Glad to hear that, Guam! A lot to be excited about with this CB. From my draft notes:

Pick #232 CB Carrington Valentine - Kentucky (33rd CB taken. #137 Overall Daniel Jeremiah)
6-0 193 4.44 (72%) 39” vertical (85%) 128” broad (86%)

LENGTH, SPEED, AGGRESSION, TENACIOUS, MIRROR, FLUID, Changes direction on a dime.

INSTINCTS. Very strong in zone coverage. Also +press-man.

Exceptional athlete. Twitchy quick w track star long speed.

Long arms to succeed in press-man coverage, AND heavy, solid zone experience. Reactive, fluid & sticks to WRs.

Sees routes develop and able to run with receivers. +drive mechanics in zone. Eager to jump slant routes. VERY COMPETITIVE. Takes completions personally. Innately driven and DB Coach’s dream. Led Kentucky in PDs with 17.

Works hard in RUN D.

STs >>> Regular on KR coverage, PR coverage and PR teams

Boundary CB in zone heavy scheme with enticing blend of tools/physicality perfect for NFL.

NEGATIVE: allows big plays +20 (8) Also needs consistency tackling in run game. Just needs to polish skills & technique both coverage & v. run.

Long, athletic, aggressive CB yet to reach ceiling as man cover, ball instincts and technique - all underdeveloped. Zone/Press corner projection.

No Jaire, no Rasul, no Stokes, no Nixon. He's certainly getting his share of opportunities.

Hi Guam...I actually saw that after I had posted that later in the morning. Thank you for the heads up though, I always want to hear about other Packers content. It was actually encouraging to read that about Valentine.

Double post

His field of vision was blocked. A permanent screen in the middle. /s

Actually last season I saw him target Lazard in the middle, which is just the WRONG way to use him IMHO. Put him on the perimeter and put the ball where only he could get it. Let them double cover him, it wouldn't matter. I don't know that this is a viable strategy for JL10 and Christian Watson. Maybe that pinpoint accuracy will develop?

Thus far the unheralded receiver who has consistently attracted attention with stand out plays is Malik Heath, who is very similar in type to DuBose. Similar height and about 10 pounds heavier. I don’t put much store on catches against guys in shorts and non contact drills, but Heath is a guy to watch.

More generally, the chances are not all 7 will be healthy. I think that if healthy , the locks are WR Watson, Doubs, Reed and Toure and everyone after could be on a PS route. I do not see them keeping 7 unless Nixon is hurt, especially now we have Musgrave likely taking snaps in part as a receiving TE. I could see 4 RBs if Goodson (who has looked good thus far in shorts) and was playing in the slot yesterday, makes the team.

As to the rest, I’ve no idea how the DL will shake out. Slayton could make a push and is Ford for real? I’m going to hold off on anointing the final group there in part because the mix of types still puzzles me.

The odds are against a repeat of all making the opening roster, but that’s good: it’s important that we start to build our pipeline and that includes the PS. I don’t see our later picks being a problem to stash there unless they visibly ball out in camp to a point that gets wider notice, in which case I doubt we try.

The competition is looking like it’s going to be great this summer all over the roster. It looks like Tarvarius Moore is pushing Ford at this point, Goodson is making a case and Brenton Cox early on with Malik Heath and Valentine. Let’s hope they continue once the pads go on and get some company! It’s going to be fun.

On a side note, I was interested to see that Deguara and Pearson have been off in a separate F Back group at times. Practicing lead blocking technique but also the H/F back type of plays we’ve not seen. On both counts I find that an encouraging sign.

He's got the goods, mrtundra! I mean, from the looks of him. Small school stasher on our IR to develop for a year to bring him up to NFL standards? Not a bad plan, if that is what Gutekunst is thinking here.

Grant DuBose really does look the part.

DuBose did not have a catching problem. He had very good hands in fact, including in contested situations. Melton and particularly Wicks and Watts have had issues catching. The questions with DuBose and Heath are timed speed and small school competition.

