00:00:06
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my trusted colleague, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie Sportsbook studio inside the walls of Lambeau Field. And Wes, week one, it's finally here.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: It is, man. Doesn't feel like it's been six weeks of training camp and just working 80 hours every week. But we made it. We made it.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: We got here.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: No, I mean, this is what it's about, dude. And the fact that it ends up being the Minnesota Vikings right off the bat. You were with Matt LaFleur during his press conference. I was kind of moseying my way around the locker room. And the energy is different. You can feel it's different among players and Whether it was talking to Marshawn Lloyd, a guy that's been waiting and champing at the bid here to get this opportunity to finally play. Brandon Cisse, who's put in now at this point five months of work, even more than that if you want to go back to the pre-combine stuff. Sure. He's ready to get out there and do this thing. Christian Watson had mentioned even this is the first time, the best he's felt going into a season. He's had a hamstring injury before. There were two times where he didn't have much of a training camp. He's feeling great. So it just shows you that whether it's mentally, physically, emotionally, guys are ready to go. And certainly come 325 p.m. Central Time in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium, Packers are going to be playing to win a football game.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about the Minnesota Vikings this week, one opponent. And you know me, I don't like to oversimplify things. But at the risk of oversimplification... When I look at the 2026 Vikings, I see a team that is almost identical to the 2025 Vikings, except they have a new quarterback. It feels like the only significant change to talk about with Minnesota from last year to this year is that Kyler Murray is now QB1.
00:02:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's trying to figure out– I wrote this in Inbox. I think it was last week or the week before.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: It all runs together after a while.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's going to be two things at play here. And if in that way, I put this was if either one of them is not true, the Vikings may be in some trouble, especially considering how battle tested, how durable, how deep this NFC North is with Detroit, Chicago and Green Bay also in there. Either A, you know, Kyler Murray needs to revert to form and be the kind of dynamic quarterback he was early on during his career or Obviously, injuries have played a role in that. I think some degradation of the roster in Arizona, I think, had a role in that. There's a lot of different things that happened that led to his departure and, unfortunately, also Jonathan Gannon's departure from the Cardinals. So that's one piece of it. Can he recapture the magic? The other one is, can the Vikings... basically run it back with virtually the same roster that was already getting a little bit older in trying it again, but this time having what maybe a lot of people considered to be the missing piece last year in a little bit more stability at quarterback. I'm very interested. If both of those things line up, the Vikings could be a team to be feared this season. I think there's a lot to like there about their roster. If either of those is not true, I think it could be a long season for Minnesota.
00:03:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've laid out the scenarios perfectly there because this is a Vikings team that won five consecutive games. Now, granted, the Packers rested all their guys in Week 18 last year, but they won five consecutive games to conclude last season. And finish nine and eight, finish with a winning record, despite all of the quarterback problems and questions and uncertainty and everything that surrounded that position, whether it was J.J. McCarthy or Carson Wentz and the injuries and all of it.
00:04:06
Speaker 2: But.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: As you said, it's now another year later, and all these veterans on the Vikings roster didn't get any younger. They all got a year older. So what does that mean when you're coming off of what was sort of a momentum-building thing over the last month and a half of last season? What can carry over to this season? Offensively? I mean, we know what they have. They have Aaron Jones in the backfield. They have Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison at wide receiver. They have TJ Hawkinson at tight end. These are the guys that have been carrying the load offensively for Minnesota for the last couple of years. In the case of Justin Jefferson, a handful of years now at the top of his game and as one of the best receivers in football. How does all that mesh with Kyler Murray and Kevin O'Connell's offense and the scrambling threat, the improvised, the off-schedule stuff, all the stuff that Kyler Murray is going to bring to the table that in previous Kevin O'Connell offenses that guys like Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold didn't bring that. So what does that mean? I think when you get to a week one and there's all these unscouted looks and you don't really know what a team has, I think it presents a really big challenge to try to figure this out right out of the gate and be the guinea pig of a defense, so to speak, with Jonathan Gannon's unit and trying to sort this out with Kevin O'Connell's offense and a brand-new quarterback.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I appreciate you running us through that, Mike, because at that same time I was going through 84 steps of authentication trying to bring up NFL stats. And here's what I wanted to point out with this. Minnesota last season, right, the fact that they ended up getting to 9-8, Very impressive considering 28th in the NFL in total offense, 23rd in rushing. Obviously, Aaron Jones, you mentioned, had quite a few injuries that were tied into that. 29th in passing, 32nd in interception rate, 31st in sack rate. Now, when Kyler Murray is on his game... This guy protects the football well. He is elusive in the pocket. And there is the element of the downfield pass. And that makes him tough. That makes him tough to deal with. And, you know, I was going back to when he got DeAndre Hopkins, right? And that was a huge trade that Houston made because obviously Hopkins won his extension. He wanted a new location. He goes to Arizona 1,400 yards right off the bat. They look dynamic. They look explosive. And it looks like things are going to be going a certain way for them. The The way that, and obviously Hopkins, now semi-retired, I think you could call him, doing some coaching, I think, over at Georgia Tech now. He didn't really get the weapons implemented there in Arizona. Marvin Harrison Jr. is still kind of trying to figure out what he is there. Obviously, Trey McBride is one of the best tight ends, but almost was in some ways a pleasant surprise. They haven't had those litany of perimeter options that that Murray had early on in his career. Conversely, Minnesota has these two absolute studs, maybe the best receiver of his generation in Justin Jefferson. And the fact that Jefferson still managed to have a thousand yard receiving leader last year, despite everything I said there about the offensive struggles, really speaks to his talent and his ability. Jordan Addison, there's been some question marks off the field, but when he's right and when he's available, this guy's very dangerous. I mean, you look at the season that both of those guys had with Sam Darnold two years ago, That wasn't a mirage. That was where I think this Minnesota offense can get to, especially with Kevin O'Connell at the controls. The question now that we will have to answer, and we won't know it, not even past this game, it's going to take a month, but can Kyler Murray be the one that brings that passing game back to Minnesota and gives that offense what it's really been missing, and really that football team what it's been missing?
