GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Wednesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On K Brandon McManus' strong start:
When Brandon and I have talked about it, (he says) 'You guys are paying me to come here and make field goals, not miss them.' A compliment to him certainly. He's gotten himself into tremendous physical condition. I tried to explain to him if you come back at like age 22, you got a long time to keep playing. He's confident in the battery. We've talked about him and how particular he is, and I think they really work well together. They're certainly complementing each other and the way that they're practicing.
On LB Isaiah Simmons:
If you remember he blocked that big field goal for a touchdown for (the Giants). He's extremely athletic. He's got great size. He's got great speed. We're asking him to do some things in the kicking game that he has not done before. He's been willing to do anything and everything we've asked him to do. He's been a great teammate to this point. We're trying to put him in position to do what he does well to help us in the kicking game. He's got a certain skill set because of his height and speed.
On WR/CB Bo Melton:
16 Green, man. He's still Bo Melton. He's fast, he's got a smile on his face, he's got an incredible attitude, no matter what you ask him to do. We think he's going to become an elite special teams player. He was big for us a year ago. He's really just the ultimate team player right now.
When he has to play flier outside for us, he's expected to make a tackle. When he plays the 2 or the 4 for us on kickoff, he's expected to make a tackle. So, for him, flipping over and playing corner now, the tackling part he's kind of had down. He's in all the tackling drills that we do. I think because of the makeup of Bo Melton, who he is and his personality and attitude, the transition has become not easy but just acceptable in his mind. He's going to get better every day. We're excited that we have him, regardless of what side of the ball he's on. He's going to be an impact on our team.
On CB Keisean Nixon:
We're going into Year 7 together. I think he's constantly maturing in every facet of his life. Most of you know his mom has been going through cancer, and cancer treatment, and she just had a really big surgery and so he's got things going on off the field that he does a good job with. And when he comes here, he likes to have conversations about CB1 and all those things. He's been a tremendous kick returner, an elite flier for us when he first got here on punts. I don't think there's anything he can't do and do really well because of his mindset. Now, he will take a left-hand turn every now and then or a right-hand turn now and then, but most young people do that. There's never been a roof on Keisean Nixon. There's never been a ceiling for him. We're always pulling for Keisean.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the difference with QB Malik Willis this year:
Obviously giving him an opportunity to learn the offense, learn the concepts from the ground up, I think that's super valuable for him. When he came in, it was like, all right, what do you like to do? What are your best skill sets? And then we just tried to enhance that when he was in the game. Now it's all right, just learn it all and then we can kind of see what you're comfortable with, the stuff he wasn't really even exposed to when he showed up.
On WR Matthew Golden:
He's done a really good job. He reminds me of a lot of the wide receivers from a couple years ago that we had that just are really hard-working guys, very diligent, doing everything that he can do off the field to just be prepared for practice. You just really respect his work ethic so far, and I think that's going to go far in allowing him to just play fast when his opportunity's called.
On the switch to C with Elgton Jenkins:
He has experience playing center, so it's just getting out there with Jordan (Love), making sure he's out there with the O-line, making calls, everyone's on the same page, working combinations with the guards. That's going to be the biggest thing. I'm not worried about, like, is he ready to play or not. It's just basically, when you're the center, you just have to make sure everyone's on the same page with the communication.
On QB Jordan Love possibly scrambling more:
Absolutely. Yeah, anytime you get an opportunity to escape the pocket or the defense gives you a rush lane to run through in a drop-back pass, I think that's a huge weapon. And Jordan has that ability to make some big plays down the field. So yeah, we encourage that for sure.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On DL Lukas Van Ness:
He's a year older. He's got another year in the scheme. I think he's starting to understand the position, how to use his hands, how to set edges, some pass rush tools, some counter moves. It was a good offseason for him truthfully. He did a good job at OTAs and then he left here and he put in a lot of work. He came back in really good shape, he's healthy. I think he's starting to feel comfortable. DeMarcus (Covington) has done a really good job with him and that entire group, but again, it's still early.
On the evolution of the playbook in Year 2:
Last year during this time we were totally figuring out who we were going to be. And then we evolved and we figured out who we had, what we were good at, who we were playing, and we kind of built it as we went. Our install from last year to this year, you would think we have a new defensive coordinator from what put in last year at this time to what we ended the year. So the beauty of it right now is we have a strong foundation and that install is almost done after six practices. Now it's the tweaking, now it's getting better, now it's evolving … so now we can kind of build, and we have a bigger inventory. The guys know the inventory, and this will allow us to say all right, going into the first however many games, we like this, let's hold off on this, but let's have this ready down the road. Because even though we believe we have a good foundation of where we are schematically, I still think we're going to need to evolve as we go, because people are going to figure us out, things are going to change around the league of what offenses are trying to do, and we're a different team this year, so we're going to have to continue to evolve. But where we are at the start compared to where we were last year is totally different, and I'm excited to see where we can go with this.
On working all the different DB combinations:
Ultimately it comes down to who are the best 11 and how can we get them on the field at the same time? You guys have heard it from me multiple times, I think that's our job. So if Evan ( Evan Williams), 'Bull' (Javon Bullard) and 'X,' (Xavier McKinney) we feel are three of the best players, we need to figure out how to get 'em on the field on all down and distances -- on early downs, on third down. If we feel like there's someone else that deserves to have a package, we gotta try to figure that out, too.
On DL Brenton Cox Jr.'s physical game showing up in pads:
It's kinda what I saw when we decided to play him (last year). I remember sitting here and we thought he deserved to play after he was really hard to block at practice. It's just the way he is out there. He's a physical, strong, tough guy who gives you everything that he has and he's very disruptive. And again, we need to develop those players and push them to become better.
On CB Nate Hobbs:
I love him. He's physical, he brings a toughness, he brings an edge, he brings a level of competitiveness, he's strong, he can get his hands on people, he can play inside, he can play outside. I just love the way the guy competes, and I love how physical and tough-minded he is, and that's how we have to play the game, and he fits that, and I'm really glad he's here.
