Who stood out and who stunk it up on Family Night for the Green Bay Packers?

Good morning!

The Green Bay Packers are officially post-Family Night and pre-preseason opener. Does that make it the “pre, pre” phase of the season? Sure, let’s go with that. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue though. Let’s not forget Family Night is just a practice even if there were competitive periods, though you could be forgiven for not noticing on the telecast that was a complete disaster in just about every facet.

But being in the pre, pre means having actual football to talk about, not just offseason silliness both from Family Night and in our look ahead to the preseason opener against the Bengals. So, let’s jump right in.

---

Today's edition of The Leap is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, an industry leader in daily and season-long fantasy contests.

Subscribers of The Leap can join Underdog Fantasy here with our special signup link to double your initial deposit up to $100. It's a great way to play fantasy sports with real fans while also supporting the work we do here.

---

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @by_jbh on Instagram / @JBH@mastodon.social on Mastodon / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

Peter Bukowski: @Peter_Bukowski on Twitter / @peter_bukowski on Instagram / @Peter_Bukowski@mas.to on Mastodon / @peterbukowski@bsky.social on Bluesky / @peter_bukowski on Threads

The Leap: @TheLeapGB on Twitter / @TheLeap@mas.to on Mastodon

If you appreciate thoughtful, independent coverage of the Packers and NFL, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support allows us to serve this community with the stories and reporting it deserves.

As always, thanks for making The Leap a part of your day.

Who stood out in a positive way on Family Night?

Peter Bukowski: A couple names could top the list here but in terms of importance, let’s start with Devonte Wyatt. The Packers defense desperately needs a suitable running mate for Kenny Clark, and the rising sophomore went in the first round last spring specifically to play that part.

With the departure of Dean Lowry earlier this year, Wyatt could have assumed he was the heir apparent and entered training camp with no urgency. Instead, he showed up in better shape, kicking ass, and taking names.

He flashed a handful of impressive pass rush reps and has been disruptive in the run game. Rookies Karl Brooks and Coby Wooden could have just as easily been on this list as well, which bodes well for a Joe Barry front that lacked any kind of non-Clark playmaking last season.

(Video via Zach Jacobson)

Special shoutout here goes to rookie kicker Anders Carlson who put together a massive bounce-back practice after a brutal start to camp. He nailed multiple field goals of 50-plus yards with seeming ease and only missed one kick on the night.

Over the last two weeks, a clock could be set by Carlson missing the first kick of his set. Not ideal considering in a game he’d only get that one shot at it. To have the amplified pressure with 70,000 fans at Lambeau Field under the lights and perform better than his baseline says something about his resolve which will have to be steely to endure such a rough beginning to his summer.

Who stood out in a negative way during Family Night?

PB: It’s not difficult to see why Josh Myers has been rotating with Zach Tom at center with the first-team offense. Myers was on the receiving end of the above Wyatt highlight, botched a snap to open the two-minute drill, and has been, according to a report, the only center to botch a center-quarterback exchange during camp.

Oh, and it’s happened five times.

Last week, Matt LaFleur said the team has “complete confidence” in Myers but wants to see more consistency. The team’s actions undermine those words and, with Tom set to start somewhere along the offensive line, it wouldn’t be surprising for LaFleur, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, and offensive-line coach Luke Butkus to decide the improvement of Tom over Myers is greater than the drop-off from Tom to Yosh Nijman.

Right now, I would agree, though there’s plenty of time left in camp for that to change.

And at the risk of inflaming fans over this, I want to put Jordan Love tepidly in this category. It’s not that he was bad. I don’t think he was at all. In fact, I said on our live Locked on Packers after the practice -- yes, a livestream to break down a practice because we are football sickos -- Love flashed the kind of playmaking and high-end arm talent one would want to see from a former first-round pick.

But that’s not to say everything was perfect. He missed a handful of throws high and, while that’s not the end of the world, the consistency in accuracy is still the one thing Love has to clean up the most. His playmaking and arm talent shined through some of the mistakes, particularly in the two-minute drill at the end of the game that featured three gorgeous throws.

Love didn’t truly stand out in a bad way to me, but it’s important to recognize his slow start and some off-target throws while we’re dissecting every mico-movement he makes.

The concern level is low, but it was a slow start. We can call it what it was.

What player stands to gain the most heading into Week 1 of the preseason?

PB: New safety Jonathan Owens made his second consecutive appearance with the starting defense on Saturday night and, with the safety position so unsettled, he’s one of the only players on the team with the potential to actually earn a starting job over the new few weeks.

Owens brings by far the most starting experience of any safety competing for the spot next to Darnell Savage, and that is only because he started last year for a hapless Houston Texans team on which he accumulated massive amounts of tackles but not passing grades from the folks over at PFF. He’s small for a safety, but an explosive athlete and will bring bad intentions to ball carriers.

Owens came from Missouri Western and it makes sense it would take some time for him to find his footing in the NFL. Now, he’s married to the greatest gymnast of all time and has a chance to start for one of America’s most storied franchises in its most popular sport.

I’d say that qualifies as footing found.

What the heck was going on with the Family Night broadcast?

PB: Packers fans deserve better. Hiding behind “competitive” reasons for not streaming a glorified practice, Mark Murphy embarrassed himself by going on the broadcast to say they were proud of the way they were expanding the “fan experience” while said broadcast repeatedly cut away from team periods so Murphy could brag about the new, bigger “G” on the stadium facade and the loud sound system they installed.

I’m not making those up.

They brought in the radio play-by-play crew then didn’t call any of the action on the field for the first hour, instead putting together what would otherwise have been interesting interviews that would have made way more sense in the 40 minutes they showed warmups. We were all watching anyway.

And just about every meaningful or interesting play from the first 85 minutes of practice wasn’t shown on the telecast but wound up on Twitter anyway because of course they did. So what are the Packers really stopping anyway?

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs put everything on social media and it’s worked out decently well for them. For a team that brags about being fan-owned, the Packers consistently find ways to scuttle fan engagement with the team, particularly online. Their apathy for social media in particular makes the team look like it’s run by Luddites or people so arrogant they simply don’t think they have to care enough to engage with it.

Either way, not great, Bob.

Scouts show up to public practices. They were at Lambeau Field. If they want to see practice, they’ll see it. This is not the Manhattan Project and Murphy damn sure isn’t Oppenheimer, so what are we doing here?

No media videos are allowed at practice to the point, last week ESPN -- a rights holder for crying out loud! -- had to use fan footage during a segment talking about Jordan Love. That’s an absolute joke and Packers fans deserve better. But the franchise’s decision-makers know people will continue to buy tickets at historic rates and fill the stadium for practice while Chicago Bears fans can’t even muster more than a couple thousand for their knockoff version of Family Night.

The Packers are doing their supporters a disservice, especially considering those very people are proving what great fans they are by showing up 70,000 strong for a practice with fireworks.

Please, do better.