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what everybody's wondering about because, I mean... What started as a quarterback competition, I think this ended the way everybody thought it was going to, that Kyler Murray was going to be the guy to start the season. And J.J. McCarthy's future, I think, is still very much in limbo and where that goes. On the defensive side of the ball, there may not be a more veteran-seasoned defense that the Packers will face all season. You look at these guys across the board. Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkle, Byron Murphy Jr. at cornerback, Josh Metellus at safety, and then the least surprising last-minute move of all time, Harrison Smith coming back at the end of training camp and re-signing with the Vikings for one last go-around at safety. Everywhere you look across the board on this Minnesota defense is veteran players who have been there, but that goes back to the the age question we were talking about at the, at the start of this discussion, these guys aren't getting any younger. So how much do they have left? And 17 games is, is a lot of football games to play. But as of right now, all that matters for the Packers is this one game in week one. And these guys are, these guys defensively are going to be at their best right now, maybe better than they will be at any other point in the season. Because it's a bunch of veteran guys who are fresh and ready to go.
00:09:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, me personally, I'm really interested to see what Harrison Smith looks like. Now, I have full confidence this guy has been putting in the same amount of work he's always put in.
00:09:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: But it's mostly about the fact that 37 years old, 15 years in the NFL, safety sometimes can be a little kinder to age. We saw it with Charles Woodson. He was still playing at an all-pro level really all the way up until the end once he was fully committed to playing the safety position in Oakland. But the fact is, is that we know what father time does. So this football team, I think, as I talked about in the beginning, I mean, there's so many different positions. whether it was bringing in Van Ginkle, whether it's some of the other moves they've made. There's a reason why they moved to get Murray. There's a reason why they wanted to push that into next year, because I think this team feels like, OK, whether it be with some of the moves they've made in the draft, which haven't always hit or the fact that they've invested so heavily into unrestricted free agents and bringing guys in. We need to push. And the guy that's at the controls of all that is Brian Flores. And for Flores to kind of get some of his pieces like Van Ginkle in place, it shows you that In addition to the disguise, in addition to the aggressiveness and all the things we talk about with his front, he also feels like he has a core there that is going to be able to play the way he wants to play. And not that we're getting into Keys to Victory here on a Tuesday at the time we're shooting this.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can do that next show.
00:10:52
Speaker 2: But the difference in seeing what Jonathan Gannon and his debut is going to look like with Green Bay is... And what Brian Flores, after being a potential head coaching candidate this offseason and deciding to stay with Minnesota after a little bit of pomp and circumstance with the negotiations, how those two defenses attack each other's opposing offense is probably the biggest key to this game. And seeing exactly who wins those third and pass situations, are you able to, if you're Green Bay, avoid the pressure packages, get to the hot reads, And also, what's the perfect counter to aggression? It's explosive plays. Can you get some opportunities built off of that?
00:11:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Flores, his reputation is well known, right? He's going to throw all kinds of things at you, exotic looks, crazy disguises, super aggression in certain moments. And a lot of people ask, well, how come, you know, if this is such a cool thing and it works so well for Minnesota, well, how come Other teams don't replicate that. Well, it's because Brian Flores and the Vikings defense, they don't really mess around with rookies and young players. They have veteran players, and that creates a trust level with Flores as the defensive coordinator and the defensive play caller in terms of he knows that guys are going to be able to cover here. And when I say cover, I mean, you know, when somebody vacates an area they know where they know where to go it's like they they just they use training camp to get ready because they they have veteran players who don't necessarily need to learn a whole lot i guess is what i'm trying to say and that's that's flores's defenses are at their best when he just turns these veteran players loose and and lets them go now When we talk about the age question, okay, if they have some guys go down and then younger guys start to fill in and then that's, you know, with any team, that's where you see things start to change. And it certainly will with the Vikings if they have any injury issues with all these veterans. So that remains to be seen. But as I said, it's week one. These guys are going to be healthy. They're going to be raring to go. And the other thing I think that's worth talking about here, because to me, especially in a week one game, This feels like the X factor in this game to me is U.S. Bank Stadium. Matt LaFleur was kind of joking at the podium like, oh, we're opening at Minnesota again, you know, third time in his tenure here as head coach that that has happened. Now the first time there weren't any fans in the stands, so he didn't have to deal with the crowd noise and Aaron Rodgers has completely lit those guys up. But a week one in that building– you know, what it's, this is year 11, I think for that stadium. Um, they did it right there with, uh, with how they built it, the environment that they've created on game day. Um, it is, I mean, you and I are there every year, but that place is different than other visiting stadiums that we go into. And it just feels to me like, you know, in a week one scenario with a lot of excitement about Minnesota, having a new quarterback, but having the winning streak at the end of last year and bringing back all these other pieces, I think that building is going to be a very difficult place to play for the Packers on Sunday.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a little bummed, to be honest with you, that this ended up being the opener. Now, obviously, it's going to be a great atmosphere.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: But some of these games they've had against Minnesota down the stretch, there's been some really meaningful football. Last year, notwithstanding, there's been some meaningful football that's been played in the month of December in that building and being able to actually have some of those championship implication type matchups, too. I mean, I think back to, you know, Bo Melton's touchdown catch a couple years ago. I mean, that was sort of his coming out party. I'll never forget those images of them in the visiting locker room, just how excited they were for him. And that was a catalyst for them being able to rally late in that season, the 2023 season, I believe that was.
