20 minutes a day 365 days a year. This is the pack a day podcast. It is Tuesday, it is March 31, 2026, the last day of the month of March, happy Easter week for everyone who celebrates. Thank you all for listening this week to the pack a day podcast. I'm your host, I'm Jacob Westendorf. I'm joined as I always am by Jacob Morley. Jacob Morley, it is pretty much draft month. Merry Draftmas. Merry Draftmas. Are we going to gather around the draftmas tree and watch draft day the night before? I've been as one does, right? As one does. My question to you is this year, do you do that on Wednesday? Or do you do it on Thursday? Oh, that is because Green Bay, I mean, I mean, you do it on Wednesday, like trying to think of a good example of like how you know, sometimes like Christmas Day happens. And you don't celebrate because families out of town or whatever till like a few days later, or in this year's case, both of my kids had influenza. That was fun. TNT is still playing a Christmas story 24 hours, you know, so yeah, I think you have to do it the day before pick number one. And because like, that's not kid ourselves. Are you really not going to watch round one? Like, of course you're watching. Of course you're going to watch. I mean, what else am I going to do? Green Bay might trade up. I mean, I will print out a tweet fork a knife and eat it. But of all this of all the scenarios that we've talked about, that is one that like nobody really brings up. What if Green Bay did trade up into round one? And I think because it is very unlikely because like everything they've done, you know, all the TLEs everything like that would indicate like, Hey, we put a lot of draft capital into Micah Parsons worth it. But we're going to kind of wait. 2026 out, we're not going to do anything where it's going to like jeopardize. Ryan Goodicum said the words compensatory formula when talking about the Javon Hargrave signing today. So like, Yep, they're aware. They are aware. We're aware and and the league is incentivized like any team is incentivized to do so, right? So it makes sense. But I mean, it would have to be like the perfect and then there isn't a player like that, like the perfect player for them to, because they probably would have to trade 52, 84, and a pick either this year or next year to move into the first round. Okay, well, that's we're off the rails already. And I love that. But so the guy that you would do that for is like Chris Johnson from San Diego State, who's everybody's dream at 52. And I'm not saying he won't be there. He probably won't. But like, that is kind of the guy where it's like, Hey, if you're if Green Bay's picking 25 to 20, you know, the 32, which they are typically doing, true, like that is really the guy that they probably would be targeting at the end of round one. So would you be willing to give up picks two and three to move up to 28? Probably more than that even. Well, so just for example sake, and every year is different, I understand that. But it was picked 53 and 59 to move up for Christian Watson at 34. Yeah, right. So we add in at six picks earlier, the Packers don't have to see it. It's all that stuff. So that would be that would have to be like we said, like the perfect player. And I don't even like you mentioned Chris Johnson. He doesn't exist. He doesn't exist. Chris Johnson awesome. Like don't get me wrong. But like it that's not worth it. And even if they do that, if they do that on draft day, and they end up with Chris Johnson, like, they probably ended up with a good player, but like, it probably wasn't worth it. No, no, but I mean, that's kind of the point that we're at what we'll get to today. However, is it's the owners meetings in Arizona, I believe. And the did you did you go? I did not go to Arizona. We've covered this pre show. Were we invited as owners? Um, no. Oh, weird. No, I don't think that's how that works. But classic Roger. Right, right. But whatever, Roger, I'll wait on you for that. Brian Gudekunst and Matt LaFleur talk today. That is, it's the first time we've heard from Gudekunst and Gudekunst since the combine LaFleur since before that the last time LaFleur talked in front of a microphone was the day after the Packers season ended. So at the time, every question is about like, job status. Are you going to be back? Like we didn't know, right? And, and now it's like he is back. He has an extension, everything like that. We'll talk about some of that stuff. But a couple of big takeaways from LaFleur was he talked about needing to finish. And they asked him about his grade. So he went from an A minus to a B minus from last year to this year, in terms of how he was graded from a player. And the funny quote, in my opinion, was LaFleur saying like, we had guys that were unhappy with their roles. I'm paraphrasing, guys that are unhappy about their roles. And that took a toll on our football team. He would not specify as to if those players are no longer in Green Bay. I, I will not recklessly speculate by naming names, but I will say I think it is fair to read some tea leaves and fairly easy to read some tea leaves about some players that may have been upset about some of their roles for for everything in Green Bay. But LaFleur did say he had to communicate better, build relationships with the players better. And, and I'll say this, I said this after the report card came out. Is this talking point a big deal? Maybe not. If Green Bay wins and wins big next year, we're not