleration everything like that of just getting through that mental hurdle of like yep it’s going to it’s going to hold up and nothing’s going to go wrong or anything and again he looked like he didn’t miss a beat from it looks like prime Christian Watson out of no I I can’t say enough I’m so happy for him that’s a brutal situation and what at the time was going into a contract year what should have been this year he now signed the one-year extension which looks very smart for Green Bay after the way he played yesterday. But um just really really happy for him because I I I know that’s a long journey coming back from an injury like that. He made it as quick as I think you possibly could and to look like he did was was pretty freaking cool. So kudos and hats off to him. Couple quick ones before I get you out of here. Uh corners Nate Hobbs basically benched, played four snaps in this game. Carrington Valentine uh we both talked about was uh looked good in this one. Again, couple hiccups here and there, but just love the way that he plays overall. Keshan Nixon, bit of a rough day at the office. What do you make of this corner room and is is it is it good enough in the long term for them to get where they want to go? Well, that’s probably predicated on how good the pass rushes continues as it continues to evolve. Certainly, um I I just like Carrington Valentine on even from week one. It’s the physicality that he brings to the run game and the short passing game that I like. You know, the you’re going to get beat in this league on deep stuff. Um he he had a great play against DK Maf yesterday on that deep ball in the in the left pocket of the end zone, but like you’re going to get beat on deep stuff in this league. You’re going to get some PI in this league. It’s just like the league is not geared for quarterbacks. So it’s like what if you if you have a shutdown guy like Deion Sanders talked about yesterday like there’s 5% of the quarterbacks want to make the play. 95 just want to avoid it, right? If you have one of those 5% that’s fantastic. I don’t know that I don’t know that we do, but if you do that’s fantastic. the rest of the guys in the league, it’s like if you can come up and make tackles and you can tackle in the run game, like I I like you. And because of that, like that’s why Keshan Nixon’s been that’s why he’s playing. You know, honestly, that’s really why he’s playing. I mean, he does that really well. I in my opinion, um, over the last couple years. Yeah, you’re going to have some of these games where it’s like, yeah, you get some calls, maybe you get beat on some like I think that’s part of playing the most, in my opinion, the most difficult position on the field is is trying to play corner on a on a really good wide receiver. Like, I don’t think there’s anything harder on the football field than doing that. So, agreed. Yeah, I think it’s a I think it was a really smart move. We talked about it last week to to give Carrington Valentine another chance. Um, I just think he earned it. Um and and Nate Hobbs did nothing to to to keep his spot quite frankly over the last couple weeks. Yep. Um but I do think it all is is all going to boil down to the spine of the defense and and how you know like yesterday was such a good example of not switch topics but you know obviously the pass rush playing against Aaron Rogers is like get in his face you know and they did such a good job of pushing the pocket. Um, obviously bringing Micah Parsons, you know, he gets all his sacks from the tackle, but when you have your center literally being told like go wherever he goes. If he’s in the middle, you just chase him. Then Rashan Gary gets another two sacks without having to win. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you get like Rashawn Garry is and I’m not throwing shade at Rashan Gary at all, but is there a bigger benefactor from Parson showing up than Rashan Garry? like he gets free he’s gotten at least four free sacks where they’re either literally not gonna block him at all or they just block him into the play because the centers run over to Parsons or this that the other thing, right? Like that is the Michael Parsons effect. Yep. And as long as that’s going to continue and the Steelers actually had a really good idea at least on how to block him like line up the back in the back field wherever he shows up just go put him over there right on the line of scrimmage stop him initially and you know for the most part like that was that’s a pretty effective idea but he is so good that he you know he beats J Smith’s you know terrible chip box then then beats the tackle inside beats the you know splits the guard in the tackle and gets a sack. You the things that that guy continues to do, the speed of which he plays, as long as he can maintain that, like I think everybody’s going to be okay because that is just it’s just a real um it’s just such a it’s such a mental drain for the entire offense, quarterback, offensive line, everybody. Like the timers going off in your head all the time. It’s such a freaking emotional and mental drain when you got a dude like that creating havoc. Yeah, and it every single time they lined him up over center Micah, it just felt like Aaron wanted to get rid of the ball quickly. It felt like there was a little bit of I don’t know, maybe again that was just a a happen stance thing, too. But it just it felt like there was a little bit more of like again seeing Micah coming right at you from over center. Just felt like he was getting rid of the ball a little bit quick in those uh situations. I had special teams on my list of things to talk about, Mike. I don’t know if I have the stomach to talk about it, so I’ll go to a more fun one. Uh, jersey swaps. Jordan Love, Aaron Rogers, a big deal. Jersey swap. What What was Did you uh Did you partake in in jersey swaps? And if so, what was your your your biggest jersey swap that you parttook in? No. So, I’m so old that when I played, we weren’t friends with the other team. I mean, that’s that’s the truth be told. That’s the only time I ever was like uh the only time I was ever friendly. I’m just trying to think of like I went over and bullshitted with the other team was when I played the Packers. It was the only time I think Brett and and you know Cliffy and Flanny and all those I think Flanny was know Flanny played but all those guys came over and of course you know I love those