00:14:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember LeFleur's first year, essentially late in the year at Minnesota, primetime game, division title is on the line. And Aaron Jones, who's now obviously wearing the other uniform, but he busts that long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. And, you know, the Packers kind of planted the NFC North title flag in that end zone, you know, on that evening. And that was really the launch of the Matt LaFleur era here in Green Bay.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then just to be in that environment and all the different things that their game presentation does, it always makes it so cool when the things are online. I'm sure they're gonna have a lot of cool stuff dialed up for the opener too. But it's weird. It is weird when you have this situation where it's a regular season finale followed then by a regular season opener in the same venue. But be that as it may, I think for the Packers, and a lot of guys were talking about this in the locker room, I mean, they know what's at stake here. They want to win the North this year. I think there's no other objective you even need to concern yourself with. One seed, seven seeds, whatever. Packers need to win the North. It's been, it's now been five years going on five years since the last time they've hosted a game at Lambeau field in the playoffs. The easiest way to do that is winning your division. And when you're talking about putting your flag in the ground, it starts in that opener against Minnesota. Cause after that, then you got some really just obscure matchups there that are going to kind of cloud the schedule here. Yeah.
00:16:15
Speaker 1: And here I'm going to throw a question at you after the break, because we do need to pay some bills. So let's hear a quick word from our sponsors. Sirius XM NFL Radio delivers hard-hitting analysis and up-to-the-minute NFL news that true football fanatics need 24-7, 365. Did you know Lambeau Field is just one of our state's many wonders? Start making unforgettable memories on your next vacation. Discover Granddad Bluff and more at TravelWisconsin.com slash wonders. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. All right, I teased I was going to throw a question at you, so I'm going to do that right now. What do you think of division matchups in week one? Good thing, bad thing, just who cares?
00:17:00
Speaker 2: I like the idea, I like the college layout of either legitimately just having completely games that two teams are never going to see each other otherwise, or maybe like a Dallas in Green Bay where it's like a rivalry type matchup, like it's an early kind of like watermark game. I personally do not like division games right off the bat.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't either.
00:17:22
Speaker 2: I really didn't like what happened a couple years ago where it was that... Was that the, what year was that? Were they, I think they, did they open against Chicago or something? And then they didn't play another division match for another division game for like three months. Like it's just because now if we're going to be so back heavy and I have no problem with this with the last two weeks being these division matchups in most cases now, sometimes even three, but definitely closing the regular season against the division opponent. Right. I'm fine with that on the scheduling front, but I think it creates such a backlog with, with NFC North games and these division games that, you kind of lose sight of it. I mean, because I think at any point you never want to have your division rivals too far in the rear view mirror or a situation like last year where the Packers are playing the Bears. what, two times in 13 days and then three times within, like, 20 days?
00:18:08
Speaker 1: Within five weeks, yeah.
00:18:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like, it's just like, or yeah, it was, yeah, 28 days. But anyway, be that as it may, just that's not advantageous, I don't think. This isn't baseball. It's not best of three. It's not, you know, a home series. Like, there's so much variance that can happen with these schedules. I just would like to see, and it's not always going to work all the way, but how many times do you look around the league and it's like, okay, Washington's playing Philadelphia for the second time in 14 days? I mean... I hate that stuff.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The fact that the schedule is 17 games long now, you only get six of these division games out of the 17. To me, like, you know, sort of burning one of them on the schedule right away in week one. I mean, I get it from the league's perspective. You know, they want to have certain rivalry games to highlight in week one to draw the TV audience. I mean, this game is at 325, not at noon for a reason, right? Packers and Vikings. But, I'm not a big fan of it, and I get it early in the season when you're talking week two, week three, or week four, say, like Thursday night games, you know, short weeks, and you want to do division opponents, although the Packers are on Thursday night in week three, and it's not a division opponent, so, you know, what do I know? But, I mean, it's going to be a crazy, loud, intense environment, and I guess... The positive side of things is whether the Packers emerge with a win or a loss is you're getting tested right out of the gate.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: For sure.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: And you're playing an important game that really matters right out of the gate. And you're going to find out a lot about your football team, I think. Not everything. but you're going to find out a lot about your football team right away in week one here.
