Packers practice news and notes, 7/26: Recapping Day 1 of training camp

On the morning of the Green Bay Packers’ first training camp practice, the team made a few shuffles to their roster. First, receiver Jeff Cotton — who spent time on the Packers’ practice squad in 2022 — was released, despite being labeled as physically unable to perform. The assumption is that Cotton agreed to some form of injury settlement with the Packers, who signed receiver Cody Chrest out of Sam Houston State by way of Harvard on Tuesday.

Green Bay also activated tight end Camren McDonald off of the non-football injury list, allowing him to practice on Wednesday. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Ryan Wood, that activation left just the following players sidelined: receiver Grant DuBose (back, NFI), tackle Caleb Jones (illness), outside linebacker Rashan Gary (ACL, PUP), inside linebacker Tariq Carpenter (illness, NFI), cornerback Eric Stokes (foot, PUP) and safety Tarvarius Moore (illness, NFI).

Now that roll call is out of the way, let’s get into what happened on the practice field during the first day of camp.

Offense

The starting offense today, according to Pack-A-Day Podcast’s Andy Herman, featured the Packers in a 12-personnel look with two receivers, two tight ends and one back on the field. The two receivers were the usual suspects in Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, but third-round rookie tight end Tucker Kraft hasn’t managed to pass up veteran Josiah Deguara and second-rounder Luke Musgrave on the depth chart just yet.

On the offensive line, the starters (left to right) were David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, Josh Myers, Jon Runyan Jr. and Zach Tom. What’s interesting here is that Tom played every single first-team snap at right tackle today with Yosh Nijman, last year’s starting right tackle, subbing in at left tackle for Bakhtiari.

If you thought that the injury watch for Bakhtiari ended after last year, you’re unfortunately mistaken. Earlier on Wednesday, head coach Matt LaFleur stated that Bakhtiari would be on a “modified” practice schedule during training camp and that the left tackle would be “very limited” if he did suit up for Green Bay’s second practice of camp on Thursday.

Tom also got a few looks as a third-string center, according to Packers.com’s Wes Hodkiewicz, behind Myers and Jake Hanson, who was recently activated off the physically unable to perform list.

In the passing game, the defense stole the show today — which led to post-practice pushups for the offensive side of the ball. The connection everyone in attendance raved about was between new starting quarterback Jordan Love and second-year receiver Romeo Doubs, similar to last summer. Per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Love was 7-of-14 today, in part due to strong winds.

Defense

Defensively, the team came out in a base 3-4 front that featured Devonte Wyatt, Kenny Clark and TJ Slaton on the defensive line, Preston Smith and Justin Hollins on the edges, Quay Walker and De’Vondre Campbell at inside linebacker, Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas at cornerback and Darnell Savage and Rudy Ford at safety. For what it’s worth, return man Keisean Nixon was the team’s starting slot when the Packers dropped down to nickel personnel, which should be the norm until Eric Stokes returns to the field.

With Rashan Gary still on the PUP list for an ACL tear, Hollins got the nod on the edge over first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, which is probably the biggest surprise out of the starters. In other news on the line of scrimmage, Jonathan Garvin, who spent the last three seasons at outside linebacker, began to work with the interior defensive linemen on Wednesday. Currently, Garvin is listed at 6’4” and 257 pounds, which is well below the average weight at the position. It will be interesting to see if Green Bay plans on playing Garvin on the interior exclusively this summer. Garvin is a bit of an unknown going into the 2023 season, as he did not report for voluntary OTAs and actually was excused for a portion of mandatory minicamp.

Special Teams

According to Sports Illustrated’s Bill Huber, rookie kicker Anders Carlson was two-of-three in practice today after a strong minicamp. He missed from 44 but made kicks of 42 and 40 yards.