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With the Patriots taking on the Green Bay this Sunday at Gillette Stadium, the guys talked to Packers Insider Sparky Fifer from 105.7 The Fan in Milwaukee to preview the game.
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00:00With us right now to give us a preview from the Green Bay side of things is Sparky Pfeiffer.
00:05He's host of 105.7 The Fan out in Milwaukee.
00:08Hey, Sparky, thanks for coming out with us, man.
00:11We really appreciate it.
00:12You betcha, man.
00:13Nice to talk to you guys.
00:14Nice to talk to you, too.
00:15Let's just start first with the news that just came out about Micah Parsons.
00:19It was announced, I guess, that he was expected to practice today.
00:23First of all, did he practice?
00:24I mean, he's been out since December with that.
00:27I think it was an ACL and a meniscus injury.
00:30Do you believe that he would be able to play this weekend if he did indeed return today?
00:36He did return today.
00:38Individual drills.
00:39It looks like it's going to be the Rams game on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is the date that I
00:45think they're circling for him to probably come back.
00:47What's up with Josh Jacobs and the drama off the field?
00:49Are they sticking with him?
00:50Is he going to be their running back this week?
00:52Matt LaFleur.
00:54They're staying by him until, you know, the NFL does more investigating on these latest allegations from other girls.
01:00Now that are involved in this thing are other women that are involved from previous things that I'm not quite
01:05sure if everybody knew about one way or the other.
01:07But Matt LaFleur believes in, I guess, Josh Jacobs' character and so forth.
01:12And until everything pans out, they're going to continue to have Josh Jacobs on the field.
01:16Obviously, there's rumblings with the NFL trade deadline coming up about potentially Jonathan Taylor of the Colts.
01:23The Colts are having their fire sale.
01:24You know, Tom Silverstein, who has covered the Packers for 100 years for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, put out a
01:30piece today, a column talking about the Packers should consider going after Saquon Barkley or after Jonathan Taylor and trying
01:38to make a big splash play here with two guys that have a couple years still left on their contract.
01:43The problem in this theory or idea, as, you know, Tom Silverstein points out, is Brian Goodenkunst, the general manager
01:50of the Packers, does not want to move off of any of his early draft picks in 27.
01:54The Packers don't have a one because that went to Dallas and the Micah Parsons deal.
01:58So they do have a second.
01:59They're going to have a couple of threes once the compensation picks come out and so forth.
02:03They'll have like 10 or 11 picks.
02:05But apparently Goody thinks, as well as others, I guess, that this NFL draft is going to be one of
02:11the best ever, apparently.
02:13So he does not want to move off those early draft picks.
02:15So, as was pointed out in the piece, they believe, or Tom believes, that they'll have to trade an edge
02:21rusher or two maybe, like Lucas Van Ness, or maybe an interior guy like Carl Brooks, a defensive tackle, or
02:26other pieces on the roster, along with maybe a pick in 28 or something, in order to get something like
02:32that done.
02:32Hey, Sparky, you guys on offense are just throwing the ball at will.
02:39You lead a lot of the categories, passing categories, passing attempts, yards per game, passing, that kind of stuff.
02:46It feels like, from where I sit, I could be totally wrong, so I want to ask you, that Matt
02:51LaFleur has kind of put an ensemble of skill players for Jordan Love to throw to.
02:57Probably the best group of receivers and tight ends that he's had.
03:00Is that fair to say, just what do you think of the skill players on Green Bay's offense?
03:06Being honest, I don't think it's the most talented group he's had while he's been here.
03:10I think what happened last year was, you know, you drafted a wide receiver early in Matthew Golden in the
03:16first round, first one since Javon Walker.
03:18Everybody went crazy at the draft.
03:20You guys were there, weren't you?
03:21I believe you guys were there.
03:21Yeah, we were there.
03:23Good times, man.
03:23Right, because you and I were talking about running Ethernet court and so forth.
03:27That's right.
03:28Thank you, Sparky.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Yeah, you're welcome.
03:31But anyway, so when he announced Mark Murphy, the president of the Packers at the time,
03:36announces that Matthew Golden pick, everybody goes crazy in the state of Wisconsin.
03:39And then the year comes, and Matthew Golden really isn't a big factor at all.
03:43And with one of the rich wide receivers, everybody's playing.
03:45Like, oh, maybe that didn't work out.
03:47Well, in reality, they were just playing the vest that were in front of him.
03:50Romeo Dobbs, Octavian Wicks, both of whom are now on different teams.
03:54So it looks like the plan was to get Golden's feet wet, and then in year two, kind of let
03:58him go.
03:59And it really has been Matthew Golden, Christian Watson, and a little bit of a splash of Tucker
04:04Kraft, who is not back to form after getting hurt last year.
04:08I mean, he's still catching the ball.