00:19:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, for the Packers standpoint, seeing how all the pieces fall into place too, right? I mean, I made that joke about the amount of time that goes into training camp and everything that's been building up to this. You want to go back to OTAs and minicamp and the work that's been put in to prepare Green Bay for this opener and prepare their bodies and be ready and comfortable with the playbook. But, you know, ultimately it really comes down to, okay, who's out there and how do they fill the role that's in front of them? So whether that's on the offensive line, you know, Matt LaFleur wasn't promising anything yet, wasn't tipping his hand at all as far as what they're thinking with you know, Zach Bacabuele at right tackle or Aaron Banks at left guard. Both of those guys are working through some injuries throughout training camp or recovery in the case of Zach. So could they, you know, are they going to be back? Will they start? Will there be rotation? You just don't know, right? And like Matt said to one of the questions, I think it was from Paul Bredel, specifically talking about Flores' defense, but Everybody is prepared here for so long now, and now we just see what it looks like. And there's going to be things that surprise you. There's going to be adjustments that have to get made. And then there will be the hallmarks, the staples, the things that teams are going to really rest their hopes and dreams on in terms of their concepts and schemes. So there's going to be things that are going to be inescapable about this upcoming season. But how it's all intertwined is going to be really interesting. I think what's cool for me, from the outside looking in. Cause we like, we spent this last 20 minutes or so, like kind of scouting through Minnesota, but green Bay that we're going to see a three safety based defense. We're going to see more of that penny package, um, where they go heavier up front, but have a little bit lighter secondary, lighter second level behind it. Um, offensively look at all these weapons we've talked about all off season, Mike Watson, golden read melt back on offense. Tucker craft is back. They added two tight ends here within the last two weeks. Um, how all this looks. Caleb Johnson, the addition of Caleb Johnson from Pittsburgh. These are the things that back in April, May, you and I weren't necessarily talking about, but it's what it looks like now. And the fact that Green Bay can go out there, I think especially having 85 on the field is going to be really critical for them, especially against an opponent like this. It's just exciting to finally watch it all kind of come to fruition.
00:22:09
Speaker 1: Well, a couple other things I want to get your thoughts on before we go. The first two games of the 2026 NFL regular season coming up on Wednesday night and Thursday night.
00:22:19
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: Sorry. Wednesday night. Wednesday night is the Superbowl rematch, which is another thing I don't like, but because I think they could have picked a much better matchup for Seattle than just having a redo of the Superbowl, but it is what it is. New England is at Seattle on Wednesday night. And then, Speaking of division matchups in week one, a big one in the NFC West, halfway around the world in Australia on Thursday night, or maybe it's on Friday if you're over there, whatever the case might be. But it's the Rams against the 49ers, a big division matchup in the NFC West. Your thoughts on these first two? prime time games to kick off the 2026 regular season.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: The Kyle Shanahan bit this week was hilarious. Oh, that was... That was one of my all-time favorites. And I actually give him a lot of credit. He actually kept that together pretty well. He did.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: I mean, if you follow it, he does make sense. But then when you get to the end of this, like, you know, 90-second... this 90 second soliloquy about it. Like your head is just spinning in terms of what he means by what day is what.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: I watched it the second time through. I'm like, no, he got it all right. Other than the beginning, he got it all right. And then there was the Raheem Morris thing about how Raheem Morris didn't actually have a birthday because of when they flew. By the time he got there, his birthday was already over because it was a day ahead. I'm actually okay with this. I understand all this because I'm a UFC fan. So they do a lot of events. There's been a lot of champions out of that area of the world in both Australia and New Zealand. So I, I'm familiar with them having pay-per-views at night and it is like 9am in the morning in Australia the next day. So, but yeah, the fact that you get the Rams, I think it's one of the cool things about the international initiative is places like the Rams that do make so much sense, uh, to, to, in that part of the world to be a team. And then obviously, you know, California and San Francisco being intertwined in that, I think it's gonna be a really good matchup. Excited to see how all that unfolds. Certainly the Aaron Donald thing is going to be thrust into spotlight from day one. Interested to see what that looks like, if that all comes together. I'm fascinated to see how that unfolds. Um, New England and Seattle, to your point, I, I hate it. I don't like it at all. I think sometimes the NFL gets a little bit too, um, lost in the sauce in terms of like, okay, well they just played. So like, do we really need to see it again? Like immediately? I think it, it, what does it look like when both of those teams are at 10, 11 wins in November? Yeah. Then let's see what they look like. Like the Packers and Patriots back in 2014. Yeah. Like to have them go right off the bat, it just seems like, okay, well. We just did this, but fine. Yeah. We'll do it again. And the fact that, respectfully, neither team is like a superstar, you know, laden team. Seattle has, you know, Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, but he's still not like a household name to the way that, like, a Justin Jefferson has become, you know, like in terms of the national branding. So, and then, you know, New England kind of caught everybody by surprise last year. So, it'll be fun. It'll be interesting. Football's back. The thing that ticks me off and why I said I don't like it, though, is because I think it sort of fiddled with how they did cutdowns this year by having that Wednesday night game and then having the Thursday night game right away in Australia. Like I think that kind of, I, I, yeah, it was, it, it felt like the, the combination of moving the kickoff game for the defending Superbowl champs to Wednesday.
00:25:43
Speaker 1: And then the very, very early travel. Cause the Rams went out to Australia very early, much earlier than the 49ers did. But all that early travel with regard to the Australia game is where the cut down day got shifted and, and everybody had to, kind of deal with that. And I, I don't, I don't think it was, uh, it was an ideal situation at all, but you know, I don't think the league really cares either.
00:26:06
Speaker 2: That's what's funny about the bi-week thing though, right? Because I've, I've always made this joke about the league is never going to put a cake on your doorstep that you're not paying for. Like when we went from four precinct game, preseason games of three, initially it was like, okay, well it's a second bi-week and then, you know, cut down days and we slide them into Tuesday now instead of on Saturday where he teams are finishing games and having to cut their roster immediately. It was like some more flexibility. If there's a way to turn that flexibility into an opportunity, you know, the league isn't going to shy away from that. So I'm very conflicted about the Wednesday night start game. I'm not a huge fan of it, but at the same time, I understand there's an entire country that has been salivating for meaningful football for the last seven months. And well, it's right in front of you now.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's here. The season is going to get underway, but One more show this week before you and I will head off to Minneapolis and we'll get to our keys to victory. Look at the rest of the week one schedule in the NFL. We'll slice and dice it from there. But for now, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers.com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you next time.
