Cheese Curds 6/13: Packers' rookies return to practice and hope to light up minicamp

[Da-news-now]

After a few long weeks away, Green Bay gets its rookies back at practice this week as they hope to have a big impact in their first on-field action with the full team.

After the Green Bay Packers held OTAs over the past three straight weeks and no significant absences of veterans from the program, the calendar turns over this week to the team's mandatory minicamp. Practices will be held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and at this time it appears that they are scheduled for 8:00 AM Central time. Note that we are projecting that start time due to Mike McCarthy's press conferences being scheduled for 10:15 AM and because his conferences so far this spring have been held after practice - however, last year in training camp, McCarthy began speaking before practice, so if that is the case the sessions may be held at 11:30 like they were in OTAs.

Stay tuned as we work to confirm the practice schedule for this week.

In the meantime, get ready for minicamp by looking through today's cheese curds, which feature news and notes about the Packers' rookie class, which will be intact and with the full roster for the first time all year, the team's offensive line, and much more.

Packers 'absolutely' keeping rookies up to speed | Packersnews.com
For Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, and Kyle Murphy, the transition back into Green Bay should be a smooth one thanks to coaches having nightly meetings with those players who were forced to stay away at school. And remember, last year, Ty Montgomery went through a similar distance-learning period and had some decent early success.

Packers rookie Blake Martinez off to impressive start - ESPN
One rookie who was present since day one was Martinez, who worked hard to graduate early so he would avoid that fate. With Sam Barrington not working in team drills, Martinez has been thrown into the fire with the starters and has been impressive both mentally and physically.

Nick Perry feels 'urgency' of making an impact | JSOnline.com
Perry spoke about his offseason and how excited he is to be able to go through a full slate of spring practices for the first time.

Offensive line would love to stay healthy again | Packers.com
One year after missing just one start among the five players in 2014, the first-team line missed a combined 11 games last season and was together just eight times all season long.

Keenan Allen, Chargers agree on four-year extension - NFL.com
If Allen had not missed eight games last season and been banged up for much of 2014, this contract might have been quite a bit higher. As it is, it's still top-ten wide receiver money.

Mike Carey is out as the rules expert for CBS, according to report - SBNation.com
To be fair, Carey was not as bad as people made him seem - he was put in a tough spot much of the time and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on some things - but he still was right 90% of the time compared to about 98% for Mike Pereira of FOX.

Continue reading @http://www.acmepackingcompany.com/ ...

 

[realitybytes]

In the valuable game of offseason practice reps, Martinez has been perhaps the biggest winner in Green Bay.

“He looks very comfortable,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “I think he’s done a really nice job transitioning from the base defense to the sub defense, his command, the echoing of the calls. He’s very bright. Quick. And he definitely is a very instinctive player. He’s off to a very good start.”
...
Meanwhile, Martinez’s athleticism and ability to quickly absorb the defense might make it tough for defensive coordinator Dom Capers to yank him even when Barrington is cleared.

“What I do like about Blake is, No. 1, he’s very sharp -- which you expect a Stanford guy to be sharp,” Capers said. “And I think he’s very conscientious. He’s not afraid to ask questions. I think he’s going to be an attention-to-detail guy. He’s going to be a guy that’s going to be able to study the opponent and be able to play the percentages and probably gain a little bit because of that. The guys that I’ve been around that are smart and instinctive, a lot of times they pick up a step or two in anticipation.”

The real test for Martinez will come when the pads go on in training camp and reps are live in preseason games but at this point, he’s a step ahead of most rookies, who run with the second or third stringers in offseason practices.
Martinez not only has worked alongside Jake Ryan in the base and nickel formations but also as the lone inside linebacker in the dime package. With that position often comes the additional task of making the defensive calls.

“It’s kind of one of those things where they always talk about when you step onto this field, it’s going to be that change of speed from college to the NFL,” Martinez said. “I think it’s one of those things where I’m getting that speed instantly. The main thing they said is once you get that playbook down, you’re going to be able just see everything that much slower. I think being out there with those guys, having that communication, is starting to make things understandable out there instead of just being around all the guys who are still learning. So you get those little things that you wouldn’t get to hear when you’re with those other groups."

 

[kingkoopa]

Encouraging news about Martinez so far. He was supposedly one of the best cover LBs in the draft. Honestly, I can't imagine it's going to be that difficult to crack the starting lineup for this LB core. That's one of our major weak spots.