GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On the adjustments for Trey Smack:
It was more so the process of just coming on and off the field, and then just slowing down, and then when you're going through your mechanics and your operation, really finishing through. It wasn't so much a true like huge technical thing. It was more the initial process is where we made slight adjustments, and obviously worked out well. We'll continue to work on it and being consistent. That's the thing. It was just one week, so we got to continue to be consistent and continue with the process, and we'll get back out there obviously tomorrow.
On Nick Niemann's presence:
It's a great presence because he is the quarterback. He's the one that communicates on the punt team. He runs the show back there, and he's the one that's got to communicate to everybody on the field. So he handles a lot of the adjustments, and he has a lot of dialogue. That's a credit to him being a veteran player, and there's a lot of trust in that. I tell the guys, give me good information. If you're not sure, don't give me any information. We don't want bad information. That's where you start to build the trust with the guys is I know when he tells me something, that's what he's seeing on the field, and that's what he's feeling. So we're able to communicate to the other guys what's happening, and then make slight adjustments that we need to during the game.
On the challenges of replacing players due to injury:
That's part of it. That's the mental gymnastics we have to do every week. You go into it with a plan, and you got to be willing to adjust. The guys have done a great job knowing that we're one injury away from moving four pieces, and allowing us to continue to do what we're doing. It's been a challenge, but I think the guys have handled it.
On Vikings returner Myles Price:
He obviously had two big ones there against us, so he's very good. He had another two big ones last night in the return game. So he hits it downhill. It's a physical bunch. We went up against him the first time, you got to see the experience, the physicality of this entire division, in the kicking game. So that's something we're going to have to match, and then obviously we got to do a good job on Myles containing him and not letting him have those big explosive plays and creating that field position.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On Isaiah McDuffie:
As far as everything that we put on the 'Mike' linebacker, the green dot — he's handled it very well. He's a pro's pro. He's awesome throughout the week. He's awesome on game day. He gives really good insight when we come off (the field) what's going on, what he's seeing, the communication piece of all that. And he's made a lot of plays. Playing well.
On Niemann stepping in:
I thought he did really well. I mean, it's a good learning experience for all our guys, because we prep them and we say it to them, but your role can change on game day very quickly. It really can. And that's a testament to Nick being ready to go. Like, not a lot of reps throughout the week, he knows he's the next guy in, but to be able to go in — I think it was, what, the second series? — and play the whole game and then play all of fourth down, it was impressive. It really was. I was proud of him, happy for him. He did a good job.
On DB coach Bobby Babich:
He's a really good football coach, and just the finer details. He taught me something this morning. He's really, really good at taking something that could be seen as complex and making it very simple. And also showing them what he's talking about and the why behind it. When your guys can really understand a complex topic, and you can make it really simple and have a detailed solution for how to solve it, that's a sign of a really good teacher. And I think at the end of the day, coaches are teachers. He's done an unbelievable job with those guys, and there's no coincidence why that room, along with DB (Daniel Bullocks) too, because corners are playing well, but there's no coincidence why that room plays connected. We don't bust coverages; they know exactly what to do, and they're making a lot of plays.
On traits of a good corner and what he sees in Brandon Cisse:
The resiliency. You are going to get beat. They are going to make plays and they're going to catch the ball on you. It doesn't matter how talented, how good you are. I think there's a mindset and a resiliency, there's a focus, all that psyche that goes into being a good player, especially with that position. When you get back in the huddle, are you saying, you want the ball to come to you again? Or do you get back in the huddle and you say, man I hope the ball doesn't get thrown at me? The great ones I've been around want the ball thrown right to them again. So I think that's a huge thing … Remember you guys asked me where can he go and I said I'll tell you when I see some balls get caught on him. Week 1 he got a bomb caught on him and he responded the right way. So that was huge to me. That was kind of the first measuring stick of when we get into the season how is this guy going to be? He's got quite a bit of resilience about his game.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Kaleb Johnson:
I was excited about him coming into the game. He had some really nice practices leading up to the game and he ran hard. That was the good thing about it and that's what we've been challenging him, is he's a big, physical, fast guy. Just run hard. Run angry. (Pass protection is) something he'd worked really hard on these last few weeks and he's certainly gotten a lot better there. He did a nice job on a pass on a blitz pickup in the game. There's a lot of things that go into being a running back besides running the ball, obviously, so he's done a good job getting better there.
On the duo of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden:
It's cool. Like we've been really lucky here over the years with, especially Christian with just his leadership and how he is in that room really sets the tone for everybody with just his mindset. And you'll never hear him complain about anything, you'll never hear him if he doesn't have enough targets. He's not going to say anything and it's just a selfless attitude that he has, and I think it's cool to see the younger guys in particular M.G., they kind of feed off each other. I guarantee you if Christian scores a touchdown, M.G.'s just as excited as if he scored it. It's one of those things where you can just tell those guys are playing off each other, and it's special. It's really cool.
Both of those guys obviously, the numbers they're putting up, the plays they're making, … I feel like we've got two No. 1's for sure. But again, we don't look at it that way. We look at it as like all right, you got two great players, how can we just get them the ball, and it's a great problem to have.
On potentially more opportunities for Tucker Kraft:
Yeah Tuck, you look back at the stat sheet, whoa what, he only had one catch. But in the plan there was a few where he was the primary receiver and just got covered and we had to progress. So it was just one of those games. But again Tuck, same deal, one of those guys if we scored 45 points and he didn't have any targets, I'm sure he'd be the happiest guy on the team. Pretty selfless dude.