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my trusted colleague, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie Sportsbook studio inside the walls of Lambeau Field. And Wes, week one, it's finally here.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: It is, man. Doesn't feel like it's been six weeks of training camp and just working 80 hours every week. But we made it. We made it.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: We got here.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: No, I mean, this is what it's about, dude. And the fact that it ends up being the Minnesota Vikings right off the bat. You were with Matt LaFleur during his press conference. I was kind of moseying my way around the locker room. And the energy is different. You can feel it's different among players and Whether it was talking to Marshawn Lloyd, a guy that's been waiting and champing at the bid here to get this opportunity to finally play. Brandon Cisse, who's put in now at this point five months of work, even more than that if you want to go back to the pre-combine stuff. Sure. He's ready to get out there and do this thing. Christian Watson had mentioned even this is the first time, the best he's felt going into a season. He's had a hamstring injury before. There were two times where he didn't have much of a training camp. He's feeling great. So it just shows you that whether it's mentally, physically, emotionally, guys are ready to go. And certainly come 325 p.m. Central Time in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium, Packers are going to be playing to win a football game.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about the Minnesota Vikings this week, one opponent. And you know me, I don't like to oversimplify things. But at the risk of oversimplification... When I look at the 2026 Vikings, I see a team that is almost identical to the 2025 Vikings, except they have a new quarterback. It feels like the only significant change to talk about with Minnesota from last year to this year is that Kyler Murray is now QB1.
00:02:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's trying to figure out– I wrote this in Inbox. I think it was last week or the week before.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: It all runs together after a while.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. There's going to be two things at play here. And if in that way, I put this was if either one of them is not true, the Vikings may be in some trouble, especially considering how battle tested, how durable, how deep this NFC North is with Detroit, Chicago and Green Bay also in there. Either A, you know, Kyler Murray needs to revert to form and be the kind of dynamic quarterback he was early on during his career or Obviously, injuries have played a role in that. I think some degradation of the roster in Arizona, I think, had a role in that. There's a lot of different things that happened that led to his departure and, unfortunately, also Jonathan Gannon's departure from the Cardinals. So that's one piece of it. Can he recapture the magic? The other one is, can the Vikings... basically run it back with virtually the same roster that was already getting a little bit older in trying it again, but this time having what maybe a lot of people considered to be the missing piece last year in a little bit more stability at quarterback. I'm very interested. If both of those things line up, the Vikings could be a team to be feared this season. I think there's a lot to like there about their roster. If either of those is not true, I think it could be a long season for Minnesota.
00:03:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you've laid out the scenarios perfectly there because this is a Vikings team that won five consecutive games. Now, granted, the Packers rested all their guys in Week 18 last year, but they won five consecutive games to conclude last season. And finish nine and eight, finish with a winning record, despite all of the quarterback problems and questions and uncertainty and everything that surrounded that position, whether it was J.J. McCarthy or Carson Wentz and the injuries and all of it.
00:04:06
Speaker 2: But.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: As you said, it's now another year later, and all these veterans on the Vikings roster didn't get any younger. They all got a year older. So what does that mean when you're coming off of what was sort of a momentum-building thing over the last month and a half of last season? What can carry over to this season? Offensively? I mean, we know what they have. They have Aaron Jones in the backfield. They have Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison at wide receiver. They have TJ Hawkinson at tight end. These are the guys that have been carrying the load offensively for Minnesota for the last couple of years. In the case of Justin Jefferson, a handful of years now at the top of his game and as one of the best receivers in football. How does all that mesh with Kyler Murray and Kevin O'Connell's offense and the scrambling threat, the improvised, the off-schedule stuff, all the stuff that Kyler Murray is going to bring to the table that in previous Kevin O'Connell offenses that guys like Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold didn't bring that. So what does that mean? I think when you get to a week one and there's all these unscouted looks and you don't really know what a team has, I think it presents a really big challenge to try to figure this out right out of the gate and be the guinea pig of a defense, so to speak, with Jonathan Gannon's unit and trying to sort this out with Kevin O'Connell's offense and a brand-new quarterback.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I appreciate you running us through that, Mike, because at that same time I was going through 84 steps of authentication trying to bring up NFL stats. And here's what I wanted to point out with this. Minnesota last season, right, the fact that they ended up getting to 9-8, Very impressive considering 28th in the NFL in total offense, 23rd in rushing. Obviously, Aaron Jones, you mentioned, had quite a few injuries that were tied into that. 29th in passing, 32nd in interception rate, 31st in sack rate. Now, when Kyler Murray is on his game... This guy protects the football well. He is elusive in the pocket. And there is the element of the downfield pass. And that makes him tough. That makes him tough to deal with. And, you know, I was going back to when he got DeAndre Hopkins, right? And that was a huge trade that Houston made because obviously Hopkins won his extension. He wanted a new location. He goes to Arizona 1,400 yards right off the bat. They look dynamic. They look explosive. And it looks like things are going to be going a certain way for them. The The way that, and obviously Hopkins, now semi-retired, I think you could call him, doing some coaching, I think, over at Georgia Tech now. He didn't really get the weapons implemented there in Arizona. Marvin Harrison Jr. is still kind of trying to figure out what he is there. Obviously, Trey McBride is one of the best tight ends, but almost was in some ways a pleasant surprise. They haven't had those litany of perimeter options that that Murray had early on in his career. Conversely, Minnesota has these two absolute studs, maybe the best receiver of his generation in Justin Jefferson. And the fact that Jefferson still managed to have a thousand yard receiving leader last year, despite everything I said there about the offensive struggles, really speaks to his talent and his ability. Jordan Addison, there's been some question marks off the field, but when he's right and when he's available, this guy's very dangerous. I mean, you look at the season that both of those guys had with Sam Darnold two years ago, That wasn't a mirage. That was where I think this Minnesota offense can get to, especially with Kevin O'Connell at the controls. The question now that we will have to answer, and we won't know it, not even past this game, it's going to take a month, but can Kyler Murray be the one that brings that passing game back to Minnesota and gives that offense what it's really been missing, and really that football team what it's been missing?
