GREEN BAY — With a week of training camp in the books, the Green Bay Packers’ three coordinators — new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, new special-teams coordinator Cam Achord and offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, met with reporters on Wednesday at Lambeau Field.
With Gannon and Achord being new — Gannon replaced Jeff Hafley, who left to become the Miami Dolphins head coach, while Achord replaced Rich Bisaccia, who returned to the college game by taking a job at Clemson University — some questions centered around connecting with their players and installing their concepts, both men also spoke on specific topics from the first week of camp.
With Friday’s “Family Night” practice coming up fast and the team’s Aug. 13 preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh right around the corner, here are the most interesting things each of them said. Some of their answers have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
• Achord delivered a fascinating demonstration of the various ways punter Daniel Whelan must adjust how he holds the football for rookie kicker Trey Smack. But as good as it was, the truth of the matter was that he had explanations for Smack’s inconsistency early in camp but offered minimal reassurance that the sixth-round pick will be fine.
While Smack’s 8-for-13 start for camp isn’t some sort of catastrophe — and should probably have been expected given the ups and downs every rookie kicker experiences — it does feel that head coach Matt LaFleur and Achord are doing their best to downplay Smack’s struggles.
Maybe they’re right, but whether it’s LaFleur’s decision to not have the practice officials signal whether Smack’s kicks are good or no good, or Achord’s contention Wednesday that he doesn’t evaluate whether the ball goes through the uprights as much as he evaluates how the ball is struck, it’s clear they are trying to publicly give Smack as many lifelines as possible until he hits his stride.
“I think anytime you have any young guy, whatever position it is, there’s going to be some ups and some downs,” Achord said. “I think it’s [about] the consistency. When you come in and you look at the film, you talk to the guys. ‘What are you working on, technique-wise? What can you improve on?’ There’s a difference when you look at the kickers. There’s a good miss and there’s a bad miss. It all depends on the contact they make when you really slow it down.
“You’ve just got to have him be a consistent person every day he’s here and just continue to improve on everything. There’s something to probably tweak or look at every day, and you just want to see him get better. And it’s not so much the makes and misses right now. It’s more so about the ball contact. [That] is what I’m looking at.”
Achord also argued that the wind patterns at Ray Nitschke Field for practice are more difficult than the winds inside venerable Lambeau Field.
“The wind is there [at practice], but when we go into Lambeau and do walk throughs and stuff, honestly, I look at the wind there and I look at it at night, and it’s like, ‘Wow, you don’t feel anything.’ So I don’t put as much stock on the practice stuff as I will in the stadium stuff. You know, even kicking in there and those elements because it’s totally different. …
“So I think a lot of times at practice, the results may not be what we want them to be, or not as good as they could be, or whatever may be. … So I would say I’m going to put more stock into game days and stuff like that. I’ve been around kickers that went 9 for 9 [in a practice] and had a terrible day. When you look at the film, you’re like, ‘I really didn’t hit the ball good.’ Or they went 3 for 5, and it’s like, ‘Well, at least you struck the ball well.’ I think there’s more value in that than what we’re doing on the practice field.”
• Gannon’s installation of his defensive system continues during camp, but what the Packers run in the Sept. 13 opener at Minnesota won’t be the same thing they’re running later in the year when their superstar pass rusher, Micah Parsons, is cleared to play.
It’s not as if Gannon has created two separate playbooks — one for the defense without Parsons, and another for one with him — but obviously the presence of a field-tilting player will alter the dynamic.
“I think our job as coaches — and my role specifically as the defensive coordinator — is to try to put our 11 in the best positions that we can to affect the game in a positive way,” Gannon said. “What we’re doing right now is going through our installs, seeing what our guys are comfortable [with], seeing their skills sets, seeing what they can do.
“Obviously we have a pretty good understanding of the player that Micah is and see where he fits into all of that. A player like that, it’s not very complicated in my opinion to use him or deploy him in a way to affect the game in a positive way.
“He’s been awesome. He’s very smart, he understands a lot of things that we’re doing already, how they complement other things that we’re trying to do. We were talking the other day, [and he said] he could see himself in a bunch of different spots in different calls, so that’s kind of cool. Then it will be our job to make sure he gets his touches, which he will.”
• Stenavich, who was the Packers offensive line coach for three seasons (2019-’21) before being promoted to coordinator, is well-versed in the offense as a whole. But certainly his views of the line carry greater weight. And his view of where the Packers stand at left tackle — both with starter Jordan Morgan, the team’s 2024 first-round pick who’s finally getting to play his preferred position, and the team’s backup options — was insightful.
After two seasons of playing just about everywhere on the offensive line except left tackle — his preferred position — Morgan is locked in on quarterback Jordan Love’s blind side.
“He looks really good. [There’s] lot of technique stuff we’ve got to clean up with him, but he’s out there, he’s playing, he’s looking like a left tackle in the NFL,” Stenavich said. “I think he’s just gotten that confidence that he’s our left tackle and he’s out there to prove it to everybody.”
Asked if Morgan has to unlearn some of the things he did at the other positions he played while waiting for his opportunity at left tackle, Stenavich replied, “When you switch a guy from any position, there’s a lot of little nuances to each position that you’ve got to learn. So for him, moving him from tackle to guard and back to tackle, I think is tough for a young player, especially for him.
“His home, where he played in college, was left tackle, so he’s kind of at his natural spot right now. He’s done a nice job just going back over there at left tackle and now it’s just focusing on that.”
The problem is that, as of now, the Packers have no idea who’ll take his spot if Morgan misses time.
“That’s where we’ve got to figure it out over camp — [who] is our next-best option?” Stenavich confessed. “We have a few guys that we’re working over there, so that’s a big thing that we have to figure out.”
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