Podcast: The Packers are changing their identity... will it work?
No beat writer covers the team like Tom Silverstein, so nobody's more equipped to answer this simple question that'll decide the fate of the 2022 Green Bay Packers.
These Green Bay Packers are trying to win a new way in 2022. With defense. With special teams. With more bruises than we’ve seen out this organization in a generation.
We know Kenny Clark isn’t holding back. He sees a path.
But once the Davante Adams-less, MVS-less Packers do take the field this season, what happens? This episode of the Go Long Podcast, I chat with an old friend: Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. We worked together on the Packers beat for five years and, it’s not necessarily close: Nobody covers the team day-to-day quite like “Spoon.”
Great reporter, better human.
On this episode, we discuss…
The beat. How a reporter covering the Packers has changed quite a bit over three decades. One constant remains. Silverstein’s live chats during games are always a war zone.
LeRoy Butler’s Hall of Fame induction. Silverstein calls the safety the smartest player he has ever covered. They’ve also done X-and-O videos together for years at the Journal Sentinel. How exactly did Butler redefine his position? Silverstein supplies a fantastic breakdown to put Butler’s game into perspective. (No, John Lynch wasn’t nearly as talented.)
This seismic shift to defense. It’s a philosophical change we cannot overstate. After yet another playoff loss, the Packers will try to win a field position-, ball control-type of game. Weird to say with a four-time MVP at quarterback, but that’s the reality. The question now is if Aaron Rodgers will buy into this all and stick with the plays head coach Matt LaFleur sends in. He’s got the best 1-2 punch in the NFL at running back behind him.
Who pops at wide receiver? Green Bay will still need someone to emerge from the pack. We know rookie Romeo Doubs has been the darling of camp and Juwann Winfree has called his shot on this podcast. Silverstein, however, brings up a different name.
The time we almost died on the beat. Really.
As always you can listen to the Go Long Podcast in the Apple and Spotify podcast feeds (links below) or the audio/video embeds right here at Go Long.
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And i would love to see them get rid of Randall Cobb and Sammy Watkins both way past their primes to make way for youngsters like Danny Davis and Samori Toure but they won’t dare for fear of offending Rodgers
To me, Bakhtiari was too injury prone before the ACL. Now he’s 30 and at a crossroads. I had the same feeling about Davante Adams and to me dealing him for two 1st’s and leaning towards defense is what actually gives them a chance this year. I predict Adams will get hurt ala Bakhtiari and the Packers will benefit greatly at the Raiders expense. I understand why GB paid #69 the moon to stay, but i didn’t like it at the time and I’ve hated it for two straight postseasons. His injury was non-contact during practice; how is it going to hold up for 17 games plus (hopefully) a post-season including games on artificial turf like at Minnesota and Detroit and at Buffalo?