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what everybody's wondering about because, I mean... What started as a quarterback competition, I think this ended the way everybody thought it was going to, that Kyler Murray was going to be the guy to start the season. And J.J. McCarthy's future, I think, is still very much in limbo and where that goes. On the defensive side of the ball, there may not be a more veteran-seasoned defense that the Packers will face all season. You look at these guys across the board. Blake Cashman, Andrew Van Ginkle, Byron Murphy Jr. at cornerback, Josh Metellus at safety, and then the least surprising last-minute move of all time, Harrison Smith coming back at the end of training camp and re-signing with the Vikings for one last go-around at safety. Everywhere you look across the board on this Minnesota defense is veteran players who have been there, but that goes back to the the age question we were talking about at the, at the start of this discussion, these guys aren't getting any younger. So how much do they have left? And 17 games is, is a lot of football games to play. But as of right now, all that matters for the Packers is this one game in week one. And these guys are, these guys defensively are going to be at their best right now, maybe better than they will be at any other point in the season. Because it's a bunch of veteran guys who are fresh and ready to go.
00:09:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, me personally, I'm really interested to see what Harrison Smith looks like. Now, I have full confidence this guy has been putting in the same amount of work he's always put in.
00:09:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: But it's mostly about the fact that 37 years old, 15 years in the NFL, safety sometimes can be a little kinder to age. We saw it with Charles Woodson. He was still playing at an all-pro level really all the way up until the end once he was fully committed to playing the safety position in Oakland. But the fact is, is that we know what father time does. So this football team, I think, as I talked about in the beginning, I mean, there's so many different positions. whether it was bringing in Van Ginkle, whether it's some of the other moves they've made. There's a reason why they moved to get Murray. There's a reason why they wanted to push that into next year, because I think this team feels like, OK, whether it be with some of the moves they've made in the draft, which haven't always hit or the fact that they've invested so heavily into unrestricted free agents and bringing guys in. We need to push. And the guy that's at the controls of all that is Brian Flores. And for Flores to kind of get some of his pieces like Van Ginkle in place, it shows you that In addition to the disguise, in addition to the aggressiveness and all the things we talk about with his front, he also feels like he has a core there that is going to be able to play the way he wants to play. And not that we're getting into Keys to Victory here on a Tuesday at the time we're shooting this.
00:10:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can do that next show.
00:10:52
Speaker 2: But the difference in seeing what Jonathan Gannon and his debut is going to look like with Green Bay is... And what Brian Flores, after being a potential head coaching candidate this offseason and deciding to stay with Minnesota after a little bit of pomp and circumstance with the negotiations, how those two defenses attack each other's opposing offense is probably the biggest key to this game. And seeing exactly who wins those third and pass situations, are you able to, if you're Green Bay, avoid the pressure packages, get to the hot reads, And also, what's the perfect counter to aggression? It's explosive plays. Can you get some opportunities built off of that?
00:11:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Flores, his reputation is well known, right? He's going to throw all kinds of things at you, exotic looks, crazy disguises, super aggression in certain moments. And a lot of people ask, well, how come, you know, if this is such a cool thing and it works so well for Minnesota, well, how come Other teams don't replicate that. Well, it's because Brian Flores and the Vikings defense, they don't really mess around with rookies and young players. They have veteran players, and that creates a trust level with Flores as the defensive coordinator and the defensive play caller in terms of he knows that guys are going to be able to cover here. And when I say cover, I mean, you know, when somebody vacates an area they know where they know where to go it's like they they just they use training camp to get ready because they they have veteran players who don't necessarily need to learn a whole lot i guess is what i'm trying to say and that's that's flores's defenses are at their best when he just turns these veteran players loose and and lets them go now When we talk about the age question, okay, if they have some guys go down and then younger guys start to fill in and then that's, you know, with any team, that's where you see things start to change. And it certainly will with the Vikings if they have any injury issues with all these veterans. So that remains to be seen. But as I said, it's week one. These guys are going to be healthy. They're going to be raring to go. And the other thing I think that's worth talking about here, because to me, especially in a week one game, This feels like the X factor in this game to me is U.S. Bank Stadium. Matt LaFleur was kind of joking at the podium like, oh, we're opening at Minnesota again, you know, third time in his tenure here as head coach that that has happened. Now the first time there weren't any fans in the stands, so he didn't have to deal with the crowd noise and Aaron Rodgers has completely lit those guys up. But a week one in that building– you know, what it's, this is year 11, I think for that stadium. Um, they did it right there with, uh, with how they built it, the environment that they've created on game day. Um, it is, I mean, you and I are there every year, but that place is different than other visiting stadiums that we go into. And it just feels to me like, you know, in a week one scenario with a lot of excitement about Minnesota, having a new quarterback, but having the winning streak at the end of last year and bringing back all these other pieces, I think that building is going to be a very difficult place to play for the Packers on Sunday.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a little bummed, to be honest with you, that this ended up being the opener. Now, obviously, it's going to be a great atmosphere.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: But some of these games they've had against Minnesota down the stretch, there's been some really meaningful football. Last year, notwithstanding, there's been some meaningful football that's been played in the month of December in that building and being able to actually have some of those championship implication type matchups, too. I mean, I think back to, you know, Bo Melton's touchdown catch a couple years ago. I mean, that was sort of his coming out party. I'll never forget those images of them in the visiting locker room, just how excited they were for him. And that was a catalyst for them being able to rally late in that season, the 2023 season, I believe that was.