We tend to overlook undrafted depth, but Cotton (who is fast and also an X type) made the tough catch and got both feet in against the odds that got Clifford praise for a 2 minute drill yesterday. Competition is going to be fierce.

Not sure where you get his drops stats from, but, he played for a very small school, and agree he's probably a candidate for IR protection for a solid year of development.

With 13 picks, after having rostered 11 the year prior, you've got to figure Gutekunst was essentially securing what he felt might be his top UDFA hopeful with one of those late R7 selections - with a long term development plan ahead.

Spock! Grant DuBose, Pick #256 has got some skills, right? I mean, he's from Charlotte University... small small small program. But, one look at him and you can see he belongs in this NFL.

I have to laugh a bit, because Gutekunst finds gems all over the place. He may have told DuBose that he was going to shut him down for full on development to bring him more up to speed this year with a plan to play him later in the season if necessary or next year.

A guy like that, with a solid year dedicated to his development at the NFL level? Reminiscent of Alcorn State's Donald Driver... selected in 1999's 7th Round, Pick# 213. Gutekunst has an eye for WR talent, and oddly, he was Ron Wolf's Scout that year Wolf drafted Driver...

Huh...!?! Hmm!?!

I hope there's so much talent that MLF has to pull his hair out trying to decide final cuts :)

I haven't heard of an obvious worst option on the 90 man roster yet ...

Yeah, Al, DuBose has some of those intangibles you look for in an NFL prospect. Size, frame, length, fluidity, etc.

Grant is an exceptional route runner to begin with. That's probably his top trait. That and TOUGHNESS. I love seeing that in a WR most aside from catching ability & routes.

DuBose's other plus trait, as you mentioned is in contested catch wins. DuBose OWNS the ball and rarely dropped a pass from what I've read on him.

He plays bigger than he is (6-2 201) and has those natural ball skills. He's also got plus body fluidity, helping him in his mid-air adjustments and catch point talents. Apparently he was known as a jump ball weapon & zone beater.

As you said, huge jump in competition. Hard to say what is going on with his unknown injury. Just hoping for the best for his quick return to the roster competition, but maybe they just have a plan to hold him back this season to give him more specialized work.

From my notes, I guess he had some STs to him too. 8.4 yds/att on PR, and was a tackle machine in punt coverage.

Al, I also noticed the contested catch ability in an extended highlight reel. I was bummed when I read he was a no show at practice. Obviously he's attended now, do you know how many he missed?

No word on either player’s injuries keeping them out of participating that I have seen. I do think both Kraft & DuBose are there at the OTAs tho.

DuBose has just been injured (withheld from on field activities) but present since rookie mini camp. I don’t think he’s missed being present at any. Kraft was practicing yesterday.

This is a good look at it.

When Al wrote "surprised the difference between Rodgers and the rest of the league wasn't greater?" my thought was "not at all, those are 3 catches a game that would've gone to a decent TE or good slot guy, to a Findley or Driver or Cobb, who could get open consistently."

That's who I was thinking of. Thanks.

Dusty Evely, who is a complete boss with this stuff, and the author of the sited article went a bit further in his deep dive into this notion, and this part might be what many of us sensed.

The percentages sited were comprised from ALL QBs.

Evely went a step further and took RPOs behind the line of scrimmage out of the equation, concentrating on the 67 QBs who attempted at least 100 non-RPO passes past the LOS since 2019.

*** Of those 67 QBs, Rodgers ranked 65th at targeting the middle of the field.

Turns out Jimmy Garoppolo led that group of 67 QBs, targeting the middle of the field 58.4% of his attempts. In essence, Garoppolo attempted 14 more passes over the middle per game than did AR.

>>> Compared to most of the league's QBs we saw (67 QBs for 32 teams) throwing over the middle, Rodgers was close to dead last, amongst starters and backups, with just 35% of his passes targeting the middle.

I'll go onto add, the Packers in that span were pretty one dimensional in the middle of the field, and the king of the hill in Targets during the span since LaFleur's hire was Davante Adams, by an insanely wide margin.

