Packers OTA Press Conference: McCarthy Talks Jolly, Quarless

After Tuesday's OTA practice, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke to the media to discuss the events of the start of week two of the offseason program.

One of the first topics that came up was the subject of Johnny Jolly's continued absence from the team and its offseason. He was relatively short on the subject, refusing to address it much beyond the following statement:

McCarthy: Johnny Jolly is not here. I'll comment on his situation when he's part of the football team.

— Tyler Dunne (@TyDunne) May 28, 2013

That doesn't sound good. He expanded on Jolly a bit, saying that he was proud of the progress Jolly had made and that he still was going through a process in his return.

McCarthy moved on to discuss the inside linebackers, suggesting that this is a deep group but that the squad in the Super Bowl year of 2010 was the deepest group he had seen. One person he mentioned specifically was Terrell Manning, saying that he's counting on a big jump from the young linebacker this season (MV).

Andrew Quarless was the next topic of discussion, and McCarthy was complimentary of the tight end's progress in his return from injury. Quarless had a big play in practice Tuesday, and McCarthy said that he appears to be past his injury and is in the best shape of his career. This certainly bodes well for the tight end, who will apparently be expected to play both on and off the line of scrimmage this season to maximize favorable matchups. Could this be in preparation for life without Jermichael Finley? We'll know this time next year.

Finally, McCarthy touched on the development of last year's draft class as they move into their second year. He referred to the quantity of snaps they played last season as a positive for the group, which certainly was the case with players like Nick Perry, Casey Hayward, and Jerron McMillian. Hopefully they will all make the second-year improvement that McCarthy expects of them.

The team's practices the rest of this week will be closed, so we will not have a whole lot of information from them. That said, we hope to get some more clarity on Jolly's situation and some more updates as the week goes along.

Packers OTA Notebook: News from 5/28 Practice

Jolly, Shields Remain Absent from OTAs

Packers sign rookie safety Fulton