The Green Bay Packers continued their organized team activities under sunny skies on Clarke Hinkle Field, Thursday.
The Packers will hold one more practice Friday before taking the weekend off.
They will continue with the same Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday practice schedule next week and will wrap up the OTAs with three practices the week of June 19-21.
All OTAs, weather permitting, are free and open to the public and tentatively are schedule to last approximately two hours, beginning at 11:15 a.m. each day.
Practices moved inside the Don Hutson Center due to weather or field conditions cannot be open to the public because of space limitations.
Below are some of the highlights from Thursday's press conference:
Packers quarterback Brett Favre
(on what type training regimen he'll keep before returning to Green Bay for training camp)
I'll continue to workout. I've done some things before I came back for these OTAs. I have to admit that it was a struggle to get up everyday and workout, but I have to do it. I haven't hired anyone to help me. It's something that at one time in my career was easy to do. Just wake up and go do it. But it is more difficult. But I was able to do it for three weeks since the last mini-camp, or the mini-camp that I was here for. I'd started working out...a little different training than what I had done last year. I wouldn't say a lot of weight training but more weight training than I have done in previous years. I've been doing some running, which I've never like to do that. But I'll probably continue to do that.
But I haven't thrown any. I guess two or three weeks before camp starts I'll start to throw a little bit.
(on how the running game will develop from training camp and throughout the season now that Ahman Green is getting healthy)
I think we'll be fine. As long as we're healthy I think we'll be fine. And I think that with Ahman, of course he's not practicing right now, but he looks as good as I've ever seen him. There's no doubt in my mind that with a one-year contract, he knows what's at stake. When Ahman has been in the lineup he has played as hard and has practiced as hard as any guy that I've ever played with. I don't see that changing. In fact he probably turns it up a notch. People questioning this injury, how he'll come back...I think he'll be fine. Same thing for Najeh (Davenport). Both of those guys are in a similar situation. They look great. You probably could practice them right now.
It's given Sam (Gado) obviously a chance to better himself and he's done a great job. Noah Herron has done a great job. I've really been impressed with him. He actually filled in after Sam. These guys probably never would have gotten a chance had it not been for injuries. To see guys like that, and I love Ahman and Najeh, I've had a lot of fun playing with them and I hope that continues, but you love to see a guy be able to step in after an injury and not waste that opportunity. And I think Sam Gado and Noah Herron have done that. You can't help but be pleased with the way that they've handled themselves at practice. So I think we'll be fine. It's a little bit of a different scheme up front but it's still blocking and it allows the running back to kind of pick the holes and go with it.
(on the expectations placed on a young player like Gado)
He's a lot like Kabeer (Gbaja-Biamila) in that he likes to ask a lot of questions. In fact, maybe too many. But I guess it's better to ask too many than not enough. But it's good for a young guy to want to learn more. I see him and I see how much he respects the game and the history of it and he asks me "What was it like when you came into the league?" Us veterans love to sit around and talk about it. The problem is that no one wants to hear it. It's kind of like my kids and I want to tell them about when I was in high school and they say "Dad, who cares about that?" So it's nice to have someone who wants to listen and ask you questions and pick your brain a little bit and Sam is one of those guys.
(on if he feels his tough workout regimen last year was a waste of time, based on the season's results and if it makes it hard to want to do it again)
I can't lie to you. I've woke up sometimes this offseason and said "To hell with working out, the way I did last year. A lot of good that did." But that's not the right way to do it. We're all human here and sometimes your mind tries to play tricks on you. The bottom line for me is that I want to be the best that I can be. So how far am I willing to go? I know that age works against me so I have to work twice as hard as I have had to before and mentally be as sharp as I have in any of the previous 15 years. So there's a huge challenge for me but I know that when you play this long, you know what it takes to win. You know what it takes to survive. And you do it. I think that I've done a good job of that or I wouldn't be standing in front of you today.
(on how the offense has changed)
Before Mike came in and took over, the terminology has remained the same up until now. It's been a big challenge. "Strong right" last year was something totally different than "strong right" this year. So when I hear "strong right" I'm thinking that it is something from last year or the year before or the year before that...
For the most part the concepts have remained the same. As you're watching you go "I recognize that play." And I do too. But it's getting it out in the huddle that's the problem. And for it to digest with me to where when I hear it, I know exactly where everyone is.
So it's like the two-minute drill today. That was a different two-minute drill, not to mention it was the first one that I've done in quite a while. But trying to get some of these plays out...for example we have a call "Pennsylvania" which means...well I'm not quite sure what it means yet but I completed it today so that's a positive. But you see where I'm coming from...if you call "all go," "all go" is "all go." That's fine. We did that last year. Every team probably does it. But when you start throwing in these other little terms or changing or tweaking formations...it may look the same to you but we may call it something totally different. That's been a hug challenge and it will be.
(on how long he thinks it will be a huge challenge)
I hope up until the start of training camp. I'm actually going to study when I go home, have them send me some stuff, turn my little night light on...ask me that question in July and I should be able to give you a good answer.
(on if the terminology change daunting or is something that keeps his interest)
It's a challenge. I think for every old player that has played, you come in and you spend more time (complaining)...I sound like my wife. She says "You can't go in there and be like that all the time. Complaining about this and complaining about that. You just have to go in there and deal with it and get better at it and not say, 'Let's change this, let's go back to the old way. Let's do this.'" And I'm trying to do that. I feel like there are some of the plays that we could probably call differently to make it easier. But it's the way Mike (McCarthy) wants to do it. And Jags (Jeff Jagodzinski). I can't expect them to change it all for me. We have tweaked some things to make it a little bit easier because there are a lot of guys who have been in this offense for a quite a while. It's a challenge. I've never slept in a meeting and I know that I won't now. I have to get this down. I have to call the plays. To be able to translate that to those guys I have to know it inside and out. I have to admit that there are some times that I kind of wish it was the old way but it is what it is.
(on if the OTAs are a lot more important for the offense than it has been in the past)
Absolutely. I'm going to have to be totally honest with you. Up until about five or six days ago I didn't know what "OTA" meant. I just said "Hey, he wants me there for it."
Whether I come to both mini-camps or not really is not enough. Yeah, you get all this stuff thrown at you but it really doesn't settle on you. Where when you're here you kind of have time to space it out. I'm sure that every guy in the locker room would love to be doing something else. Any guy doing OTAs right now would love to be doing something else. But I really think it's beneficial for us and I know that I needed to be here.
In reality, when these OTAs are over with we are still going to need training camp, but it's going to give us a good foundation from which to start. But from what I understand what we are putting in is pretty much going to be it. We may tweak some formations and add a couple of things here and there. But the runs that are there, that's it. Maybe a few more passes. It's a lot of stuff. I'm sure that once I get it down I'll say it's not quite as bad as it seems but I haven't gotten to that point yet. But I think that we all need to be here to get this down.
