How this two-play sequence showed what Packers training camp is all about

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Training camp is about Jordan Love and Tucker Kraft and Xavier McKinney, sure, but it’s also about guys you barely know trying to make a name for themselves.

Guys who have a slim chance at the 53-man roster, maybe making decisions difficult for general manager Brian Gutekunst come roster cutdown day. Guys who have no chance at the 53 fighting tooth and nail for one of 16 practice-squad spots in what might be their last time ever playing competitive football after devoting their lives to the sport and getting a shot in the NFL.

Take wide receiver Will Sheppard, for example. A 2025 undrafted free agent who played for Deion Sanders at Colorado, Sheppard didn’t play a single snap last season. He spent most of last season on Green Bay’s practice squad and this year is probably ninth on the depth chart out of 10 wide receivers. Who knows if Sheppard will get another shot after the Packers likely waive him later this summer?

But the beauty of football lies in a two-play sequence late in Monday’s practice at Ray Nitschke Field. It was the first day of pads and third-year safety Mark Perry, himself fighting for a practice-squad spot, lit Sheppard up on a play over the middle. Sheppard stayed down for a couple of seconds and later said he got the wind knocked out of him. There were shouts from multiple people on the field for Sheppard to get up.

He missed one play and reentered. The second-team offense faced a third-and-15 from its own 24-yard line during a two-minute drill. They trailed 28-26 with no timeouts remaining and time dwindling. You know what happened on Sheppard’s first play back in a got-to-have-it moment? He beat Perry, the same safety who knocked the wind out of him, for a 61-yard gain deep down the middle. Backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor put a perfect spiral on Sheppard, who tracked the ball well after running a field post route and made a falling catch.

He was quick to get up this time before Taylor spiked the ball with three seconds remaining and rookie kicker Trey Smack hit a 33-yard field goal for the win. It’s plays like that coaches will notice.

“Tyrod basically, out the huddle, just said, ‘Ay, make sure you run,’” Sheppard said after practice. “And that’s exactly what I did. I just ran and got it … It’s what we paid to do. Come out here, get hit, get knocked down, just get back up, next-play mentality. So that’s kinda how I go about my day every day.”

“Sometimes in a two-minute drill, last period, sometimes the fatigue can get a hold of your mindset, so it’s a reminder that, ‘Hey, this post is live if we get the right look,’” Taylor said. “Sure enough, the corner tried to not necessarily cheat it, but tried to mirror to that side, but the angle that he took, from my perspective, I thought he had a chance to outrun the safety. So I gave him a chance and he went and made a play. He did a great job of tracking it.”

Here’s everything else notable that happened on Day 5 of Packers training camp.

1. Head coach Matt LaFleur said recently this is the most excited he’s been for a team in his eight seasons at the helm. There’s one thing he’s not excited about, however. In fact, he feels quite the opposite, and he made it clear at his daily pre-practice press conference on Monday. Edge rushers were finally allowed to bull rush offensive linemen with the pads going on, but LaFleur added a caveat.

“They got to be smart, too,” he said. “If they get a guy on their heels and you’re going into the lap of the quarterback, that’s the one thing that I’ve been probably most disappointed with is how many guys we’ve had in the quarterback’s lap. It doesn’t take a lot. I mean, you see it all the time — guys hitting their hand, throwing their hand on a guy’s helmet and that’s not good for anybody. So that was definitely stressed this morning. We had a couple instances yesterday in practice … like, just veer off. You can’t get close to them. There’s going to be a time and a place for that, and that’ll be in our first preseason game.”

2. There were three new injuries to report on Monday. Starting outside cornerback Carrington Valentine missed practice with a hamstring injury after dropping out of Sunday’s session. That cleared the way for rookie second-round pick Brandon Cisse to run with the first-team defense again alongside fellow South Carolina Gamecock alum Keisean Nixon. During the first 11-on-11 period of practice, Cisse might’ve had two sacks if he was allowed to hit the quarterback.