going to be talking about. If Green Bay has another season like the one they just had, then we're going to look back on it and go like, man, maybe maybe LaFleur lost the locker room. And, you know, the top like because that was the big thing right after locker room cleanup was a Tucker Kraft, Micah Parsons, Jordan Love, some of these other guys that were just vocal and support of the head coach. And that was a big reason for those that wanted to keep him. That said, you have to keep him. And that was kind of the big thing for him. But then you get all this stuff coming out. That could that will be a talking point if the Packers have a disappointing season this upcoming year. But any thoughts on that quote, kind of specifically? I mean, I think that's super interesting that the head coach would say something like that because he knows we're not stupid. I mean, I hesitate to say that because I think we are stupid or because he knows that we're not. Well, I think there's a certain arrogance with people that get into that type of position that like what people actually can decipher from what they say. And you kind of get disconnected from the media and you get disconnected from just like normal people that are like, wait, that's weird that you said that that's odd, because I can very easily connect the dots to the guys that just left. So let's talk about it, right? And that is the talking point where, okay, so who left Romeo left? Quay left? Rashid left? Kingsley left? They brought Sean Ryan back. So what are we're Sean Gary is got cut. I got traded. Remember, there's a fourth round picture coming in in 2027. Thank you. Oh, God bless to you. It was just so ingrained in my brain that he would get cut. But so yeah, you can look at that and say, well, okay, so what the hell is going on behind the scenes with these guys? And it's not it's not a secret that like the best teams usually have the best chemistry and the best players, right? Green Bay has always had really good players. Talent is not an issue in Green Bay. It's not like say what you want to say about the Packers roster talent is not an issue. But they had they did have issues with finishing games. They did have issues with playing four quarters. A lot of that got pinned on that floor and rightfully so he's the head coach. That's what happens. So it's interesting that he would for two reasons one kind of publicly state that that there was kind of some unrest in the locker room about roles, which side tangent, when people talk about hey, that's a good problem to have. When you have got too much talent at one position, that's a good problem to have. And generally speaking, that's true. But also this is what happens when you have too much talent in one room, guys want to play. Guys want to make money. Guys guys are looking at their contracts and saying, Hey, I'm due for one this off season. Please feature me. So I if it's not here, it's somewhere that I can make money. And I can take care of my family. I can, you know, whatever we would and spoiler, we would all do that. I would do that. I would be very, I'd be very vocal about that. Like, hey, I've got one crack at this thing. I know I'm good. Please feature me. So like that stuff. And and so there is like two sides of it where and I am always team, like I am pro team, get your money, like for players, because it is like when you're 30, like, there are not very many professions in the world where when you're 30 years old, like you're done. And so get as much as you can when you can like, absolutely, I get that. But from a roster building, a team chemistry building, like construction of all that stuff. It can be tough. And I get like, okay, so like, for me, when I hear that, I hear like Matt say that kind of stuff, I hear him talk about that one. There and there's two ways to look at it, right? It's probably true. But like one, him publicly stating that is kind of odd, because like, again, one guy, a lot of head coaches don't say stuff like that, especially guys that have left the building and and Lord willing, those guys have left the building. Like if that's if that's what's going on to be really weird, if you said that about guys that are currently on the roster. But one, that kind of looks like an excuse that you're making. And two, that's kind of your job is to manage that and to figure that out. So to say like, Hey, we're not, you know, we had guys that weren't happy in the rules. And like to match credit, he did follow that up with saying like, we need to do a better job of like, clearly, he also did say he reminds the players often, like it's kind of on them to, to fix it. Right. I remember, I can't remember. I think he was on the show with Ryan Clark, whatever the name of Ryan Clark's podcast is. And he said like, the difference between college and pro and what I tell these guys is there is no portal. So like, if you're not happy with your job, or you know, your role, you're not happy with this, you're not happy with that, it's kind of up to you to change it. Now, that's not all the way true. It's not like fully true that that's the case. Because I mean, there are qualms that we have had, and we've discussed on this show a bunch about guys that weren't playing that should have or you know, just stuff like that. So it is kind of up to the coach to also recognize, Hey, this guy is better than that guy or something to that effect, right? But I thought it was interesting. I do think that, like you said, there's