It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. just no ads. There's also a members-only group chat for fans of your team, plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everyday or Club link in the show notes. Whether you like it or not, the testing in Indianapolis matters to the Green Bay Packers. A couple hundred guys tested and they don't even know it, but some of them are just not going to be Green Bay Packers. You are Locked On Packers, your daily Green Bay Packers podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. You are Locked On Packers, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Peter Bukowski and I cover the Packers for The Leap, a newsletter I would love for you to subscribe to. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you get podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Google, wherever you get podcasts, you'll find Locked On Packers. The number one Packers podcast on the internet and the show for fans who know what happened. They want to know why and how. Thanks to everyone who makes Lockdown Packers their first listen every day. We hope you like starting your day with us as much as we like starting our day with you. Today's episode brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. We're going to talk more about Cam Achord, who is the new Packers special teams coordinator. We're going to talk about the Packers running back position because it looks like Emmanuel Wilson is out the door in Green Bay. So what does that mean for this draft, for free agency? A lot of potential things on the table here for the Packers. But let's start with the leftovers from the combine. we talked about the linebackers we talked about the defensive tackles we mentioned the tight ends on Friday Thursday maybe about the kinds of players the depth of players that were out there in this draft class and the tight ends did not disappoint it is a really really really athletic group of tight ends and I think on day three you're going to see the Packers grab one or maybe even multiple tight ends in this class. I don't want to dig too much into the tight ends in this particular instance, but I do just want to flag one name, Sam Rauch from Stanford. Not a lot of guys can block the way that he can in all of this. I don't want to preempt too much of what we're going to say at the end, but one of the big winners of the weekend is a name that we flagged last week for you as we were talking about the running back position Mike Washington Jr. from Arkansas tested as the most athletic running back ever measured at the combine 6'1", 223, jumped 39 inches broad jump 10-8 those are 94th and 96th percentile numbers and at 223 ran 4-3-3 this dude was hauling major weapons grade ass and it is very easy to imagine the Packers watching the workout watching the tape seeing the size seeing the pedigree and going That's the player we thought A.J. Dillon was going to be, but wasn't. He is so much more explosive than Dillon was. And that was really the big problem for A.J. Dillon was, you know, he had the big body, never ran quite like that. I don't think Washington quite runs like he's 223. But if he gets in the open field, he can just be gone. And that was something that A.J. Dillon just didn't have. And so we've talked about this running back issue in the past. I think there's a good chance this is Josh Jacobs last year as a Green Bay Packer. Even if it's not, we've seen Green Bay prioritize RB2 with premium draft capital if they find value there. This is a very shallow running back class, which could end up putting Washington into the top 50, which would put him out of reach for Green Bay. but I couldn't have this conversation and not mention that he was spectacular. Okay. One of the names I was really interested to see was Iowa center Logan Jones. And he did not disappoint in the testing. Tested really well, ran really well. The problem is he's got really short arms. And you might say, well, Peter, who cares? Like, it's just, you know, it's just the number. It's not the size that counts. It's how you use it. Why are you worried about length, Peter? That's what you're saying. Well, the Packers are not size horses when it comes to these things. They have drafted and been okay with offensive tackles, for example, that don't have, you know, the 34-plus-inch arms that are maybe, you know, de rigueur in the NFL. But I went back and looked and I thought, you know, Corey Lindsay, he had short arms, didn't he? Well, 32 inches. Logan Jones, well below that. So he was also under 300 pounds. The Packers over the last couple of years in particular have been looking more at guys 310, 315 and above. They want to get bigger along the offensive line. So are they willing to make some sacrifices here? I don't know. Now, someone who we've talked about on the mock draft Mondays at the offensive line position, Chase Bizantis from Texas A&M. We didn't know how he was going to test. 6'5", 315, right in that range where you want him. 31 and three