YEAR / ADAMS / NEXT WR ON TARGETS LIST

2021 / 169 / 40 (Lazard)
2020 / 149 / 63 (MVS)
2019 / 127 / 52 (Lazard)

Much of that stuff going into the middle of the field was to Adams. Neither of Lazard nor MVS did much work over the middle. Bob Tonyan was 3rd on the Targets list in 2020 with 59. 11 of those were TDs. 9 were + 20.

Based on that, Guam, your eyes weren't deceiving you!!!

The difference between Rodgers and the rest of the league on throws over the middle may not look as big as expected, but it's pretty big. Percentages involving high volume tend to not look dramatic. But the difference between 46% and 38.5% is 7.5%, which is the same as the difference between a .300 hitter and a .225 hitter.

Al, I agree that all of the draft picks are NOT making the roster this year. Of course, I think most if not all will end up on the practice squad. From the four you mentioned Dubose and Nichols seem most likely barring injury. Dubose is a guy I really like. However, I don’t think that means we lose them. Positionally, I think RB and WR are the least likely to get scooped up by another team from a practice squad. So from that standpoint, unless the guy really shines during the Exhibition season you can effectively hide him on the practice squad.

I wouldn't put too much into that chart.
I remember they had Rodgers rolling out.
Splitting the field in 1/2 and catching the
Wrs coming over the middle.
But it is what it is isn't it?
The biggest thing is Separation.
And with the weapons Rodgers had.
How DID HE WIN THOSE MVPS.
Moving on:
With all the complaints about not kicking
the ball into the end Zone.
Crosby still came up big when it counted.
Not this years's Rookies?
Why not ? The safety position is in a mess.
We always have a place for a CB.
And next year Dillion might not be here.
Money changes people. You know that.
It looks like the WR battle will come
down to chemistry.
But the bigger Question, is still Jordan Love.

"Love has really been attacking the middle of the field during OTAs. The Packers have been running a lot of slants and crossers, and Love has been finding the soft spot in the defense."
We will see but they drafted 2 TE's and a WR that figures to get a lot of playing time in the slot. It doesn't feel like its all about the QB. It feels like schematically they want to attack the middle of the field more.

It's over Mason -
Crosby will be missed. He had a great career and will be missed. It makes sense why they are moving on from Crosby. They are essentially restarting and now is the time to break in a new kicker.

Not this year, rookies -
My guess is 3 of the 4 make it. I think Johnson, Valentine and DuBose likely have the best chances at making it. Nichols could, but they have went with 2 RB's in the past. Goodson has had a great OTA's so far. Taylor has experience. Its going to be tough for Nichols to make it. I believe tougher then the other 3. But that's why these decisions aren't made today.

Force the defense to cover the whole field, both width and depth. It appears that GB has the playbook, the receivers, and the QB to do it.
GPG!

This time I will have just to agree with you, Al. Nothing to add.

I believe, Mason as good person as he is understand that his time for being player in NFL is over. Father time catch him and I believe that was mutual agreement, w/o any drama, between Packers and Mason to finish his career. While I do not expect his number to be retired, he will be in Packers HOF soon. He deserved that by his performance and, not less important, by his behavior as Packers. He will be remembered in Packers Nation as one of the greatest.

Regarding drafted rookies I bet that because of Brendon Cox, one of them will not make the team. My bet is on Nickols or DuBoise (DuBoise might finish on PUP list or on IR).

Damn kickers. You find a great one and then just have to turn around in 17 years and get another one. Let's hope they still make 'em like they used to.

Thanks, Mason.

Rodgers HAS been throwing over the middle much more under Matt LaFleur than he was during his last many years under MM. It is one area where Rodgers did show a willingness to change his habits to some extent.

One thing he often did, however, was throw those passes to targets over the middle (particularly the short-to-medium depth targets) with very, very low balls or ball somewhat behind the WR, which often led to the receiver having to severely contort or break stride to catch the ball, resulting in few YAC. But at least he was throwing them over the middle more often.