some easy dots to connect. I'm interested, I would like to think that Gudekunst kind of took the slash burn, you know, set it on fire and let it go kind of thing for those players because if they are still here, then that challenge for Matt LaFleur has gotten steeper. You know, because if the teams who win a title, like you mentioned, best players, best chemistry, so you got to have all these guys rowing in one direction, pulling in one direction, whatever analogy it is you want to use, but you cannot have like you can't have you can't be fighting to go for a championship and having a guy worry about his contract or something like that. Now at some point, it's got to be folk and it sounds cliche, but it's true, like you've got to be focused on everybody winning a championship in one moment. You know, teams like that Eagles team two years ago, where AJ Brown is worried about everything about getting the ball more so than maybe winning sometimes that's rare. You know, that happens that does happen. But usually it's the best teams that have all those guys pulling everything together to try and do some of that stuff. So I thought that was interesting. His comments about finishing games and everything I do think that I give LaFleur credit, I guess from the standpoint of he kind of knows the onus is on him. And I would say this, that I know he got a new contract, I would be absolutely floored. If he were one and done with this contract, I think in order for that to happen, the Packers would have to go like six and 11 next season and miss the playoffs with a relatively normal amount of injury luck, you know, like common court can't start eight games. And then you fire the coach, right? Like that's probably not not fair to LaFleur in that case. But if love starts all 17 and they only went six. And you got some of this other stuff like those conversations are just going to get louder. But I think LaFleur knows that. And it's a it's a challenge for him. It's nothing that he hasn't. It's not something he hasn't waited through those waters before. I think that I've said this before on this show, but like, LaFleur's greatest accomplishment, in my opinion, as a coach was always keeping everybody on the same wavelength. When between the Roger's drama once love got drafted, and then the drama once Rogers left. Because I've often said there were people in that locker room, I don't know this, but it just makes sense from a common sense standpoint. There were people in that locker room, who thought Rogers should still be the quarterback when they gave the keys to Jordan luck. It is hard to get everybody pulling that direction when you are three and six and saying like, no, we believe in this guy, this is our guy, we can still do this. And then eventually they did. So I'm interested to see what comes out of this. But I do at least like that there's some self reflection with Matt LaFleur. I think the biggest thing is he's got to kind of just loosen up a little bit. You know, he's so worried about every little given detail. And he always it almost like looks like at times he's trying to say and do the right thing. You know, like the handshake with Ben Johnson, just for example, he's like, no, I like I'll take the I took the high road, we'll see him in two weeks. Okay, like, be willing to punch back, you know, that's kind of my thought with this with this team. So and that leads into the next point. If you've got anything you want else on this, but otherwise we can go to Japan board. We'll be right back. So we'll move on to Japan board and bullet and a story come on our buddy Tyler Dunn published a city wants to be the dagger. Among other things and talked about killer instincts and he says he wants everybody in Green Bay to know that you have to be built through your defense and some interesting stuff in the story. Go check it out. I'm not going to spoil the whole thing. Tyler is certainly worth paying for. If he does one Packer story a year, it's worth the $50 that you have to pay per year. So that's that's kind of my thought. And he does he does more than one packer story per season. That's the other thing to keep in mind. But the Bullard talked about how against Chicago he could see like they were ready to quit or whatever and the Packers just didn't have the killer instinct to finish them off. And now that's like frustrating all over again. Because again, it's 21 to three, it's 28 to nine, like you have opportunities for this team to give up kind of put them out of their misery, so to speak. And they just did not do it. For a bunch of different reasons. You know, and I think again, having Parsons there as your quote unquote closer is certainly something that could help. But at the same time, like or Tucker or talk or somebody like that. But I'm defense, I would just say with Parsons. And I would say I do want to give some caution or debacle. I sure. I don't remember if it was this show or if it was a different one or something. But I talked about how putting it was, it was a different show now, remember, but putting too much on one player's plate. Mike Shyshevsky, when he was the coach at Duke, would talk about like, when his team would like get into a lull or whatever, they would be too busy JJ watching JJ Redick watching or Phil Jackson would say that about like we're too busy Kobe watching instead of playing basketball. And I do want Green Bay's defense to avoid the temptation to just say like, Oh Mike has got us because