quarters on the arm length. So just below 32. which would be still on the sort of medium to short end for a guard, but a 9.85 unofficial relative athletic score. An elite athlete. And a really good three cone. Again, something the Packers care about. So I like someone like that on day two if they're going to take an offensive lineman. Remember, they don't generally take, They like to take guards or tackles, excuse me, that become guards and centers, though they will take actual centers too. Elton Jenkins played center, played guard, played tackle, played all over the offensive line. They took him early on day two. I think it would make all the sense in the world if they thought he could play center to go that route. Now, without digging into the tape and, you know, all those things, the transition from not playing center to playing center is much different than a guy who played center to go play guard there less responsibility to go play guard like if you played center like hey we like to move you to guard I like look I never done it but there less responsibility as a guard You don have to set protections You don't have to snap and then block. You can just, here's the guy got a block and block him. So I, I personally would be more comfortable taking someone who was a center and making them a guard than taking someone who was a guard and making them a center. It's just a different thing. So early on, maybe you don't want to do that if you want to draft a center. So let me introduce you to Jagger Burton, who I've been calling Yager like he is a hockey player. Apparently it's Jagger. It's even cooler. It's even cooler, man, that he's Jagger Burton. 9.91 relative athletic score, 6-4-3-12, right in the range where you'd want him. 32 and three quarters inch arms right in the range where you would want him ran a sub five second 40 at 312 which is moving man 97 percentile at center and that's before you account for the fact that he was 312 if like pro football focus really likes him the consensus has him much lower if the packers could get jagger burton on in round four in round five and you could add you know some more premium position players earlier in the draft? I mean, talk about a home run opportunity for the Packers here. And Jordan Reed from ESPN reported, just to put a bow on this, Bo Stevens, the tackle from Iowa, was one of the guys that they asked to play center. Did not play center at Iowa. This could be the move. He's a tackle. You let him play center. You move him to center, but you can get him third, fourth round, tested really well, has the requisite size that you would be looking for. Maybe that J.C. Treader plan for the Packers is something that works here. Just one last note before we move on. The cornerback situation, I wrote about this today in the leap. we got a pitiful amount of data on these corners and that could leave the Packers with either a smaller field from which to choose or just less confidence in their evaluations and that's adding to the risk profile you might say Peter you know I don't I don't really care if they run the 40 we have tape and all that stuff okay but it adds to the risk profile if you don't know for sure. The tape can suggest something. It's nice to have a clean eval. Okay. The test shows a fast guy. He tests fast. The tape shows a fluid athlete. He tests fluid. It's nice to be able to stamp it and say, yes, we can believe our eyes on this stuff because you can never be too confident in your own evaluations of these things. That's just the nature of the business. So to have it when it's clean all the way through, that's a wonderful thing. Now, we also don't know if this new special teams coordinator is going to be any good. But we'll talk about him a little bit more next on Locked on Packers. College basketball is nonstop. Big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night. 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So there are these special teams rankings that Rick Gosselin did for a long time, Dallas Morning News, I believe, and he was the gold standard for these things. And so remember, Cam was the, again, I believe it's Achord. That was the way that I was told to pronounce it until we're told differently. Maybe we'll get some pronunciation data here shortly, but I'm gonna call him Cam for the moment because I wanna be respectful and I wanna say his name the right way. This is someone who was a dedicated special teams coordinator. So he's actually done this job despite the fact that he's 39 years old. There are coaches out there that are 39 and they get an offensive coordinator job. They've only ever been like the quarterback's coach, Sean Mannion. That just happened for him. So you're adding someone who's got dedicated experience was the assistant to Joe judge who was at the time, and I understand what happened in New York, you know, he became a punchline. Joe Judge, before he got that New York job, was considered the gold standard of special teams coaches in the NFL. It was like Joe