In Rodgers *real* prime ( MVPs of late be damned- we're talking about 2010-2014), Rodgers would throw over the middle with authority, be it deep seams or shallow crossers, with balls placed at chest to shoulder height out in front of the target leading them in stride to open field. Risk adverse Rodgers of 2015-2018 would rarely throw between the hashes, while under LaFleur, he has returned to some semblance of balance in his field distribution, although his fear of picks has put many less-than-ideal balls over the middle.

I think that much of Rodgers throwing tendency was dictated by his TE/WR talent. The Packers never favoured the smaller, quick twitch receiver that could exploit the middle nor did we have many TEs who had enough talent to feed in the middle. Most of Rodgers later career was throwing to guys who got little separation so the crowded middle was not the place to play the game. If we don't equip Love with enough catching talent he will be gambling over the middle or playing it safer on the sidelines.

Love this column as always, Al. Who'd of thought that you'd be sad to see Mason go after the way you felt about him during his famous "slump" year, lol. I'm stoked for this young team. I'm managing expectations, but just think this will be a very, very, fun and competitive team to watch this year. GPG!

I never understood how the myth of Aaron's Rodgers refusing to throw over the middle began. But like most things it was just a matter of people not paying attention and of course the media creating a crisis that didn't exist yet again. Having said that I do believe that as the quality of Rodgers receiving corps declined over the last 3-4 seasons, with the exception of Adams, Rodgers did not have the confidence to throw over the middle as often as he had earlier in his career. The risk of having a pass tipped or go off a receivers hands increases the possibilities for a turnover.

However Rodgers continued to throw quick slants and medium to long passes over the middle even during recent seasons. As I have often posted before just watch the games, pay attention and ignore the broadcasters and sports media air heads.

Sorry to read about what looks like the actual end for Mason Crosby's career in Green Bay. He was an excellent kicker and he was a great Packer. I wish him well in his future. Who knows the Packers may need to bring him back yet if the current kickers on the roster prove to be flops.

I see Johnson and Nichols as the 7th rounders with the best shot at making the roster. Valentine and Dubose could make the PS. We'll see.

Great job as usual Al. Thanks, Since '61

Thanks for the excellent article Al.

I know that the other writers do try to write good articles.

But you don't just try, you always deliver!

The middle for Rodgers was like Tolkein's middle-earth - a place where humans inhabited but was fraught with evil and monsters (especially linebackers). So probably a place to not always be brave - especially if one lacked another hero or two.

As for the bounty of hopeful rookies. Better too many than too few. Or, finding quality through quantity.

Its always the media, the NFL, the myth.....its never AR and dont talk about stats and numbers. Other than that is the real bad media, that one AR is using. And McAffee may be one of the better once. Look at his barstool friend or Rogan. If you want call that media, than its really bad. But people just get what they want and not the other way around.

He had no weapons just more than any other top QB on average over the years. Brady won with undersized WR, even for slot guys.
He had some great ones too, but so did AR. But it always the D, the weapons, the weather or the Coach. Sometimes the media. Never the diva.

He did not turn it over, but at what cost. He hold it forever and did not throw it away. How many games did he won when it counts? He was such a big part of the SC and did not play like it. We are in much better shape now, even Love is not that great

Doesn't seem like a good sign for those that think Love can be better than Rodgers was last year:

"On Tuesday, Love threw Doubs’ way twice in that drill, completing a crosser for 14 yards and a comeback route for six yards before the drive ended with a goal-line interception on a poorly thrown ball late over the middle to Watson.

When Love isn’t throwing ducks -- and there have been more than a couple of wobblers so far in OTAs -- he’s throwing to No. 87."

https://www.espn.com/blog/green-bay-packers/post/_/id/53335/romeo-doubs-...

The distribution isn't shocking but our results weren't particularly great in the middle of the field. At least until Watson hit his stride. All of Cobb and Tonyan and many of Lazards catches were in the middle of the field but none of these players made much of an impact there. I remember Farve used to attack the middle extremely well with deep slants and then come underneath to his backs. Have Dillon or Jones ever caught a checkdown in the middle of the field? Their targets always seem to be wide...
It will be fun to see the difference with more dangerous weapons and a more willing passer.