GREEN BAY – The Packers' three coordinators spoke with the media on Thursday. Here's a summary of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On kicker Mason Crosby:
Obviously Mason's got a lot of skins racked on the wall, and he's done a great job through rehab. He hasn't gone anywhere, he's been here through weekends and all those things to get himself ready, and the last 10 days he's kind of pushed himself to a position where we'll see what the week looks like at the end. But I thought he had a good day yesterday and we're excited to see what tomorrow brings.
On long snapper Jack Coco:
We've put him under a lot of stress. We put him under a lot of stress yesterday and we put him under a lot of stress today and every day that he's been with us. And he's earned the opportunity to compete and play. Again, anytime you have a rookie at any position, there's going to be bumps in the road. But I think in the practices that we've had in full pads and the way in which he competed in preseason games and the way in which he competed yesterday and today, he's earned the right to try and improve every day and I think he's earned some of the respect from his teammates as well.
On the personnel process in preseason:
I don't want to over-glorify when we make a really good play and I don't want to over-analyze a poor play. We want to look at them to some degree both the same. We tried to play a lot of people in a lot of situations … one week a guy played one position, the next week in the preseason he played a totally different side and totally different position. So, we tried to give them an opportunity to go out there and perform and compete and play and I think we have a lot of film on the players we have in our building. But I do think it's going to be an ongoing process, especially talking to Gutey all the time, we're always looking. Right? We're always looking.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On his preference to be on the field rather than in the coaches' box on gameday:
When you're coaching, you're on the field, you're seeing the game from that lens, so that's just where I'm most comfortable. And then also, I think it's better to have that open line of communication with the players. Being on the sideline, I feel like you can do a lot more talking to coaches, talking to players, than up in the box. That's why I like to be on the field.
On Jake Hanson's progress:
I think he's really just grown and been a lot more physical. He's excelled in the run game and then pass protection was the thing that he always needed to work on. I think he's really taken that to heart the last year or so, and it's really improved a lot. I'm excited about him.
On Robert Tonyan:
I think he's going to be as big a part of this as anybody in our offense as far as the passing game's concerned. He's a threat. He does a great job. He's a really good route-runner, got great hands and really understands the nuances to getting open vs. certain coverages. I'm excited for him. We'll see how it goes but I think he's going to have a good year.
On David Bakhtiari returning to his old form:
You don't want to go in there and say, 'Hey, when you get back out there, you better be back at how you were playing in 2020 before you got hurt.' I want him, when he gets out there, just be a great leader, have great energy and do the little things – the finishing of your blocks, good communication, all that stuff. He'll get to that level. He'll get back there, I have no doubt about that. Same with Elgton Jenkins. It's just a matter of them getting out there, getting in the groove and, 10 weeks from now, hopefully we see that progress.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On all the unknowns in Week 1:
Every week it's not so much about them, it's about us. It's about us playing one call at a time. It's about us doing our job, playing with the technique, playing with the fundamentals per call that we're in and if we go out and do that, big picture it doesn't matter what they do; it's about what we do, and that's the thing that we try to preach all the time with playing with maximum effort and playing with maximum speed and playing physical and worrying about what we do not so much what they do.
On Vikings WR Justin Jefferson:
I think what makes him special is he has it all – he has size, he has speed … he can play the X receiver on the single side, he can play the Z receiver on the multiple receiver side, he can go in and play the slot position or the F position. They move him all over the place. They'll give him fly sweeps, they'll put him in the backfield and run option routes like a running back does. He's a do-it-all receiver. He can break you off inside on option routes as a slot receiver, he can line up and run past you on a go ball. He can do a lot of things really well.
On Rasul Douglas playing the slot:
We deploy a lot of different people at the nickel position. So Rasul will be in there, Darnell Savage has had three really good days of practice. He missed some time the last several weeks but in training camp before he hurt his hamstring, he was playing quite a bit of nickel. Jaire Alexander will go in there, Keisean Nixon will go in there. I think we have the ability to put a number of different people and body types and different kinds of corners in there at the nickel position. But specifically, Rasul's had a great camp. He's such a special guy and special player, and he's really playing well right now.
On how much pressure to dial up:
The question always is can you produce pressure, can you produce sacks, can you harass the quarterback with a four-man rush. And thankfully we're in a situation here where I think our front is pretty special. We've got five inside players that are really, really good, and Preston Smith and Rashan Gary are playing really, really well right now. Of course, pressure is great, five-man pressure, six-man pressure, but there's nothing better than being able to play great coverage with seven people and you harass the hell out of the quarterback with a four-man rush, so that's the perfect world.