Judge, Dave Taub, like those were the guys that everyone was like, yes, we know that's the Sean McVay of special teams. Seriously. And so you learn at the feet of the master. And if you're Joe Judge, you're also learning at the feet of the master with Bill Belichick. He ends up being the special teams coordinator in New England for four years. Gets fired by Gerard Mayo, who wants to bring in new staff when he gets the job from Bill Belichick. And then so for the last two years, Cam has been in New York. now what I think is useful to know here are how good were those teams now in 2020 this was the best special teams in the NFL I don't know how much credit we get to give him right like it was his first year and then after that according to Rick Gosling's rankings which again speaking of the gold standards. 18th in 2021 16th in 2022 and 13th in 2023 Now Packer fans would kill for those rankings Like if the Packers had we just average those out Forget the first place rankings. 18th, 13th, 16th. Like if they just had the 15th or 16th best special teams ranking in the NFL, Packer fans would throw a parade. They would commission a statue in solid gold if the Packers could just have middling special teams. They have not. And this has been the problem. Now, if you adjust for schedule, it gets a little weird. They were last in 2022, despite being officially in the Gosling rankings, 16th, 28th, and 2023. Now, I do wonder about special teams rankings. Like, you know, is that small sample size theater? We're talking about six, eight, 10 plays a game. maybe 15 if there's a lot of punts in the game how many kicks did the opposing kicker miss like did they just get lucky with some of these things I tend to in the case of the the Gosling rankings like I tend to put a little bit more into that just because it is a small sample size but like look it's not it's not a perfect system by any means if you look at the pro football focus numbers. More in line sort of with the DVOA rankings, though sixth in 2021 on special teams grade, 27th in 2022. So qualitatively, PFF saw it more like DVOA did. 20th in 2023. So below average, but still not heinously terrible. Now, what I like is if you look at those special teams in New England, they were able to make chicken salad out of chicken something else when it comes to returners. Gunnar Olszewski, Marcus Jones, big time punt return productivity. Both first team all pros in New England. so they are able to create return opportunities, something the Packers have not been able to do outside of Keyshawn Nixon in 2022, basically in the Rich-Bissaccia era. They have been good in Cam's career, whether it's been with the Giants or New England, at returns, and that is something, if you're the Packers, It would be nice to give Jordan Love an opportunity to have some short fields. To go and say, okay, instead of starting at the 25, which seemed like every time they're getting the ball, it's at the 20. It's, I don't know when to return. I don't know when to do this. I don't know when to do that. When do I take a knee? When do I return? The details, I think, are going to be taken care of. and that's an important, I would say, essential part of being a coach, but it's not something that we've been seeing in Green Bay. And while, you know, my pal Justice Mosqueda has been evangelizing that this is a Packers organizational problem, it is a team problem, I do think there have been some limitations that have caused the Packers to come up short. But I also know some of those limitations have nothing to do with some of the problems that have come up. And that it is a failure of imagination. That is a failure of problem solving. And it seems to be a failure of detail. Like the failure of imagination, of plan, of process is directly related to the detail. It just doesn't seem like the detail is there. Do I take an inside step first? do I take an outside step first when am I returning the ball from the end zone and when am I not when are you kicking it deep versus when are you trying to kick it in the landing area what is the thought process behind that when are you trying to coffin corner versus when are you trying to sky one when are you trying to poot do you believe the processes that have led to those decisions in the past have been sound because I don't. So even if there were some deficiencies, even if Matt LaFleur is saying, you can't have my starting offensive lineman or you can't have Keyshawn Nixon. We don't know he's been doing that, but let's just, let's be, you know, maximally charitable and diplomatic to Rich Passaccia. Let's say he's doing that. Has everything else been like super buttoned up to the point where you're just like, well, I can forgive it because he wasn't given the best players? Hell no. hell no you got evan williams david mckinney javon bullard covering kicks they're playing special teams like you don't don't give me the excuses you wanted to draft unders carlson you let an injured kicker play for a month or more hurt because you