guys. Um I don’t think I ever stuck around to hang out with anybody else. Like we were not I’m I’m old school, man. Like we were not friends. We’re not going to dinner together, you know, none of that. I remember I’ll tell you one real quick one if you want it. Um Yeah, go for it. Tell me to shut up. But I’ll never forget. So we had Colin Jenkins on our team, right? So Chris, older brother Chris is the best defensive tackle in the game. Yep. So, we’re playing Carolina first game of the season, Monday Night Football. We ended up getting like, you know, on the Madden bus. Our offensive line did that game because we had we had a pretty good game against these guys. But, you know, we’re coming in and we’re down in Carolina. And Chris and I played against a bunch already. He’s a young guy, but like I I I we have a ton of respect for one another, but we’re not friends, right? And I open we go into our hotel. I got my bag, grab my key, I open the uh elevator. Goddamn Chris Jenkins is sitting in the elevator and it’s just him. And I I look at him, I step on, I put my bag down. I go, “Are we going to have a problem?” And he goes, “Nah, man. I’m not on duty right now. We good until tomorrow.” And I was like, “All right, fair enough.” Pick my bag up like, you know, put my back against the wall so we can see each other. And I, you know, that’s how it used to be for real. It wasn’t like there was no like, “Hey man, how you doing? let’s dap it up and go, you know, have dinner together. Nah, there’s none of that. That That’s how I remembered it because I my my expectation was that you were going to say, “No, we didn’t do jersey swaps.” But I I I don’t know when that change happened of when that became a big thing. I didn’t have like a recollection in my mind if that was something that happened when you were playing or but I that was my expectation. Baseball thing. It was there’s a Sports Illustrated article. I’ll never forget this. Like I think it was Derek Jeter was having dinner with somebody on the Boston Red Sox during the during like the champ, you know, the championship uh series series. Yep. And I remember I forgot the the who wrote the article, but they were like, “What has happened to sports that these two guys are having dinner together like life is not as we know it anymore, right?” And I I remember I read that Red Sox. This is Yankees in sports, right? And and uh I just remember going like or like you know that would be like that would be like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson having freaking dinner together before the playoff game. Like are you kidding me? Like it just doesn’t even like I can’t even doesn’t comput even fold that over in my brain. Like it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. I remember uh I remember I had when I went to the Pro Bowl with Tommy Harris, we had just been in like literally a fight on the field like two weeks prior, right? in like the, you know, the NFC playoffs or whatever and we had played twice that year and all this and and I remember you know we saw and that was like one of the first times where like it was like we cool like oh yeah we cool you know but you have to check in you know it’s part of the game like it’s just different man different different times it very much is uh this is the Mike Wall bowl Packers Panthers this week uh quick thoughts on Packers Panthers I mean this is one of those I I said this against the Bengals, so I don’t want to jinx it, but I you just don’t think there’s any scenario, especially I mean, are they going to have a starting quarterback or is it Dalton going to play? I mean, not sure yet. Seems to be Dalton, but we we don’t know for sure yet. Yeah, if the Red Rifle or whatever is in, man, and I feel really good about our chances. He played he played some bad football this weekend. And um I think the Panthers are a fun team to watch. Like obviously when they you know, Chuba Hub was hurt, they brought the other kid in, he had a couple big games. Um you like their running game. Uh, but I they’re just not there’s different levels in the NFL right now. I think the Packers are on a different level. Do you want to guess the line? Nine and a half. 12 and a half and a half point favorites for Green Bay at home against Carolina. Green Bay at home. Oh, yeah. Okay. I can Yeah, you can totally believe it, man. Like they they look they look Bryce Young looked pretty good a couple weeks prior. Um, by the way, he’s got the best voice for, you know, when they when they’ve got the the boom on him when he’s like calling his huts and stuff like he’s got the most like gentle voice. I don’t know if I’ve heard I’ll have to if he does keep an eye like you know you’re used to like Aaron and you know Jordan like kind of all right guys let’s go you know he’s like real just very kind very kindhearted you have a good year but too bad Mike I cannot thank you enough you’re an absolute legend every single week always learns something always a great conversation uh where can we find all of your incredible work and what do you got coming out this week I’m putting out a show here actually this afternoon hopefully you guys will put it up over on your platform thank you again for that and then I’ll do I’ll do a preview at the end of the week with the Panthers. Um we’ll do maybe we’ll do an Iky Auano deep dive or something like that. The old left tackle. He’s Yeah, he’s a fun player. Like I said, we look forward to the Mike Wallbull. Uh I don’t know. Do do we count Packer Seahawks as a Mike Wall, too? I guess probably that one is too. But yeah, I I tell you what, I love playing for the Seahawks. They were a fantastic organization. I wish I could have given them more. Like I I’ve got, you know, I went I was first of all, I sucked, but then I was on IR after like six, seven games, right? But uh God, I that was a great that made that place made me fall in love with football again after being in Carolina. Carolina was rough. Rough. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. Mike, again, thank you so much. Follow him over on social media, Mikewall68. You can find me at Andy Herman NFL. Uh you can check out Mike’s great content over on Process to Perform and here on the Packaday podcast as well. We’ll be back chatting hopefully on a victory Monday on Packaday Live next Monday. But until next time and as always, go Pack

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