Cheese Curds, 8/24: National media still high on the Packers

Training camp creates a pretty insular atmosphere. That’s by design; teams want to hole up and figure out their own stuff before turning to the grind of the defense. As fans, it’s easy (and maybe correct!) to get sucked into that perspective, sorting through practice reps and 53-man roster projections that entirely focus on the team we follow.

But sooner or later, the regular season arrives, and suddenly everybody’s got takes about the team you’ve been watching through a microscope for the last month.

Today, we’ve got a couple good examples of those takes. ESPN dropped a substantive power ranking (which, as far as those go, seems pretty solid) and The Athletic’s annual agent survey offers some unique non-Packers insight into the team’s inner workings.

Sure, national reporting isn’t always as in-depth or detailed as local stuff, but different perspectives can be valuable, and we’re about to get an influx of a bunch more as the regular season looms.

NFL Power Rankings 2021: Preseason 1-32 poll, plus players, coaches, general managers on hot seat | ESPN

The Packers are highly ranked, but on the hot seat...Aaron Rodgers?

NFL agent survey: 33 reps on Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, QB power and the most trustworthy GMs | The Athletic ($)

The agent perspective is both biased and worthwhile, because it’s a section of the NFL world we don’t hear from very often. Agents very clearly speak to their own interests in this piece, but getting their perspective paints a slightly different picture from the normal league-wide party line on some things.

‘Top 100 players of 2021’: Jaire Alexander among five biggest snubs from top 10 | NFL.com

I don’t know how many of even the staunchest Packers fans would put Alexander among the NFL’s ten best players, but it says something that at least one talking head out there thought he was a snub.

Packers rookie D-lineman T.J. Slaton has ‘a lot of tools’ | Packers.com

Slaton might be the best marriage of talent and opportunity in the Packers’ 2021 draft class. The Packers have a serious need for help on the defensive line, and Slaton has the athletic gifts to make the most of that opportunity.

The Packers plan a free Titletown District watch party for the season opener against the Saints | PackersNews.com

Need a place to watch the Packers take on the Saints in Week 1? If you’re in and around Green Bay or willing to make the trip, the Packers will help you out with that.

Washington engineer’s robot beetle earns Guinness World Record | UPI

File this under “hey, that’s pretty neat.” An engineer has built a robot the size of three grains of rice that runs on ethanol. He calls it the “Robeetle.”