he does. But you have to be able to make these plays. And other guys are going to have to do it. You know, who is who and when you saw it when Parsons was out of line, if who was the guy that made those plays that really wasn't anybody. So that's something worth worth looking into and everything. It was kind of Edger and Cooper. And then guess what? Ed's got hurt. He got hurt. Yeah. Yeah. And that game. I mean, it is what it is. But like that game did completely change once Cooper was out of line up to like, No one talks about that. But that was and this is way, way off subject. But I think was it Leonard Davis that was just talking last week, who's won? You know, if you don't, is it not Leonard Davis? Who's the Bucks linebacker that just retired Levante David? Levante Davis was an offensive lineman. Close enough. Anyways, was talking about guys that he thinks are just playing really well in the NFL. One of the first guys he said was Edger and Cooper. And I agree. Anyway, sorry, go ahead. Packers not finishing games. Yeah. I mean, that just kind of seems to be the point of emphasis this year. So I do wonder, Jacob Morley, to kind of tie this back into the floor. And I guess we didn't really talk much about the Bullard story. But there was a tweet, and you have several. But there was a tweet that was sent out about Matt LaFleur. And I don't remember who he talked to, but he was talking about Jordan Love. And now he's like, he thinks the sky's the limit for him. You know, as a new he's a husband, he's going to be a father is a father. I apologize, Jordan, I don't remember if he's had his baby or not. But yeah, no, okay, so going into fatherhood, like everything, excuse me, everything that is like happening for love now and your thought was kind of like the guy who's saying this is the one who's kind of holding him back. Yeah, I mean, talked about the sky's the limit talked about like how great he can be and all that stuff. Like, there were other people talking about how Jordan goes needs to go demand a damn football. Because I'm really good said that. Yeah. And Joe Thomas knows a thing or two about about football. So I think with with that, like, it's a really interesting talking point, though, too, because Jordan probably is not as good as he is without Matt LaFleur. But he also is probably holding him back at this point. And so want like, they're not going to get rid of the quarterback. And so it's kind of like goes back to Matt, like, Hey, man, you need to evolve. And that's not even to say he's a bad coach, like that that is on that's just coaching in the NFL, like you constantly have to be evolving. And Matt is at that point in his career where he's been here long enough, can't keep doing the same stuff. You can't keep doing the same car trick. We know the secret. Right. So what's next? And I think Matt knows, like, Hey, he talked about it with a you, the guy that's pulling the trigger, like if you don't have a guy under center that can play like you're not going to be long for this league. Doesn't matter how good of a coach you are. And so with Jordan, I think it's to the point where it's no secret. If Matt had it his way, he would run the ball 50 times and win by three points. Like it seems like that's kind of what he wants to do. And that's why you get into situations where Hey, yeah, it's 21 to three. Buller talked about this where it's like he I mean, he said like Chicago was done playing. They were done. They had they had lost their will to play in that game. And and that that one game sample size is not great either because like they tried to run the ball, they tried to do everything in that second half and none of it works. It couldn't block anybody. Yeah. And which is, you know, Chicago's defense give them all the credit in the world. They played really well. And and that is the point I we've talked about this game before too. But like one of the biggest issues if you will was that Green Bay could not be more conservative against Chicago because they couldn't run it at all. But there are examples and plenty of others. To me, the biggest game when you talk about killer instinct. For me is Dallas last year at Texas Stadium because and some of this is on Jordan Love too. But maybe this is the way there's a bunch of stuff. But you can't put this all on that because that last no, it was just no, that last week was terrible. And like the nonchalant like the phrase Bill Huber used this week. When he was asking like is Jordan Love an elite quarterback is kind of the premise of the story. But he was talking about that Dallas game and he was like the nonchalant approach to that last drive. But some of that is also like on Matt, but it's also on Jordan is saying like, okay, like, this is where the Joe Thomas idea of saying, I demand the football. Give me the ball and let me win or lose the game for you. Basically, that's got to be part of it too. Because like I remember when the Packers came out that first season after they won the Super Bowl and they were 11 personnel and it was no huddle and it was just like playing the game and dictating terms, right? Their own terms, throwing a football all over the lot. Now granted, Jordan Love is not MVP Aaron Rodgers, the receivers they have are not those receivers like all that stuff, you can't quite play that same way. But their two minute drill always looks like and I know this is a silly way to word it, but it content to kick a field goal. Like we get three, like