Bring in that Sweat fella on day 3 if he's there DUI and all. Gilbert Brown vibes.
Kinda surprised at all of the DL GB is bringing in for Top 30 visits, but here's another one. Maason Smith via Packers Wire
https://packerswire.usatoday.c...-30-pre-draft-visit/
That dude is so wide he stretched the 1 on his jersey into 0.
Some pics from Day 1
Colby Wooden
Van Ness
Carl Brooks
Rashan Gary
And good to see Enagbare cleared to participate, rehab on schedule
from tweeter
" Colby Wooden mentioned on the Packers live stream he went from 278 up to 290lbs this offseason - putting on 12lbs of "the good stuff" to compete with the big boys."
Brooks is a mofo. He's going to start stomping people in year 2.
This stuff is so good. Not a DL taken this year. 56 safety / linebacker selections.
Also, no WR / TE.
Bananas.
Kingsley Enagbare did not tear his ACL in 2023
"When asked about the situation, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst claimed that the team initially feared the worst, but was “pleasantly” surprised by the fact that Enagbare did not suffer a full ACL tear versus the Cowboys."
They showed a pic of Enagbare working out with the team on April 15th -
I thought it was kind of strange for a post-ACL guy to be out there so early in the offseason...happy to hear the excellent news
@Eddie posted:Kingsley Enagbare did not tear his ACL in 2023
"When asked about the situation, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst claimed that the team initially feared the worst, but was “pleasantly” surprised by the fact that Enagbare did not suffer a full ACL tear versus the Cowboys."
Packers speak for "will place on PUP at beginning of training camp and then have season ending knee surgery (undisclosed) in Sept"
@Brak posted:This stuff is so good. Not a DL taken this year. 56 safety / linebacker selections.
Also, no WR / TE.
Bananas.
Took all the WR/TE in 2023.
This is the year for LB/S
You can't manufacture players that aren't there. Gutey doing the best he can to navigate the mines and avoid drafting busts while hopefully improving the team.
Here's a write-up on my main man, Devonte Wyatt talking about how he will thrive in the penetrating style defense Hafley is running
https://packerswire.usatoday.c...eff-hafleys-defense/
"When vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan was answering questions about the Green Bay Packers’ Day 3 draft picks, he went out of his way to bring up a current player on the roster who he believes is going to greatly benefit from Jeff Hafley’s defense: Devonte Wyatt.
“Devonte Wyatt, I think he’s going to thrive in this defense,” said Sullivan.
“Where you can kind of just pin your ears back, get off the ball. That’s what he was at Georgia — quick, work edges, penetrate, disrupt. I think there’s a bunch of guys who are going to benefit from what we’re doing.”
I remember he had a 1.66 for his 10 yd split at the combine, that's pretty damn quick for a 300 lb human. He ran a 4.77 in the 40
.
UDFA on the DL
The Green Bay Packers agreed to terms with DL James Ester on April 30, 2024.
Ester was a four-year team captain and was named team MVP twice during his time at Northern Illinois (2019-23). He played in 49 games with 43 starts, recording 121 tackles (50 solo), 20 tackles for a loss, nine sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception. In 2022, Ester second-team All-MAC honors from Pro Football Focus and Phil Steele's College Football, and was a third-team All-MAC selection by the league coaches. He followed that up by earning first-team All-MAC honors from Phil Steele's College Football and second-team honors from the league coaches in 2023.
More here from NFL Draft Diamonds:
https://nfldraftdiamonds.com/2023/08/james-ester/
@Iowacheese posted:Looks like a Happy Ester
Draft bio says he has a sister named Polly
Jeff Hafley on the Packers D-line: “That group has to attack. That’s not gonna be passive read-and-react.”
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) May 6, 2024
The latest addition to the Packers DL, first reported by somebody else
Spencer Waege
The Green Bay Packers claimed DL Spencer Waege off waivers from the San Francisco 49ers on May 13, 2024.
Waege (6-5, 295), a first-year player out of North Dakota State, was originally signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2023. He was released at the end of training camp, but signed to the 49ers' practice squad on Nov. 15, 2023, where he spent the rest of the season.
In college, Waege was a three-year starter and a two-time All-American and All-Missouri Valley Football Conference defensive end.
He wore # 69 for SF and that number is currently available in Titletown but the Packers issued him # 64 instead.
More on Wyatt here via Ryan Wood:
"Jason Rebrovich believes new scheme will produce a "great outcome" for twitchy, penetrative DL like Devonte Wyatt: "The thing about Devonte Wyatt, he's quick, fast and athletic. So you're going to develop things around him to use those attributes."