brought in a kicker who performed better than him and he was like, oh crap, I gotta perform. And even though you're the assistant to the head coach, you couldn't say, hey, I really think we need to sit this guy. We need to tell him, hey, Brandon, you're our guy. You gotta sit, get healthy, and we'll get back to you. Don't worry. He's not gonna take your job. And maybe he would have, but you still, that's a decision you have to make. And the Packers did not make it expediently. They did not make it efficiently. They did not make it effectively. And they were left with what they were left with. It doesn't seem like they're going to make a change of kicker, so they just got to figure it out. Can they do it? Well, I guess we'll see. They're going to have to figure it out at running back two. We'll talk about that next on Locked on Packers. we live in a world where we can stream anything order food in minutes and carry supercomputers in our pockets and somehow buying tickets to a live game still feels complicated hidden fees jumping prices endless steps there has to be a better way that's why i use the game time app it gives fans the advantage and makes getting tickets simple whether it's nfl games concerts comedy, whatever you're into. You can see panoramic views from your seats before you buy. The price you see includes all the fees. No surprises at checkout. You can even spot zone deals where you pick the section and GameTime picks the seats for extra savings. Two taps and you've got great seats locked in fast, easy, done. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again create an account and redeem code locked on for $20 off download game time today a couple different free agent reports trade reports contract reports that are relevant to the greenbacker is coming out of the combine remember the combine is about so much more than just the draft and what's going on there it's an opportunity for like literal proximity. So there's agents there. There's general managers there. There's owners there. There's presidents of football operations there. There's, you know, the people who run the contracts there. There's players there. So guys can get in a room, not current NFL players, but you get it. And you can get in a room and have a conversation over a shrimp cocktail, over a dry gin martini, dirty but not too dirty and so we get a feel for the market at certain positions or the market for certain players or what going to happen with Kyler Murray or Tua Dungabailoa or Malik Willis How does one affect the other? It sounds like Malik Willis is going to get paid, paid. Like we could be talking about $30 million a year for Malik Willis, which is cuckoo bananas considering how little experience he actually has when compared to someone like Kyler Murray at what is going to be a not dissimilar price, all things considered. And if he just gets cut, which would be pretty tough for the Cardinals, it makes so much more sense for them to trade him. My guess is the report that he could be cut was an attempt from the Cardinals to get him cut so that they could pick his destination because the guaranteed money has already been paid. And then he can then maximize his leverage on a new deal and maybe earn back more than what was going to be owed to him moving forward. Just my low-stakes conspiracy. But if Malik Willis makes $30-plus million, then the Packers are going to get a wonderful comp pick out of that. A third round comp pick in all likelihood. And so that's big news for Green Bay. There's also this insinuation that, you know, hey, Kyler Murray, Tua. Who knows what could happen there? Jimmy Garoppolo apparently on the Packers radar. Don't love that, honestly. But if they feel like they need to have a veteran, I can understand that they raved about Jimmy G in LA. He just seems pretty physically cooked to me. So I don't really know what the upside there is. It seems like Quay Walker is going to be out of town. I could have told you that. Based on some of the conversations that I've had and based on what I've heard. He's not going to get Devin Lloyd money. Devin Lloyd probably going to get upwards of $20 million. but Quay Walker looking at 15 plus. You look at the market. That's sort of what the market bears out. Well, the Packers had a chance to sign him for 15. In fact, it was 14.75 on the option and they declined the option. Now I understand 14.75 fully guaranteed on the option versus 15 APY where maybe he doesn't get actual 15 on the cap for three years on the contract. I understand that's all different, But if the Packers thought he was worth that much money, just sign him on an extension, give him three years, 45, and make the first two years fake so that he's not on that actual cap number. They could have done that. And they may theoretically still do that. It doesn't seem like they're going to. And because if they wanted to, they would have. That's where I think the Packers are with this, which means you're going to have to add somebody. And there are some veterans