04:09He does have a couple of drops.
04:10But his yak yards are not the same as they were prior to previous.
04:14You know, that kind of was his superpower, I guess you could say, of breaking tackles,
04:18not doing it as much as he did prior to the injury.
04:21But he's not all the way back.
04:23Golden has been a stud.
04:24Still has a problem, though.
04:26He can't hold on to the passes.
04:27So he leads the team in drops, which is an issue.
04:30Christian Watson has been really good along the way here.
04:33So it's really been Watson and Golden that have kind of carried the load.
04:37Jaden Reed, who is their other wide receiver, gone for the year at the beginning of the
04:40year with an injury.
04:42So what's behind his first two is not much.
04:45It's all about Watson and Golden.
04:46And you're right.
04:47They've been throwing it all over the place, kind of out of necessity, because their offensive
04:51line is so bad that they can't get a ground game going.
04:54And they've had to throw it.
04:56I don't think Matt LaFleur wants to throw it as much as he has been, but they have to in
04:59order to score points.
05:00And you know what, Sparky, you were just talking about the drops.
05:03Uh, that Matthew Golden had, he, I believe he leads the league right now.
05:07As a matter of fact, I think the Packers lead the league in, in, in drop passes and a lot
05:12they do.
05:12Yeah.
05:13It's it's, but, but not all drop passes are alike.
05:15Uh, obviously with AJ Brown, when he tried to return, we saw one game where he dropped
05:20the book says three, but it was almost five.
05:23Um, like, is this a Jordan love problem or is it the receivers that you believe is the
05:28reason that they lead the league?
05:30No, it's the receivers, but, but again, this has been a thing and you can talk about the
05:35general manager of this team, but I mean, a couple of years ago, Dobbs and Wicks, Warren
05:39Sharp put out his, his grades for wide receivers or whatever else they were the two worst wide
05:44receivers in football, uh, based on whether it's route running drops, um, whatever the
05:50case may be.
05:50They were horrible.
05:51They had drops as an issue with this team for quite some time under Matt LaFleur.
05:55Um, I don't think it's Jordan love.
05:57I mean, if the ball hits your hands, you're supposed to catch it.
06:00At least that's what I was always told by former NFL players I've worked with.
06:03Um, and that's exactly what's happened.
06:05But as a Packer fan, you go back to Devante Adams who dropped all kinds of balls his first
06:10year or two in green Bay.
06:12And then he figured it out.
06:13James Jones, um, who I have on my show once a week, he dropped a lot of balls early on
06:17in
06:18his career too, uh, with the Packers.
06:20And then eventually, you know, puts together a couple of really good years.
06:22So I don't think there's a lot of concern, but one thing I will tell you is, and we saw
06:26it last week, uh, in that game where Matthew golden drops the ball in the end zone and it
06:31was a tougher catch, right?
06:32He had to kind of adjust as the ball was kind of going over the other shoulder, hit him in
06:36the hands of the end zone.
06:37He dropped it.
06:38The very next play love comes right back to him and gets golden for a touchdown.
06:42You know, golden probably getting somewhere around 12 targets a game right now.
06:46Christian Watson is somewhere between like six and eight.
06:48Um, so even though he's dropping the ball, it is not, you know, having Jordan love go
06:54to somebody else with the football, but that's Aaron Rogers back in the day.
06:57You know, I don't know if he gets as many targets.
07:00Well, how do you see this matchup Sparky?
07:02I mean, I, I watched the Chicago beat down.
07:03Obviously that was different without Caleb in there.
07:05We were impressed by the bears, but you got like a passing offense, your strength.
07:09And obviously the Pats pass defense is pretty good.
07:12How do you think this plays out?
07:14I think for the Packers, the biggest thing is going to be keeping Jordan love upright
07:18and not dead, um, because that has been, you know, some of the bigger issue here.
07:23Uh, and yeah, look, they went out and got some street free agents on the offensive line.
07:27Lakeland Tomlinson got moved to right guard last week.
07:29Oh, by the way, he's never played right guard in his career until practice last week.
07:33Um, so he's at right guard, Aaron Banks, who they signed to a big free agent deal a couple
07:38of years ago, isn't very good, uh, but he returned at left guard.
07:41Um, so they're hoping he gets better as you know, he gets healthier here in the second
07:45half.
07:46They signed Kevin Zeitler, a long time, uh, a great guard in this league.
07:50He has yet to see the field, a Kai Becton, the former Eagle, uh, they signed him too.
07:55He has yet to see the field for the Packers.
07:57So they've been trying to fix the offensive line issues that they've had.
08:01And part of the reason they've had is because of injuries, but regardless, that's a problem.
08:05So I think it's Packers offensive line against the Patriots, you know, front seven and trying
08:10to keep Jordan Love clean.
08:11I think that's number one.
