Mike McCarthy Press Conference: Packers coach discusses first practice, Trevor Davis, and Datone Jones

On Wednesday morning, Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy addressed the media prior to the team’s morning practice to discuss the first day of work and some of his impressions on a few of the team’s new players.

McCarthy began holding his pressers before practice last summer, and appears poised to do so this year in training camp as well. That means that moving forward, we will likely have to wait until the next day for his reactions to each practice session. This morning, McCarthy talked about the general impressions from the team’s first day, which he described as being both productive and sloppy.

McCarthy also broke down rookie wideout Trevor Davis’ big day on Tuesday and talked at length about the transition that fourth-year player Datone Jones is making from defensive line to the elephant position, which results in him meeting with the linebackers instead of the linemen.

Here is a selection of McCarthy’s comments from this morning.

• Day one, practice I don’t want to say it’s a typical day one. The positives were there was a lot of production. The offense I think had 19 big plays, but the penalties were way too high. We were at double-digit penalties thrown ... we had 13 pre-snap penalties and that’s outrageous ... that’s why you have training camp.
• Lot of good things. Lot of good things on defense and special teams.
• I was talking to Clay Matthews, we were just kind of talking about how fast time has gone and the different things that he’s accomplished in his career and his personal life and all the things he’s blessed with.
• Really, you look at the big plays Trevor (Davis) made yesterday it falls in line with the overall performance of the practice. Really productive, you see the big plays, but it’s the details, the little things, the fundamentals, the discipline ... he has shown that he can make big plays but you want to see him do the little things.
• I think (the safety/linebacker hybrid) is a primary position in the National Football League. I’ve talked about the importance of attacking the middle of the field but also defending it. I think you have to have as many hybrid players that are big enough to play run defense in there but also super athletic to handle the players that are attacking the middle of the field. I think it’s a position or a body type that you can’t have enough of.
• Datone (Jones) has really going to build off what he accomplished last year. He did it in small doses and we made it permanent late in the season ... he’s earned more opportunities. Playing the 9-technique, the 7, the 6, and the 5, and go in there and play the 3 in situational defense, it definitely fits his game and I thought he was very productive doing that in the second half of the season.
• The snap projection (for Julius Peppers) is something that will come out of training camp. Datone is definitely someone who will play more.
• (Brett Hundley) is going to have more opportunities. The fifth preseason game, nobody’s going to benefit from that more than Brett Hundley. We want to see Brett play as much as we can ... there are a couple more practices, those will push his numbers up ... but we are conscious of how much Aaron (Rodgers) is throwing the ball.
• With Jared Cook being out there in the spring, he’s definitely everything we thought he’d be. He’s a big, strong, athletic tight end who can play on the line, off the line. Definitely attacks the middle of the field, which is something of a priority for us as we move into the season. He looks very comfortable, he’s doing very well according to the medical report.