our goal is to get three. And like your goal should be to get seven until you have to settle for three. And on that drive specifically, it almost felt like, hey, we're content to kick a field goal as time expires to make sure Brandon Aubrey cannot beat us. And we've talked about this on the show before too. But like Jordan Love is part of that. To where he knows the offense, he's in total control, he's in total command, okay, then get the guys to the line of scrimmage and snap the football and let's go because the goal here is to win the game. You're playing the worst defense in the NFL. And you're 25 yards away from winning the game, like, go win the game. And, and I think that's something to it too. It's the evolution of the floor is going from Jordan Love being the project quarterback that they took to Jordan Love being a potential star. And I do think he was starting to do that by the end of the year, you know, the play that changed the season, twofold, was 2314, they get a turnover on downs or a pun or something, they get the ball back and they're leaving Denver by nine. And the floor dials up a deep ball. And, you know, and then it's funny because then when he dials up a deep ball, everybody's like, Oh my God, why are you doing that now? Because it got intercepted. And it's just like, that's exactly the way a lot of you guys are asking him to play. Isn't that, isn't that just the story of the Packers 2025 season though? Like everything was right. That's what everyone would have wanted is them to go for the throat, go for the kill. And there's maybe three guys, maybe three guys in the NFL that can make the play that Patrick Zartan made on that ball. And he made it. And just, and it just so happens, I don't know if people notice that was his first interception of the season. And so it's just like, there is a, and this is a cop out loser answer, but that's who I am. So there is a certain level of luck that goes into some of this stuff. And it just seemed like last year, the Packers just did not have that lightning in a bottle that some teams did have. And for whatever reason, and you need it. No, we've talked about this before, like there is some luck that the Packers haven't had, they also need to make their own luck. You know, that's what Sure. Some of the great things Which that's kind of the point though, too, is like you're trying, you're doing that you're throwing a deep ball to your best receiver. And I mean, even just throughout the year, like again, you make your own luck by that game against Chicago, for example, is that Lambeau Field, if you just take care of business against Dallas and Cleveland earlier in the year, and you can have the same crap happening in Chicago late in the year, and it doesn't matter, right? Like, I think we've talked about this ad nausea on this platform, but like, that's the next evolution for Jordan loves Green Bay Packers is when they play a team, especially at home, but when you play a bad team, a bad one, and Cleveland is a bad one. Dallas was a bad one. That has to be money in the bank. Like, not to the point where like, you're nonchalant through the game and like, okay, we can just kind of roll the balls out and win. But like, we're good. We know we're good. We're going to beat your ass. And we know it kind of game at what point, at what point were the Aaron Rogers Packers at that level, where it's like, and they were making a mistake. They were at that level where a team like, or they were they just rolled through people from 2011 forward. Even in 2011, they lost to a terrible cheese team. They did. That is true. But I mean, you're going to have games like that almost every year, obviously, but like, especially like your home game. So the Carolina game in the Philadelphia game, Philadelphia wasn't a terrible team, but Philadelphia played like crap, and they won 10 to seven. Like, that's a game you have to win. Baltimore later in the year, I know Malik will have started but like a game you have to win. These games where they're just kicking away, the lack of better phrasing, those are the games that like, again, like 2014, when Green Bay was at home, they went undefeated at home that year. The only really good team they played at home was New England and they beat them. Everyone else they blew the doors off of. Like Detroit, Philadelphia wasn't that good that year. Carolina was not very good that year. Chicago was awful. They beat them. Like that's the 42 nothing meme that you see on the internet. Now, like, that's kind of the thing. We'll be right back. The Packers draft guide, powered by Packer Report, 225 profiles, all kinds of different stuff that you can get in their features, a bunch of different things that you can get to get you prepped in. If there is ever a year where you need that draft guide, it's this year. The Packers don't have a first round pick. So we are going through. Yes, you'll have to read about, you know, Ruben Bain and David Bailey and some of these top tier players that are going to be nowhere near on the board when the Packers are on the clock. But we have a boatload more guys that will be on the board when the Packers are set to pick. And we will tell you whether or not they have traditionally been a Packers type. So if that's somebody that Green Bay hasn't liked in the past, we will certainly be able to get that to you. But until then, until next time, he's Jacob Morley. I'm Jacob Westorf. I appreciate you guys. We will see you next week.
