Throughout the first week or so of Green Bay Packers training camp, the defense has been flexing its muscles in competitions against the offense. It should come as little surprise that the defense has been dominating such scenarios as two-minute drills and red zone plays as they are way ahead of the offense.
Green Bay’s defense has eight first-round picks that will be taking the field when healthy and don’t have the same inexperience concerns that the offense does. So, when they won the first six competitions, leading to the offensive players and coaches having to do up-downs and push-ups, it wasn’t all too surprising.
Alas, the defense’s time in the winner’s circle came to an end on Thursday. The Packers’ offense finally broke through, winning their first competition of training camp. Trash talk during it got very heated, as cornerback Rasul Douglas used some very colorful language while making some plays on the field.
But, running back Aaron Jones wasn’t afraid to dish it back to him. After practice, he spoke to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic about the trash-talking that Douglas was doing and the exchange that the two had on the field.
“So at first, I had to give it back to him because he was like, ‘You guys suck,’ blah, blah, blah, ‘(Head coach Matt LaFleur’s) not helping,’ ‘You guys can’t get anything,’” Jones said after Thursday’s scorching-hot practice. “I said, ‘Hey, we won the competition, though.’ I just had to remind him because we’ve been doing up-downs and push-ups the whole camp, so I’m like, ‘Hey, we won the competition today’ and then after I’m like, ‘Hey, bro, we all teammates. We gotta pump some of these guys up,’ so just trying to give him a friendly reminder.”
The Packers’ offense has been struggling to move the ball against the defense at times during practice. When they have found success, it has been undone by the struggles of kicker Anders Carlson, who has a strong leg but is struggling with accuracy.
The play that led to the Packers’ offense finally breaking through on Thursday afternoon? A 38-yard touchdown run by Tyler Goodson, who is looking to make the roster as the No. 3 running back behind Jones and AJ Dillon.
“When Goody scored, I was definitely on their sideline,” Jones said. “I’m on their sideline talking trash now, like, ‘Hold up, Matt didn’t help us, did he? He didn’t help us with that, huh? It’s a lot different when you get those pads on and you gotta tackle!’ Giving it back to him, all in friendly competition, but I love that Sul brings that because him and Preston (Smith) — Preston is the same way — they’re gonna make you bring it, like every day. Like you line up and he’s like, ‘Hey, you practicing today? You still haven’t done anything.’”
While things get heated during the tackling portion of practice, Douglas is a veteran and knows that it is all about the team. In the post-practice huddle, he could be seen dapping up the Packers’ offensive players despite moments earlier saying some wild things to and about them.
Jones may have felt that Douglas crossed a line and stepped up for his teammates. But, at the end of the day, Jones knows that Douglas will be there for the team.
“He knows it’s all about the team,” Jones said of Douglas. “And that’s one thing — we know it gets heated, but even when we bring it in, Matt will be like, ‘All right, dap it up, shake it up.’ We’re all on the same team, so it’s good battle and then when we get in here we’re all brothers, but as soon as we step back through that line, everybody remembers what those guys were saying yesterday, so it’s a good battle.”
