GREEN BAY — At the Green Bay Packers Family Night on Friday there were a couple of standouts on the offensive side of the ball and a defense that continues to look impressive.
“Certainly we need to get in better shape, that’s the one thing that kind of stood out to me,” said head coach Matt LaFleur. “It looked like there were a couple guys dragging. Whether we have to do more conditioning or whatever it may be, we definitely are not where we need to be right now as far as overall conditioning.”
Everyone is wondering who will step in the wide receiver room. On Friday night, it was two rookies who shined. Fourth rounder Romeo Doubs continues to impress, but seventh round rookie Samori Toure who had a quiet camp leading up to Family Night had some great catches as well.
“I'm just trying to go out there and do what I'm supposed to do,” Toure said. “It's kind of something I expect from myself. that’s what we’re supposed to do as receivers is just make plays when the ball comes our way and that’s what I try to do.”
“He's done some nice things,” LaFleur said. “I think he’s got really nice body control, body movement. He's a smart kid that really works at it. Really, all the rookies have done an outstanding job in the receiving room. You got to give (WR coach) Jason Vrable as well the veterans for taking them under their wing, doing a great job with those guys.”
Backup quarterback Jordan Love continued to build off one his best weeks as a packer, receiving some praise from his head coach. One of his best plays was a 54-yard touchdown pass to Toure while he was under pressure.
“It definitely feels good to have the head man give me praise like that, so it’s awesome,” Love said. “Going from there, gotta keep trying to build, stack those days. that’s the mark now, got to keep going higher and higher.”
But, LaFleur said let’s see what love has got the real action begins for the preseason games.
“Certainly it’s been promising,” said the head coach. “He's done a nice job and he did it again tonight. Jordan has shown a lot of growth in my eyes.”
And after Aaron Rodgers said it’s 1-0 offense after the first day of practice, the defense continues to shine in practice., which can only make the offense better.
“It's a double edged sword. I hope that our defense is really stout. They’re going to be really tough to deal with. I think the one area that we have to improve in is the consistency up front.”