at the linebacker position. There are some players that I really like at the linebacker position. Green Bay has some very good options if they don't want to go into the draft and feel like they're being handcuffed by their roster and having to draft somebody, though. It's also a very good linebacker draft. So the Packers are in a very good offseason cycle to need a stacked linebacker. Maybe the most important for long-term development for the Packers is that Emmanuel Wilson is not going to get a restricted free agent tender. The Packers could restrict, you know, offer him a low tender, bring him back, and he could be playing for peanuts, just the way the restricted free agent tender thing works. And it sounds like they're just going to let him walk, which is a little surprising. Though I told you I thought that this was a likelihood, not because he's not a good player, not because he's not worth a low round tender, but because he could get significantly more on the open market. and I think the Packers would like to get someone else in there. So they can say, hey, look, Emmanuel, we're going to do you a solid and we're not going to tender you and you can go on your merry way. The restricted free agent tags are designed to avoid that. If a team is just sort of like, yeah, we don't really know. Why don't we just, we'll give you a low round tender and if someone wants to pay it, whatever, whatever. But if they're just not going to tender him, then he's gone. and he essentially becomes an unrestricted free agent. And they have a need at running back. Well, they have that need probably anyway, right? Because beyond this season, Josh Jacobs, we don't know. Emmanuel Wilson, we don't know. Chris Brooks, we still don't know. That's for just this year even. And it's not a good running back class. So do they have a trick up their sleeve? Do they know Marshawn Lloyd is making progress in ways that we're not privy to? Do they like this running back draft class when no one else does? Guys, I'm telling you, 52, a running back is in play. I don't know what else to say. I think it's in play. And if it's Mike Washington Jr., I'm not going to be mad about it because I think he's a dynamic football player. I watch him and I go, that guy can be a three-down back. That can be your lead back in the NFL. He's big enough. He can handle the rigors, and then he can create the explosives good enough in the passing game. Not a Christian McCaffrey receiver, but you swing it out to him. You throw a wheel route to him. He can catch it on his body and have no problems with it. And the explosiveness, you give him a crease, he can hit it and be off. Get him in space, he can just be gone. And these guys don't want to tackle him in space. You see it. Corners do not want to hit him in space. I'm going to spend a lot of time talking about him and someone else is going to draft him and that's fine, but this is a name to be cognizant of. There are some other ones out there and we'll talk about them as we move through the draft process. Much more this week. The Packers and the rest of the NFL open. The new league year opens basically in a week because there's the tampering period and the new league year is going to be starting here before you know it. So this is all moving very fast. And that's the way we like it because it can get a little tedious in the off season. It's just like the combine, new league year, which means free agency. We've got a couple of weeks. I guess that period is about a month. It's about six weeks. That period between the free agent market and the draft is probably two or three weeks too long. But I'm fine with it because it gives me more time to watch the prospects and I want to be able to watch the prospects. I want to be able to give you informed takes on all of the prospects. I do my best to do that. So thanks for tuning into Locked On Packers. I got to go watch tape. Make sure and subscribe to Locked On Packers wherever you get podcasts. And if you never miss an episode, the Everydayer Club is built for you. Get Locked On Packers ad-free plus members only Discord access. The group chat is popping off. Head to LockedOnPackers.Supercast.com. For those of you on video, we send you to the first ever 24-7 national NFL YouTube channel on audio. Make your second listen Locked On NFL Draft. and always stay Locked on Packers. Sometimes you just want a little boost in something that tastes fun. That's where Cotton Candy 5-Hour Energy Shots come in. Bringing back that classic nostalgic flavor with a modern twist. Because these Cotton Candy 5-Hour Energy Shots don't just taste good, they deliver a tasty caffeine kick and a convenient zero-sugar energy shot you can take anywhere. It's perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth who doesn't want the sugar guilt afterward. Bring on the sweetness with Cotton Candy 5-Hour Energy Shots available now online at 5hourenergy.com or Amazon. That's Cotton Candy 5-Hour Energy Shots available at 5hourenergy.com or Amazon.