00:14:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember LeFleur's first year, essentially late in the year at Minnesota, primetime game, division title is on the line. And Aaron Jones, who's now obviously wearing the other uniform, but he busts that long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. And, you know, the Packers kind of planted the NFC North title flag in that end zone, you know, on that evening. And that was really the launch of the Matt LaFleur era here in Green Bay.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then just to be in that environment and all the different things that their game presentation does, it always makes it so cool when the things are online. I'm sure they're gonna have a lot of cool stuff dialed up for the opener too. But it's weird. It is weird when you have this situation where it's a regular season finale followed then by a regular season opener in the same venue. But be that as it may, I think for the Packers, and a lot of guys were talking about this in the locker room, I mean, they know what's at stake here. They want to win the North this year. I think there's no other objective you even need to concern yourself with. One seed, seven seeds, whatever. Packers need to win the North. It's been, it's now been five years going on five years since the last time they've hosted a game at Lambeau field in the playoffs. The easiest way to do that is winning your division. And when you're talking about putting your flag in the ground, it starts in that opener against Minnesota. Cause after that, then you got some really just obscure matchups there that are going to kind of cloud the schedule here. Yeah.
00:16:15
Speaker 1: And here I'm going to throw a question at you after the break, because we do need to pay some bills. So let's hear a quick word from our sponsors. Sirius XM NFL Radio delivers hard-hitting analysis and up-to-the-minute NFL news that true football fanatics need 24-7, 365. Did you know Lambeau Field is just one of our state's many wonders? Start making unforgettable memories on your next vacation. Discover Granddad Bluff and more at TravelWisconsin.com slash wonders. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. All right, I teased I was going to throw a question at you, so I'm going to do that right now. What do you think of division matchups in week one? Good thing, bad thing, just who cares?
00:17:00
Speaker 2: I like the idea, I like the college layout of either legitimately just having completely games that two teams are never going to see each other otherwise, or maybe like a Dallas in Green Bay where it's like a rivalry type matchup, like it's an early kind of like watermark game. I personally do not like division games right off the bat.
00:17:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't either.
00:17:22
Speaker 2: I really didn't like what happened a couple years ago where it was that... Was that the, what year was that? Were they, I think they, did they open against Chicago or something? And then they didn't play another division match for another division game for like three months. Like it's just because now if we're going to be so back heavy and I have no problem with this with the last two weeks being these division matchups in most cases now, sometimes even three, but definitely closing the regular season against the division opponent. Right. I'm fine with that on the scheduling front, but I think it creates such a backlog with, with NFC North games and these division games that, you kind of lose sight of it. I mean, because I think at any point you never want to have your division rivals too far in the rear view mirror or a situation like last year where the Packers are playing the Bears. what, two times in 13 days and then three times within, like, 20 days?
00:18:08
Speaker 1: Within five weeks, yeah.
00:18:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like, it's just like, or yeah, it was, yeah, 28 days. But anyway, be that as it may, just that's not advantageous, I don't think. This isn't baseball. It's not best of three. It's not, you know, a home series. Like, there's so much variance that can happen with these schedules. I just would like to see, and it's not always going to work all the way, but how many times do you look around the league and it's like, okay, Washington's playing Philadelphia for the second time in 14 days? I mean... I hate that stuff.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The fact that the schedule is 17 games long now, you only get six of these division games out of the 17. To me, like, you know, sort of burning one of them on the schedule right away in week one. I mean, I get it from the league's perspective. You know, they want to have certain rivalry games to highlight in week one to draw the TV audience. I mean, this game is at 325, not at noon for a reason, right? Packers and Vikings. But, I'm not a big fan of it, and I get it early in the season when you're talking week two, week three, or week four, say, like Thursday night games, you know, short weeks, and you want to do division opponents, although the Packers are on Thursday night in week three, and it's not a division opponent, so, you know, what do I know? But, I mean, it's going to be a crazy, loud, intense environment, and I guess... The positive side of things is whether the Packers emerge with a win or a loss is you're getting tested right out of the gate.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: For sure.
00:19:41
Speaker 1: And you're playing an important game that really matters right out of the gate. And you're going to find out a lot about your football team, I think. Not everything. but you're going to find out a lot about your football team right away in week one here.
