GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Wednesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On getting more consistency from Trey Smack:
We've got to improve the contact. To me, it's how are we making contact with the football, what's it like coming off the foot, and that's what we have to continue to work with, is getting the contact back to where it was and where it can be, which he's shown to have, multiple times and responded from things, good, bad. We've had some ups and downs, obviously early on in the season you'd like to not have, and just continue to work with the contact. That's where it's really at.
On Smack's confidence:
We're better now. I think for anybody, human nature, myself included, when you don't go out and execute the way you want, you're going to be a little bit frustrated, depressed, or like you let people down. But as it goes on, you get back to it, and you can move forward. We're good now. We're in a good spot, and it goes back to having all the confidence in him and knowing that he is a confident person. So, right now we're in a good headspace leading into tomorrow night. And I'm excited to see him kick.
On Carolina's return game:
They've got a couple different guys, whether it's David (Moore) or (Trevor) Etienne back there. They catch the ball, they can get to the edge. They've got fast guys there for sure, and they do a good job holding up the gunners. They've presented a lot of different stuff and movement on their return game. We've got to have really good communication from our guys on that unit and spread the field, because they will go to the field. It's not like a team just catching the ball and getting the 10 yards that may be there, or five yards. He's gonna get flat and try to circle you, so we've got to do a really good job cutting the field off, because everybody, whether it's the back side of the punt team or the front side of the punt team, there's a chance you're going to be in on that play.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On the Panthers and QB Bryce Young:
It's a good offense, man. They're good, yeah, he is. He's playing extremely well. He's a good player. He's got a very quick release. He sees the field very well. He's mobile. He can make all the throws. What really pops off the tape to me about him is his toughness. For not being a huge guy, he takes shots and gets up and plays the game the right way. But it's a big-time challenge. They're a good offense. I think they lead the league in explosives. They're 10th or 11th in the red zone, third down, so they throw the ball over your head. They can still run it. I think the back's a really good player. Chuba (Hubbard)'s a really good player.
On Brandon Cisse's resiliency:
Remember I told you guys that we'll see when you get some balls caught on you or you get some bad things that can happen to you in a game or you don't win every one-on-one. That was what I was looking forward to see from him, his response. You said the right words, resiliency, but I thought he played a really good game vs. some good receivers. We all have a big-time challenge, the crew that's walking in here, because they got some big-time receivers, big-time tight ends, but I like where his game is at.
On the pass rush:
It's just like all aspects of our game. I think we've done some really good things and I think we can always be better in everything that we're doing. This'll be a good challenge for us 'cause they got a good O-line and the quarterback is mobile, so it's a different challenge than last week. Bryce shows that he doesn't scramble to run, he scrambles to throw it. A lot of their explosives come up when he moves outside of the pocket and finds guys late, coverage breaks down and he throws a ball over your head, so collectively with rush and coverage we've got to do a good job this week.
Big, athletic man. He's disruptive. He's strong at the point of attack. He's working on his game of always doing the right thing, schematically and technically doing the right thing. I think he's playing well.
On Keisean Nixon:
It's starting corner caliber play from him right now. Like Cisse, like all our guys, you're going to give up some plays, that's life in the NFL, but I think his point of attack is where it needs to be. He's making a lot of plays for us. I love his demeanor, not only on game day, but during the week of practice. He's competitive. He really is competitive and he plays the game with an edge. He doesn't back down. I love that about him. He's ready to compete tomorrow night.
On Anthony Campbell coming back from injury:
I thought AC played well. He had some plays in there, he batted the one ball down, he got to close to the quarterback a couple times, made a couple plays in the run game, had the TFL down there backed up. That's the reason why we kept him. I mean, we saw him throughout OTAs and training camp play well. I know he got nicked but now he's back ready to go.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On John Williams taking over as emergency center in Detroit:
That was one of the cooler things I've seen in a really long time. Obviously when Sean (Rhyan) and (Jacob) Monk both went down after the first drive, I was extremely concerned with just us being able to operate, especially on the road, and against that defensive line. What he did, it wasn't perfect, but he did a great job. So I can't say enough about how he stepped up for the team.
On improving in the red zone:
There's a few things. Obviously there have been some plays that we have to make. There's been some drops and things like that. So we've just got to make those plays when they come. Also, we've got to do a better job of running the ball down there. I think when we're playing our best in the red zone, we're doing a nice job running the ball. We definitely need to be better there. And just get Josh Jacobs involved as much as possible. He's been huge for us the last couple of years down there, been one of the best in the NFL in the red zone. Just keep getting him involved and making plays.
On Tucker Kraft's production:
Anytime we can get Tuck the ball I think is great for our offense. Obviously he's one of our top playmakers and that's always a thing we talk about after games, did this guy get enough targets? Did he get enough touches? We've got to just try and force the ball to him as much as we can. He is looking better every week and yes we want him to get the ball more just because he is a dynamic guy, gets YAC and is a vertical threat down the field at tight end.
On Savion Williams:
We've seen Savion out there the last few weeks make some plays. He's made some crucial third-down and fourth-down conversions and he's looked really nice out there. He's one of those guys that has really stepped up in his second year. So if he has to play a bigger role, I feel very comfortable with that.
On no RTP calls for Jordan Love:
I don't want any roughing the passer calls. I want him to be clean in the pocket and feel confident to be able to go out there and play. The way I look at it is just, we've got to do a better job protecting and we can't control anything else other than guys around Jordan, whether that's picking up blitzes, blocking our one-on-one matchups, that's all we can control.
