GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Wednesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On K Trey Smack's early ups and downs, and the windy conditions at practice:
You just want to see him get better. And it's not so much the makes and misses right now. It's more so about the ball contact, is what I'm looking at. (The wind) is unique to Green Bay and the practice fields to be honest with you … What's been really great for me and him and all the specialists is when we go to practice, the wind is there, but when we go into Lambeau and do walk throughs, honestly, I look at the wind there and I look at it at night, it's like, wow, you don't feel anything. So I don't put as much stock on the practice stuff as I will in the stadium stuff … So I think a lot of times at practice, the results may not be what we want them to be, or not as good as they could be. But putting guys in tough situations, kicking into that, and then going inside (the stadium) and seeing it's not as windy, I think it's really good.
On evaluating and preparing returners:
My No. 1 for me is ball security is job security for the returners. If you're gonna put the ball on the ground or can't catch it, I can't trust you. The ball is the team. We can't do that. That's the No. 1 thing for me. Then the running ability, we'll work that at practice. There's different drills we'll get to. I'm sure you've all seen the tennis ball drill. We'll throw bags eventually at the punt returners, which is working lateral to move and make a guy miss, a gunner. We'll do cut-press drills, just trying to teach them how to run in traffic. But the No. 1 thing is the ball security part. Keep track of the ball, get to the spot, quiet feet. That's the first thing. Then after that we'll work on the running part.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On eventually incorporating Micah Parsons into the defense:
What we're doing right now is going through our installs, seeing what our guys are comfortable (with), seeing their skills sets, seeing what they can do, and then obviously we have a pretty good understanding of the player that Micah is and see where he fits into all of that. A player like that, it's not very complicated in my opinion to use him or deploy him to affect the game in a positive way. He's been awesome. He's very smart, he understands a lot of things that we're doing already, how they complement other things that we're trying to do. We were talking the other day, he could see himself in a bunch of different spots in different calls, so that's kinda cool. Then it will be our job to make sure he gets his touches, which he will.
On Edge Barryn Sorrell:
He doesn't make a lot of mistakes, he's a great teammate, he's tough as nails and he can make a bunch of plays. I think it's been cool to see his versatility. We're trying a bunch of guys out in a bunch of different spots and he can do a lot of things, which is good.
On setting a standard of play:
I'm not a huge quote guy, but I'll give one or two over the course of a month, and the first one I said, and I do believe this over training camp it's like, 'Intensity makes for a good story, consistency makes for good results.' And what you're saying is, well, anybody can go work out for three hours one day and then not work out for a week and you're not in shape. Where if the guy that works out 30 minutes a day for seven days in a row, he's probably going to be in better shape. Our guys, we have a standard that we want to play, one day to do it is great, can you do it Day 3 and Day 4, so on and so forth.
On the safety trio of Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard:
They have unique skill sets. You've got guys that can cover, tackle, play with vision, match people, blitz. I think we need to deploy (all that) to put pressure on the offense as much as we can and try to make it hard on them. I'm sure as we get going each game is going to look different week by week and that's because we have the constant of our team but there's a variable that's changing every week -- their team. So hopefully you get to see them do it all.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On rookie OL Jager Burton coming back quickly from injury:
Him missing a couple reps, it's good to have him back. I thought he did a nice job when he was in there. He's got really good athleticism. He's got strength. He's an intelligent player and I like his playstyle, too. He's got the right mindset for offensive line play, so I'm excited about what he can be for us. We're going to work him at multiple spots just to see where he fits, and obviously we've got a lot of competition in that room to see what our best five are, so yeah, I'm hopeful he'll get out there and keep impressing us.
On Jonathan Gannon throwing an array of blitzes at the offense in practice:
He's done a nice job with his disguises, so if our protection's not set the right way, the quarterback's hot, we've got to get rid of the ball. It's good for the quarterbacks to see that, to feel that, to know where your hot answers are and also just to try and diagnose where the pressure's coming from so we can get the protection set the right way. So it's been great work for us and it's good for our backs, obviously good for the O-line, but you can't get enough of that stuff this time of year just to make sure everyone's on the same page.
On QB Jordan Love going into Year 4 as starter and Year 7 overall:
Every year you just see his confidence grow, his leadership, everything, just how he takes charge. Watching him obviously these last seven years has been pretty cool to see him develop into the player that he is now.
On WR Matthew Golden:
You can see his route detail's much better. He's doing a great job playing fast, strong hands, and just playing with confidence. With him, that's always great. You can just see in the run game, too, he knows what he's doing more, he's blocking with more authority. I've been excited with what I've seen from him so far.
On WR Bo Melton:
He played a bunch, scored a big touchdown for us against the Bears – kind of randomly but it was great. That's the one thing with Bo. Special teams, he can play any wide receiver position, he plays his heart out for the team. He's a physical player, he's fast. Every day he shows up with a smile on his face and a great attitude. He's one of the guys on our offense that I love coaching Bo. He's awesome. Yeah, every time he makes a play, I'm not surprised at all.
