Green Bay Packers Training Camp: Practice Notes 8/19

As you probably heard by now, Greg Jennings and Jermichael Finley made their returns to practice on Sunday. However, they weren't the only injured Packers to return to full speed over the weekend.

• Sam Shields was back in pads as well, after being out for over a week with his elbow injury (WH). John Kuhn also returned from his ankle injury (WH).
• With James Starks, Brandon Saine, and Du'ane Bennett still out, Cedric Benson suited up in pads (TD) and got a number of snaps with the first team offense. Alex Green got the first reps though (RD).
• Jarrett Bush got the first round of snaps with the starters at right cornerback, ahead of Casey Hayward and Shields. This was the case in both the base (TS) and nickel packages (RD). However, Shields got reps ahead of Hayward in the dime package (TD). Bush did have a nice stretch late in practice, breaking up two passes thrown by Harrell just a few plays apart (WH).
• Both Green and Benson made receptions in team drills. Benson caught a screen pass that went for solid yardage (TS), while Green scored a touchdown on one of his receptions (TD).
• Graham Harrell still shows flashes of his potential and ability. He delivered a strike to D.J. Williams against the number one defense, with D.J. Smith and Morgan Burnett in coverage (TS, TD). He also had a very good deep ball to Tori Gurley off play-action (TD). Now he just needs to translate that onto the field in game action.
• Lightning sent the Packers inside about halfway through practice. The team was outside through some heavy rains, but didn't choose to head inside until the thunder and lightning started.
• D.J. Smith made multiple good plays in coverage, first breaking up a pass intended for the much taller Finley (JW), then tipping another pass that was intercepted by Hayward (WH).
• Ball security remains an issue. Green had two early fumbles in ball security drills (TD), while Marc Tyler recovered his own fumble in team drills (MV). Then Tom Crabtree dropped a low but catchable pass from Aaron Rodgers (TD).
• The other tight ends are looking sharp, however. Multiple reporters commented on how D.J. Williams is catching everything near him, and Finley had a great catch and run for over 50 yards (MV).
• There was one big fight among the linemen on Sunday, with Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, and Lawrence Guy as the main culprits (TS, MV).

It's highly encouraging that the injured Packers starters are returning to the field, especially when so many come back at once. Now the offense just needs to work on their timing, while Shields needs to put together a solid two weeks of practice to re-establish himself and his role on the defense. PA will have more on Sunday's practice later this morning.

As always, my thanks to the Twitterati reporting from camp:

RD: Rob Demovsky
MV: Mike Vandermause
JW: Jason Wilde
TS: Tom Silverstein
WH: Wes Hodkiewicz
TD: Tyler Dunne
PD: Pete Dougherty
BC: Brian Carriveau
Pack: Packers.com

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