GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On LB Isaiah McDuffie being named captain and how much leadership he brings:
A lot. Getting to know him from the opposite view, you always respected (number) 58 when you played against Green Bay in the past, what he brought, the demeanor he played with, and that carries over to the meeting rooms. He's very attentive to details. I think he has the respect obviously of his teammates, being elected and everything. He just has a true passion for the kicking game, loves it, loves to be out there. He communicates well with the guys and takes a big pride in it. That captain, you're like an extension of the coach. Peers can get more out of their own peers realistically. He does that. He gets everybody better. He brings everybody along with him. He asks a lot of his teammates. He brings it every day, and I can really appreciate that, a guy who shows up every day and is consistent and is true to himself. I think it's well-deserving.
On the approach to the regular season:
First off, we've got to be fundamentally sound. I think it starts there. Good techniques. We want to be fundamentally sound, not beat ourselves. That's the No. 1 thing for me. Then obviously you want to play with an edge and a physical mindset out there on the field. And then I just want guys to go out there and cut it loose.
On K Trey Smack:
Anytime you make all your kicks, you've got a little more confidence, right? So I think that's a good thing. I do think at some point, whether it's Week 1, Week 18, whatever it may be, he's going to miss. What's good about him is you saw on his college film, he didn't let one miss lead into another and it like spiraled downhill. That's the really good thing about his demeanor. Being even keeled, he knows each kick is its own kick.
On P Daniel Whelan:
I tell you what, he wants to learn. That's been great. He wants to continue to get better. Like he knows he has a ceiling that he wants to reach, and he strives for that every day. I think he's harder on himself than anybody really for us. If he punts the ball 10 times, he wants to have 10 perfect punts, which obviously as a coach you love. You want people to strive for that perfection and he's very, very talented obviously, but it's because he's also just so dedicated to his craft and he loves to punt. I mean if the man could hit 100 punts every day, he would. It's been a pleasure to coach him. It really has.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On how to get snaps for so many DTs:
I love that it kicked out like that for us. I think you can never have enough big guys. And we'll see how the week goes as it relates to how we're going to end up playing, how the game gets going. I tell the story all the time, there's certain guys that are going to play a lot of snaps, there's certain guys that are going to play not as many snaps maybe by game plan or what you're doing or who you're defending, and then there's an unknown element of how the game kicks out. So you might think a guy's going to play 30 to 40 percent of the snaps and he ends up playing 60 percent of the snaps and vice versa.
On rookie CB Brandon Cisse:
I always think play style first and then schematic and technical execution. With any rookie I think it's going to be a learning process, especially that position there's going to be a learning process of how you deal with failure. Not to say that he's going to fail but they are going to catch balls on him if he's out there playing. That happens to everybody. It's how you respond to that. And I think he's wired -- I know he's wired the right way to be able to play the next play and get up and line up and execute.
On LB Zaire Franklin:
When he got here, I knew what we were getting and we've gotten that plus some. He's been a great addition for us. He's doing everything that we ask and then some. He does bring … I kind of label defenders as tacklers or hitters. You need a certain amount of hitters on a good defense. I think he's a hitter. He's super physical and I like that in the middle of the defense.
On the pass rush without Micah Parsons:
I feel really good about us being able to affect the passer right now, from what they've done in training camp, what they've done in some preseason games. Even with Micah, you're going to hear me, it's always a collective effort. I think people just concentrate on the rush. Rush and coverage go together, so it's not just the guys that are rushing the passer. It's the back end, how that's coordinated with the rush. I feel really good about our edge guys. I feel really good about us being able to generate inside, the guys we have inside, and hopefully we'll put a couple cool things on tape that make it hard on them.
On S Xavier McKinney:
I can't say enough good things about him. Always had a high regard for him, being a DB coach, what he's been able to do through his career. He's kind of like Z too. Now I knew Z from Indy a little bit, but expectations met, plus some. Just from a general philosophical approach to good safety play, they've got to be super intelligent, which he is, and he's got all the tools. He can blitz, he can tackle, he can cover, he can play deep zones, he can run the whole show. First thing that pops into my head is reliability. He's as reliable as you can get.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On TE Tucker Kraft's leadership as captain:
The development that he had was pretty amazing at the end of his rookie year. And then, you knew he was going to be a good player after that year and then as he's gone, it's changed his mindset. Everything about how he plays the game of football has been awesome. I think he's a great leader on the field with just how hard he plays. He's a good example for everybody, and he does a nice job holding people accountable.
On what new TEs Jonnu Smith and Mark Redman add to the group:
Depth for sure. Jonnu is a great receiving guy down the field. He's got good hands, runs excellent routes, also a willing blocker. So he just adds an off-the-ball threat as a tight end and then down the field. Redman will be interesting. He's a good point-of-attack guy, and we'll just see what we got with him as we go forward. But I'm excited to have him, too, just to go out there and block and make some plays in the intermediate game, so that should be fun to watch.
On RB MarShawn Lloyd:
Yeah, we know what we have with MarShawn. I think the biggest thing is for him to just get out there, play football, get that confidence. I thought he did a nice job this entire offseason proving to us and to himself that he could be out there on a regular basis, so hopefully we just keep improving and as the season rolls through we'll be seeing the best version of him.
On the O-line:
It's still a work in progress unfortunately with the injury situations to (Aaron) Banks and Zach (Bako-Bewele). So yeah, we have plans for everything and we're going to make the best of it, whoever's out there. We're just going to focus on our playstyle, doing a great job communicating and going and playing our brand of football. So yeah, we have our plans and we'll just kind of roll with the punches like we always do.
I really like our depth. We've had a lot of guys step up. John Williams I thought did a nice job just stepping up at the tackle position, but he can also play other positions. Donovan Jennings has done a nice job filling in inside. Jager (Burton) also done a nice job in the interior, so there's a bunch of guys in there that are still competing for playing time.