00:19:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, for the Packers standpoint, seeing how all the pieces fall into place too, right? I mean, I made that joke about the amount of time that goes into training camp and everything that's been building up to this. You want to go back to OTAs and minicamp and the work that's been put in to prepare Green Bay for this opener and prepare their bodies and be ready and comfortable with the playbook. But, you know, ultimately it really comes down to, okay, who's out there and how do they fill the role that's in front of them? So whether that's on the offensive line, you know, Matt LaFleur wasn't promising anything yet, wasn't tipping his hand at all as far as what they're thinking with you know, Zach Bacabuele at right tackle or Aaron Banks at left guard. Both of those guys are working through some injuries throughout training camp or recovery in the case of Zach. So could they, you know, are they going to be back? Will they start? Will there be rotation? You just don't know, right? And like Matt said to one of the questions, I think it was from Paul Bredel, specifically talking about Flores' defense, but Everybody is prepared here for so long now, and now we just see what it looks like. And there's going to be things that surprise you. There's going to be adjustments that have to get made. And then there will be the hallmarks, the staples, the things that teams are going to really rest their hopes and dreams on in terms of their concepts and schemes. So there's going to be things that are going to be inescapable about this upcoming season. But how it's all intertwined is going to be really interesting. I think what's cool for me, from the outside looking in. Cause we like, we spent this last 20 minutes or so, like kind of scouting through Minnesota, but green Bay that we're going to see a three safety based defense. We're going to see more of that penny package, um, where they go heavier up front, but have a little bit lighter secondary, lighter second level behind it. Um, offensively look at all these weapons we've talked about all off season, Mike Watson, golden read melt back on offense. Tucker craft is back. They added two tight ends here within the last two weeks. Um, how all this looks. Caleb Johnson, the addition of Caleb Johnson from Pittsburgh. These are the things that back in April, May, you and I weren't necessarily talking about, but it's what it looks like now. And the fact that Green Bay can go out there, I think especially having 85 on the field is going to be really critical for them, especially against an opponent like this. It's just exciting to finally watch it all kind of come to fruition.
00:22:09
Speaker 1: Well, a couple other things I want to get your thoughts on before we go. The first two games of the 2026 NFL regular season coming up on Wednesday night and Thursday night.
00:22:19
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: Sorry. Wednesday night. Wednesday night is the Superbowl rematch, which is another thing I don't like, but because I think they could have picked a much better matchup for Seattle than just having a redo of the Superbowl, but it is what it is. New England is at Seattle on Wednesday night. And then, Speaking of division matchups in week one, a big one in the NFC West, halfway around the world in Australia on Thursday night, or maybe it's on Friday if you're over there, whatever the case might be. But it's the Rams against the 49ers, a big division matchup in the NFC West. Your thoughts on these first two? prime time games to kick off the 2026 regular season.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: The Kyle Shanahan bit this week was hilarious. Oh, that was... That was one of my all-time favorites. And I actually give him a lot of credit. He actually kept that together pretty well. He did.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: I mean, if you follow it, he does make sense. But then when you get to the end of this, like, you know, 90-second... this 90 second soliloquy about it. Like your head is just spinning in terms of what he means by what day is what.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: I watched it the second time through. I'm like, no, he got it all right. Other than the beginning, he got it all right. And then there was the Raheem Morris thing about how Raheem Morris didn't actually have a birthday because of when they flew. By the time he got there, his birthday was already over because it was a day ahead. I'm actually okay with this. I understand all this because I'm a UFC fan. So they do a lot of events. There's been a lot of champions out of that area of the world in both Australia and New Zealand. So I, I'm familiar with them having pay-per-views at night and it is like 9am in the morning in Australia the next day. So, but yeah, the fact that you get the Rams, I think it's one of the cool things about the international initiative is places like the Rams that do make so much sense, uh, to, to, in that part of the world to be a team. And then obviously, you know, California and San Francisco being intertwined in that, I think it's gonna be a really good matchup. Excited to see how all that unfolds. Certainly the Aaron Donald thing is going to be thrust into spotlight from day one. Interested to see what that looks like, if that all comes together. I'm fascinated to see how that unfolds. Um, New England and Seattle, to your point, I, I hate it. I don't like it at all. I think sometimes the NFL gets a little bit too, um, lost in the sauce in terms of like, okay, well they just played. So like, do we really need to see it again? Like immediately? I think it, it, what does it look like when both of those teams are at 10, 11 wins in November? Yeah. Then let's see what they look like. Like the Packers and Patriots back in 2014. Yeah. Like to have them go right off the bat, it just seems like, okay, well. We just did this, but fine. Yeah. We'll do it again. And the fact that, respectfully, neither team is like a superstar, you know, laden team. Seattle has, you know, Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, but he's still not like a household name to the way that, like, a Justin Jefferson has become, you know, like in terms of the national branding. So, and then, you know, New England kind of caught everybody by surprise last year. So, it'll be fun. It'll be interesting. Football's back. The thing that ticks me off and why I said I don't like it, though, is because I think it sort of fiddled with how they did cutdowns this year by having that Wednesday night game and then having the Thursday night game right away in Australia. Like I think that kind of, I, I, yeah, it was, it, it felt like the, the combination of moving the kickoff game for the defending Superbowl champs to Wednesday.
00:25:43
Speaker 1: And then the very, very early travel. Cause the Rams went out to Australia very early, much earlier than the 49ers did. But all that early travel with regard to the Australia game is where the cut down day got shifted and, and everybody had to, kind of deal with that. And I, I don't, I don't think it was, uh, it was an ideal situation at all, but you know, I don't think the league really cares either.
00:26:06
Speaker 2: That's what's funny about the bi-week thing though, right? Because I've, I've always made this joke about the league is never going to put a cake on your doorstep that you're not paying for. Like when we went from four precinct game, preseason games of three, initially it was like, okay, well it's a second bi-week and then, you know, cut down days and we slide them into Tuesday now instead of on Saturday where he teams are finishing games and having to cut their roster immediately. It was like some more flexibility. If there's a way to turn that flexibility into an opportunity, you know, the league isn't going to shy away from that. So I'm very conflicted about the Wednesday night start game. I'm not a huge fan of it, but at the same time, I understand there's an entire country that has been salivating for meaningful football for the last seven months. And well, it's right in front of you now.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's here. The season is going to get underway, but One more show this week before you and I will head off to Minneapolis and we'll get to our keys to victory. Look at the rest of the week one schedule in the NFL. We'll slice and dice it from there. But for now, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers.com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you next time.
