The Green Bay Packers had their second practice of training camp on Thursday, and the defense thoroughly dominated the offense after the offense’s “win” in the opening practice. Let’s get into the details.
Participation
There were no significant changes in participation today. Running back Amar Johnson (hamstring), receiver Christian Watson (knee), offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins (back), offensive lineman John Williams (back), defensive end Collin Oliver (hamstring) and linebacker Quay Walker (ankle) remain out
of practice. Walker has officially been activated from the physically unable to perform list, a hint he’s getting close to a return from his offseason ankle surgery. Yesterday, general manager Brian Gutekunst said that Walker is probably a week from participating in practice.
Johnson and Jenkins are on the non-football injury list, meaning that they got hurt outside of the team facilities, while Watson, Williams and Oliver were on the physically unable to perform list.
Offense
Jordan Love and Elgton Jenkins having a chat between periods. Love was playfully trying to put Jenkins’ jersey on him. QB1 wants his center back. pic.twitter.com/DWG9HCtYS2
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) July 24, 2025
According to Packer Report’s Andy Herman, the offensive skill players who practiced with the first-team unit today were quarterbacks Jordan Love and Malik Willis, running backs Josh Jacobs and Chris Brooks, receivers Savion Williams, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed and Malik Heath and tight ends Tucker Kraft, Luke Musgrave and Ben Sims. The offensive line, from left to right, was Rasheed Walker, Aaron Banks, Sean Rhyan, Jordan Morgan and Zach Tom.
Yesterday was the first practice we’ve seen this summer where Morgan, who Gutekunst said was in an open competition for the starting left tackle job with Walker, was at right guard for an extended period of time. Before training camp, most of the snaps at center and right guard have come from a rotation of Rhyan and second-year draft pick Jacob Monk. At least as of now, Rhyan has an edge over Monk at the center position. Keep in mind, though, the offensive line will shake up again when Jenkins returns to practice. Rhyan and Morgan rotated at right guard during the last regular season, until Morgan’s shoulder injury became unmanageable and led to him being placed on the injured reserve in November.
At one point in practice, Banks, the Packers’ high-priced free-agent signing this offseason, dropped out due to injury. There have been no updates on his status, but he was replaced by Travis Glover, not Monk, at left guard.
Despite the offense’s success in the first practice of training camp, the defense got the best of them in competitive periods. We’ll get into that more later.
Defense
Practice ends with a sack by Keith Randolph. Defense dominates the key segments and wins the day. pic.twitter.com/sAffo7f3UR
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 24, 2025
Defensively, the first-team unit was made up of defensive ends Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness and Benton Cox, defensive tackles Devonte Wyatt, Kenny Clark and Karl Brooks, linebackers Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie and Isaiah Simmons, cornerbacks Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine and safeties Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Jonathan Bullard.
The only real news of note here is that it’s Brenton Cox, not 2024 starter Kingsley Enagbare, who has the edge at the third defensive end job right now. Cox was also the top end opposite of Gary in walkthrough reps, too.
It’s also worth mentioning that Simmons seems to be the leader of the clubhouse to be the team’s fourth linebacker, with Quay Walker out with an injury. Ty’Ron Hopper, the team’s 2024 third-round pick, just hasn’t been able to make a dent in the depth chart through two years with the Packers.
In the competitive period, the defense won pretty much across the board after having to do punishment pushups for losing to the offense yesterday. In tied two-minute drill situations, the first-team defense came down with a Carrington Valentine interception of Malik Willis, the second-team defense forced a punt from the first-team offense, the first-team defense forced a punt from the first-team offense and the third-team registered an interception from safety Omar Brown from Canadian quarterback Taylor Elgersma.
As a reminder, defenses are usually ahead of schedule compared to offenses at this point in camp, because of how much offensive football relies on chemistry. That’s what made yesterday’s offensive “win” so notable.
Special Teams
We still haven’t seen the Packers’ new kicker, Mark McNamee, kick a ball in practice. The thing that was notable on special teams today was how much the punt returners struggled to hold onto the ball. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Ryan Wood, receivers Matthew Golden and Dontayvion Wicks each muffed a punt today, while Jayden Reed let a ball drop to the ground. The punter today was the JUGS machine, not Daniel Whelan, so there’s a chance that players just needed to get used to the robo punter.
Either way, this is still Mecole Hardman’s job to lose. Hardman is a former Pro Bowler as a punt return specialist and essentially has to win the job to make the 53-man roster. Green Bay has struggled at the punt returner position during coordinator Rich Bisaccia’s time with the team. Amari Rodgers was consistently one of the worst returners in the league in 2021 and 2022. Reed hasn’t put the ball on the ground as much as Rodgers did, but hasn’t been anything of note, either.
More from acmepackingcompany.com:
- Black and Blue News: This Week in the NFC North for July 6, 2014
- Cheese Curds: Green Bay Packers News and Links for July 7, 2014
- Packers 2013 Top Plays Recap: Top Ten Best Plays of the Year
- Packers Featured Heavily in NFL's Top 20 Games of 2013
- Packers' 2014 Roster Preview: Returning Quarterbacks
- Packers' 90-Man Roster Countdown: Players 5-1
