Packers OTA Practice Recap, June 10: Defense misses several key players

The Green Bay Packers took the field for their third public practice of the 2015 offseason on Wednesday. However, the team did not do so in full, as several key players on defense were not in attendance.

Casey Hayward was stretching with the team, but he did not practice as he works through a foot injury. As reported previously, he expects to be fine for the start of training camp in late July. He was hardly the only player missing, though. Here's the full non-participant list from Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

OTA attendance not here/practicing: Shields Perry Peppers Perillo (here, not participating Montgomery Boyd Neal Coxson Hayward (here, NP)

— Pete Dougherty (@PeteDougherty) June 10, 2015

(For the record, Pete confirmed that it was Mike Neal who was missing, not Rajion Neal.)

Yes, that makes six players on the defensive two-deep roster who were not present - three outside linebackers, the top two corners, and a defensive lineman.

One of the Stanford rookies, James Vaughters, was at practice, but Ty Montgomery was not. This may be due to Vaughters having a class/exam schedule that ends before Montgomery's.

Clay Matthews was working with the outside linebackers in individual drills, not the inside linebackers. Likewise, he was playing outside linebacker, but was doing so in This probably means nothing, as he still is likely to see action at both positions.

With both Hayward and Sam Shields not participating, rookies Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins took some first-team reps at cornerback. According to Tyler Dunne of the Journal-Sentinel, Randall was split wide with Demetri Goodson while Rollins manned the slot.

Switching gears over to the offense, Jordy Nelson did his first serious work of the offseason by performing individual drills, a step up for him after doing little to nothing the previous few weeks. Jared Abbrederis also had a higher workload this week, as he was participating in team drills for the first time this spring. He also continued taking punts during special teams drills.

We'll have more from Mike McCarthy's press conference this afternoon.

As always, our thanks go out to the beat reporters who covered practice, including the following:
Rob Demovsky (ESPN)
Pete Dougherty (Green Bay Press-Gazette)
Tyler Dunne (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Wes Hodkiewicz (GBPG)
Dan Koob (WGBA-TV)
Lori Nickel (MJS)
Jason Wilde (ESPN Wisconsin)
Ryan Wood (GBPG)