The Green Bay Packers wrapped up their annual Family Night at Lambeau Field. Not many teams can say that they had 60,000 fans show up for a practice. But the city of Green Bay and the Packers certainly can.
Family Night is an annual tradition that surrounds a Packers practice held at Lambeau. Not only do the Packers have a practice going on, but there are ton of other activities going on around the practice. The stadium will have songs from SpongeBob and Frozen blast over the speakers. Some kids will get the opportunity to try and catch some punts, or make a field goal, or throw some passes into a net. And, at the end of the night, Lambeau hosts a great fireworks display.
It really is a great time! If you haven’t ever been to a Packers Family Night, you should definitely put it on your bucket list.
That being said, the Packers did host a practice. So, let’s get to that.
Packers Offense
The Packers offense looked kinda lackluster in this practice. They were able to move the ball a bit but for the most part, the defense was stifling. A couple of things I did notice: Love had a couple of scrambles for decent yardage which was great to see, and even though they weren’t completed, Love had a couple of deep bombs to Matthew Golden. This gives me hope that while Watson is out that the Packers will indeed have some long ball capabilities to keep pressure on opposing defenses.
An interesting note: Jordan Morgan played the entire practice at left tackle as Rasheed Walker was out with injury. And he didn’t look too bad.
Finally, Will Shepherd, the undrafted free agent wide receiver out of Colorado, seemingly kept making play after play for the 2nd and 3rd team offenses. His routes were good enough to get him open consistently throughout the night. It wasn’t just the fact that he was getting open, but the fact that he was making great catches. Matter of fact, in the live tackling portion of the practice, Will Shepherd made an absolute great catch in the end zone for the only touchdown of the night. The last play of practice.
Update on Emmanuel Wilson: Wilson did go down with a non-contact knee injury in practice on Friday but according to head coach Matt LaFleur it’s not as bad as it could have been. He said, “That was extremely scary, but I feel like we dodged that one. So that is some good news.”
The Defense
Let’s start with safety Omar Brown. Brown had not one, not two, but three interceptions on the night. Omar Brown now leads the team in training camp interceptions with five total. Carrington Valentine, who has three, did get a pick off of Jordan Love.
Kalen King also had a great practice. He had what looked like a couple of pass break ups, an interception off of Malik Willis, and would have gotten a huge tackle for a loss if this was a game.
Warren Brinson, the rookie defensive tackle out of Georgia, had a couple of great pressures and forced some errant throws. Lucas Van Ness continues to have a great camp as well, which is awesome to see. And Edgerrin Cooper continues to be Edgerrin Cooper.
Packers Family Night Extra Stuff
Malik Willis had a rough night, but I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. This ultimately is just practice and these guys need to try and push themselves to learn what they are truly capable of. I’m okay with Willis, and Love for that matter, throwing interceptions in practice.
Brandon McManus went 6/6 at Family Night improving to 34/35. Man, it just feels so good to not have to stress about field goals.
I have always viewed Family Night as the beginning of a new chapter. Family Night almost feels like a game and in one week we will have a game. Preseason football is here and not long from now, the Lions will be in town.
As always,
Go Pack Go!
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Damon is a diehard, fully-immersed cheesehead who currently lives in southern Missouri. He teaches at a local high school and has a family YouTube channel about all things Packers. You can follow him on twitter at @packersfamily and on YouTube at The Packers Family.
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