Packers Minicamp Practice Notebook 6/17: Sitton and Matthews Sit, Harris Returns Kicks

The Green Bay Packers took the practice field in the early afternoon on Tuesday as the team kicked off its three-day mandatory minicamp. To nobody's surprise, there were no players skipping the minicamp, though a few big names continued to sit out due to injury reasons.

Since APC could not be in attendance at practice today, here are some of the big stories from today's practice as gathered from the Packers' beat writers on Twitter.

• The non-participants were the following: Clay Matthews, Nick Perry, Jerel Worthy, Jumal Rolle, Andrew Quarless, Josh Sitton, Johnathan Franklin, and Chris Harper (WH). However, Matthews did join the pass-rushing drills late in practice (RD).
• Don Barclay filled in for Sitton at left guard with the starters (JW). It appears he is currently the primary backup at both guard positions as well as right tackle. Speculation is that Sitton is just resting his back, which has been an issue and kept him out of OTA practice at least once during an open session over the past few weeks.
• In a bit of a surprise, Jamari Lattimore was lining up with the first-team defense instead of Brad Jones (PI). They began the session in the nickel package with Casey Hayward in the slot and Micah Hyde at free safety (WH).
• Hayward made a splash play early on with an interception off a Matt Flynn pass intended for Richard Rodgers (TD).
• At one point in team drills, Colt Lyerla was interfered with by Jarrett Bush on a deep pass after Aaron Rodgers got a free play on an offsides call (JW).
• DuJuan Harris was the first player to return kickoffs today (RD).
• It was a good day for the receivers overall, as each of Randall Cobb, Myles White, Jared Abbrederis, Jeff Janis, and even tight end Justin Perillo had notable catches during the session.

Thanks to the following beat writers for their reports from today's practice:

JW: Jason Wilde, ESPN Wisconsin
RD: Rob Demovsky, ESPN
TD: Tyler Dunne, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
WH: Wes Hodkiewicz, Green Bay Press-Gazette
PI: Paul Imig, FOX Sports Wisconsin