08:13And then I think number two for the Green Bay Packers is, can they continue to get pressure
08:17on the quarterback?
08:18They've been doing a really good job of that here the last couple of weeks, even though
08:21there is no Micah Parsons, they've been consistently around the quarterback.
08:25Now, whether that be, you know, guys just beating their guys, you know, up front, whether that
08:29be blitzing guys from all different angles, Jonathan Gannon has done a fabulous job of disguising
08:34things and sending guys, um, and really keeping offenses on their heels.
08:39And the one thing that came up this week that I thought was really good was, you know, Gannon
08:43came out and said, you know, I talked with Matt LaFleur during the week about, Hey, if
08:48I run this kind of like, what's your counter to this, if I run this and they're having conversations
08:53during the week about what defenses they both think will work in a game.
08:57And then what the counters are from an offensive perspective.
08:59I know in years past, those conversations probably weren't happening necessarily as much as they
09:04are maybe now.
09:05And I think that's really led Gannon to really have a much better defense.
09:08I think everybody thought he was going to have without Micah Parsons.
09:11Okay.
09:11Sparky last question for me.
09:13Um, it was so fun to go to, to the draft last year in, uh, in green Bay there in
09:18Lambeau
09:18field.
09:19I just, I, can you just kind of maybe explain, I'm sure you've been obviously to other stadiums
09:23and you've seen other stadiums and developments around them, but I thought the development around
09:27green, the real Lambeau field was so unique.
09:30It's so cool.
09:31Um, how, I mean, first off, let me ask you, how did, how did the draft event, uh, I don't
09:38know, what was the, the thought of it?
09:40Did it, did you, did you guys like hosting that?
09:41And then also just what makes maybe the experience at Lambeau and all the developments around so
09:46special?
09:48I think, yes, uh, green Bay loved it.
09:51I think there was a lot of fear going into that, that it was going to kind of really put
09:55that town into chaos and be a chaotic disaster.
09:59And it really wasn't from a traffic perspective and how they got people in and out, um, the
10:04people that rented Airbnbs and all of that other stuff.
10:07And there really were no horror stories that came out of that.
10:10Everybody was really, really surprised by how, you know, that went and how well it went.
10:14And everybody seemed to like it.
10:16Uh, you see the people talking about it that weren't from out of town that, you know, after
10:19they left what they thought of the experience, everybody seemed to have a positive experience
10:23in green Bay, but I think, yeah, they were very excited to host that.
10:26Um, then the other aspect of, you know, looking at that development of green Bay and Milwaukee
10:35with the bucks, um, both of those, whether it be Mark Murphy, uh, whether it be Peter Fagan
10:41and bucks ownership back in the day before they created that deer district outside of five
10:44surf forum that everybody saw on TV when the bucks won the championship, to be honest, uh,
10:48both of those groups, both went all over the country, looking at all the different developments.
10:53They were in new England, checking out what the Patriots did.
10:56Uh, they were at Fenway seeing what that was like around Boston.
10:59They were all over the country.
11:01They have no stone in turn.
11:02And then they try to figure out, okay, what makes sense here?
11:04But the bigger part of that puzzle was what they were doing for years leading up to it,
11:09which was buying parcels of land all over in that area, buying this parcel of land, buying that
11:15parcel of land, knocking down that shop, go knocking down that gas station, buying this street of
11:20houses and trying to, you know, spend all that money so they could do what they wanted to do.
11:25And, you know, when they got all done with it and you see what it looks like now, I mean,
11:29it's a plus man, you couldn't have done it any better.
11:32Uh, and it also allows them to have that be more of a community thing year round in green Bay,
11:37other than it just being just for football.
11:40Yes.
11:40Well, Sparky, thanks for coming on with us.
11:42We really appreciate it.
11:43Um, and, uh, well, it's going to be a hell of a game this weekend, Sparky.
11:46I'm looking forward to, uh, seeing how they fare.
11:49It's a pretty good matchup.
11:50I think right now Vegas has got them only, the Patriots only favored by three.
11:53So it should be, uh, it should be a good one.
11:55Matt Collins is back for you guys.
11:57Did I see that?
11:57Yeah.
11:58He practiced today.
11:59Yeah.
11:59So he, we don't, it's not officially he's back, but he's practicing today.
12:03Do you think he'll play?
12:05Yes.
12:05I think he will.
12:06Yes.
12:07That's my guess.
12:08That's a big ad for you guys.
12:09I think.
12:10Oh yeah.
12:11Trust me.
12:12He needs anybody.
12:12He needs a warm body out there to throw it to.
12:15It's, uh, it's slim pickings right now for Drake May.
12:17All right, Sparky.
12:18Thank you very much for coming on.
12:19I appreciate it.
12:20Thanks for having me.
12:21He's the host.