TJ Slaton
Jason Rebrovich says there's no question in his mind T.J. Slaton, who has prototypical 3-4 nose size and played great in that system, can transition:
"T.J. Slaton might be the biggest man athlete I've ever seen in my life.
If you put a basket up here, T.J. Slaton can 2-hand slam."
So stoked. Brother is getting us tickets for Viking home game when I'm back in the state for 50th class reunion, and already bought tickets for Rams game in LA with wife, Daughter and her boyfriend.
@YATittle posted:......when I'm back in the state for 50th class reunion,.........
FWIW, Michael Lombardi was on the Bill Simmons podcast and he's very bullish on Hafley. He specifically mentioned the pass rush talent of this front 7 and how it just didn't show up on the field last year due to coaching and poor scheme. I think that's been the prevailing feeling with this defense - Clark, Gary, Smith, Wyatt, Van Ness, and Walker are just too talented at getting the QB to not have a top 5 pass rush. There are teams that pressure the QB way more often with way less talent. It's also why Barry is gone.
Several common taters have noted the Hafley defense should be better for DL Wyatt - and here's an article suggesting the same for Lucas Van Ness
Sophomore surge:
https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/...-sophomore-surge-642
@Satori posted:Several common taters have noted the Hafley defense should be better for DL Wyatt - and here's an article suggesting the same for Lucas Van Ness
Sophomore surge:
https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/...-sophomore-surge-642
If I recall correctly, as last year moved along the Packers had LVN playing edge with his hand in the dirt, especially toward the middle to end of the season. As I remember the rational was at that point he was playing better in a 3 point stance.
more love for DL Karl Brooks, this time from NFL reporter, Doug Farrar via Touchdown Wire... calling Brooks, under-rated
here's a clip of Brooks vs bears.
https://x.com/NFL_DougFarrar/s.../1793672676894220563
https://touchdownwire.usatoday...ayer-dl-karl-brooks/
So, here’s an ascending young player who can win from just about anywhere on the line:
.@packers rookie DL Karl Brooks first made me aware during his 2022 season at Bowling Green, when he was a primary edge-rusher at 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds (!!!). Green Bay moved him inside more often with no real drop in productivity. A guy to watch
"Mr. Williams, allow me to introduce Mr. Brooks".
.
Shining a little light on graybeard, Kenny Clark in the new defense
https://www.packers.com/news/k...-attack-the-trenches
"While Clark made three Pro Bowls in eight seasons working out of that alignment, Green Bay's longest-tenured veteran is excited for the change. Having played in both a 3-4 and 4-3 at UCLA, Clark feels it should be a seamless switch.
"It's one of things where all my career I've been kind of been playing this way, but in more of a controlled way," said Clark, whose 34 career sacks are most for a Green Bay interior defensive lineman since 1982.
"Now this is giving us a chance to shut all that other stuff off … just use your ability, go up the field and be disruptive. I just think with my get-off and how I am, I think it's going to suit me well."
Clark is conditioning his body for the new scheme. After cutting to 305 pounds last year to play more 3-4 defensive end, Clark wants to dip under 300 for the first time since high school to improve his speed and explosion.
That's the direction the position has turned over the past 10 years. Listed at 6-1, 285, Aaron Donald helped redefine what it means to play defensive tackle during the course of his soon-to-be Pro Football Hall of Fame career.
Clark trains during the offseason with two of the game's best sub-300 defensive tackles, DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead, who both were successful in San Francisco's attacking 4-3 front.
"I would check up with them and see what it's like playing in that," Clark said. "I always wondered what it was like, but now that I'm in it, I see how they made so many TFLs and all those plays they were always making. It all makes sense. They were really just cutting it loose that whole time."
It almost sounds like a change in scheme may be helpful for this defense.
From the same article, Colby Wooden comments on new strategery
"On the opposite end of the spectrum, second-year defensive lineman Colby Wooden bulked up to 290 pounds and incorporated yoga in preparation for the new defense after playing his rookie year at a listed weight of 273.
The changes Wooden implemented this offseason caught the attention of Head Coach Matt LaFleur, who commented after last Tuesday's OTA practice that
"he's looked great up to this point."
Wooden, who had 17 tackles and a half sack as a rookie, feels he has a good grasp of what Hafley's defense will entail after playing in a comparable defense for two years at Auburn.
"Last year we were more reading," Wooden said. "This year we're asked to just not think and go, which plays into our favor. We would get stuck on, you know, play-action. They would hold us and because we're reading, we can't get to a pass rush and so this year, we're not reading we're just going.
Full stop running on the way to the quarterback."
If that 17 lbs. he put on is all muscle I'm all for that.