The Packers’ tight end room also keeps taking hits. Luke Musgrave remains sidelined with a neck injury that carries an unknown severity, and undrafted rookie R.J. Maryland missed the entirety of Monday’s practice with a hamstring injury. Tight end Luke Lachey was seen using a scooter to get around the facility after practice with his left leg propped up.

3. Smack had his busiest day of camp so far. Through five practices, Smack has only done live kicking with the snap, hold and modified field-goal rush twice. On Sunday, he went 3-for-5. On Monday, he went 5-for-8 with makes from 33, 40, 43, 48 and 51 yards and misses wide right from 33 (barely) and 55 (by a mile) and from 52 off the left upright. That brings his camp total to 8-for-13. LaFleur said recently that he’s learned from two separate experiences with rookie kicker Anders Carlson and Brayden Narveson to have patience through the inevitable rocky roads. Smack might be testing LaFleur’s patience yet again if his early miscues continue.

“I thought I hit the ball well. Those mis-hits, those are just mis-hits that happen,” Smack said. “Kind of just act the same every day, really. You hit the ball well, it should be just as even-keel as you hit the ball like s–t. Sorry, excuse my language.”

4. Quarterback controversy in Green Bay? Joking, but Taylor’s deep balls had markedly more success than Love’s on Monday and not entirely because of Love’s own shortcomings. Love led wide receiver Jayden Reed too far over the middle and McKinney made a diving interception. In the same period, Taylor dropped one in a bucket to wideout Bo Melton for about a 30-yard gain down the right sideline, as Melton made a great over-the-shoulder grab with defensive back Jaylin Simpson in coverage.

Love also uncorked a bomb down the middle intended for wide receiver Christian Watson that was wobbly but fell right into Watson’s hands, but he couldn’t corral the ball with Cisse and safety Evan Williams helping force the incompletion. Love and Watson also couldn’t connect on a deep ball down the right sideline during the two-minute drill. In that same period, Taylor hit Sheppard on the aforementioned moon ball.

Tyrod Taylor is entering his 16th NFL season, his first with the Packers. (Tork Mason / Imagn Images)

5. The Packers’ defense is causing havoc in the backfield, and it’s not all from edge rushers. That’s fitting since new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon might have to drum up unconventional ways to generate pressure until Micah Parsons returns and allows the Packers to rush a traditional four more often. Cornerbacks like Cisse, Nixon and Benjamin St-Juste have been in the quarterback’s face. Nickel Jonathan Baldwin has been in the backfield a couple times. Lukas Van Ness continued his strong start to camp on Monday by breezing past right tackle Darian Kinnard for a sack. Rookie edge Dani Dennis-Sutton, linebacker Nick Neimann, edge Barryn Sorrell and Perry each blew up plays in the backfield on Monday, too.

During the starters’ two-minute drill alone, Williams, defensive tackle Karl Brooks and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper all pressured Love.

“With Matt (LaFleur), during the heat of the battle, he likes to keep things moving,” Williams said. “He likes to keep it competitive, put us in situations that he knows we’re going to see, so sometimes he won’t call those sacks. In film review, sometimes he doesn’t acknowledge and we, as defenders, we’re all seeking a little validation, like maybe it should’ve been second and 20 there. But yes, I think there were more than a couple sacks during that last period.”

6. If you read Sunday’s camp report, you’d remember that defensive tackle Anthony Campbell had three batted passes in his last two practices. Well, guess what? He added another PBU on Monday to make it four in his last three. The 2025 undrafted free agent out of Miami who had one pass breakup in his final college season and only joined the Packers as a reserve/future signing in January continues to make plays. Special teams coordinator Cam Achord is salivating to get him on the field-goal block team (probably). Undrafted rookie linebacker TJ Quinn also helped himself Monday with a third-down interception of undrafted rookie quarterback Kyron Drones to end the threes’ two-minute drill.