Green Bay Packers beat writer for The Athletic • The Matt Schneidman Show on
@TheGameMKE
M-F 6-7 p.m. CT • The Brick and The Stick podcast with John Kuhn
Marshawn Lynch was serving tequila shots at a parking lot tailgate in Oakland eight days ago for the Raiders' last game there. Now he's gonna start for the Seahawks in the playoffs.
Legend.
Marshawn Lynch just walked into the
#Packers
locker room with his jersey. He gave fellow Cal alum Aaron Rodgers a big hug. Rodgers took his jersey from his locker and they just went down a hallway to presumably exchange and share some words.
Jaire Alexander: “Tell Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless they need to watch what they say when they talk about me, you feel me? They need to watch what they put out. Talkin’ about, ‘He a good corner.’ I’m a great corner.”
Aaron Rodgers on going from Davante Adams to Allen Lazard as WR1:
“I mean it’s always tough going from Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer. From Davante to Allen, it’s gonna be a transition, but he’s capable of a lot.”
Aaron Rodgers on
@PatMcAfeeShow
: "We haven't picked a skill player in the first round in 15 years, so that would be kind of cool."
Rodgers says whoever the pick is, he'll track down his phone number and welcome him to the team tonight -- if the Packers don't trade out.
Aaron Rodgers recently told
@peter_king
he loves TE6 Bronson Kaufusi.
When Rodgers praised Jake Kumerow last year, the Packers cut him and he’s now on the Bills.
@RobDemovsky
: “I can’t wait to see what Kaufusi does in Buffalo this year.”
Rodgers’ reaction:
“Jordan, I’m happy you’ll finally get to start next season.”
“Sweet, man. Congrats on a great career. Honored to take over for you.”
“Nah, you’re going to the Raiders with some picks in exchange for Davante.”
Davante Adams on Odell Beckham Jr.: “I mean, he had one catch, like 6 yards in his last game, so I can guarantee you we can get him more than that over here. So as long as he’s good with two catches, 12 yards, we should be straight.”
If you ever want to know why Packers reporters will tell you there’s nobody better to talk with than Davante Adams, just watch this.
When it looks like he’s checking his texts during a Zoom press conference, he’s searching for and showing us film of how the Ravens guarded him.
Matt LaFleur after giving Keisean Nixon a game ball: "You know what I'm most impressed by? Somebody threw a punch at you and you didn't fucking respond."
Jamaal Williams stood in front of the Packers tunnel as they all ran onto the field and was high-fiving them like he’s still on the team. What a guy. Got a big hug from Aaron Rodgers, among others.
D.J. Moore had two catches for 25 yards today.
Jaire Alexander: “Yeah, it was real quiet for him. I don’t know if anybody thought anything else was gonna happen.”
Notable Ted Thompson draft picks:
Aaron Rodgers (his first ever)
Nick Collins
Greg Jennings
James Jones
Mason Crosby
Jordy Nelson
Josh Sitton
Clay Matthews
T.J. Lang
Bryan Bulaga
Randall Cobb
David Bakhtiari
Davante Adams
Corey Linsley
Kenny Clark
Aaron Jones
Lil Wayne says on
@undisputed
he’s dropping another Packers song tonight. First one since the 2010 season, which also happened to be the last time Green Bay won the Super Bowl.
Bo Melton said today that Jordan Love has hosted dinner and a film session at his house with the entire offense every Monday since the season started. Defense is invited, too.
"Just the bond of staying connected with him, that's big as a wide receiver."
Za'Darius Smith is the first Viking into the tunnel after the game. Ran straight for the locker room. Most of the team still on the field shaking hands and talking.
Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs losing their shit for Bo Melton as he enters the locker room. Watson picked Melton up. Melton, a practice squad elevation, became the Packers’ first 100-yard receiver of the season tonight.
According to Pro Football Focus, Aaron Rodgers targeted Jalen Ramsey seven times yesterday and went 7-for-7. Rodgers was 5-for-5 for three first downs to Davante Adams when Adams was guarded by Ramsey.
“Because of Aaron Rodgers, it’s gonna be OK.”
He’s helped keep afloat or save altogether 80 small businesses and counting in and around his NorCal hometown.
I spoke with a bunch of them about their pandemic stories & what Rodgers’ help has done for them:
Matt LaFleur said Aaron Rodgers came up to him right before the kneel-downs last night and suggested that Kurt Benkert take them because last night was his first time suiting up for a game since entering the NFL in 2018.
Allen Lazard on Aaron Rodgers planning to play through injury in Chicago:
"I think he's still gotta renew his ownership ... you gotta do that twice a year."
Rasul Douglas says all it’ll take for him to be back with the Packers in free agency is for them to ask him to return.
Won’t it take a little more money than he made this season, though?
Douglas: “Probably a little bit more. Nothing crazy.”
What did Aaron Rodgers say to Christian Watson on the sideline after his two drops on the opening drive?
“The ball is still coming your way, buddy. Let’s get one of these. Let’s make a play.”
Aaron Rodgers and David Bakhtiari just drove past on the LUVN69 mobile and Rodgers slowed down, smiled, made sure we were paying attention, pointed at Bakhtiari and said…
“This fucking guy likes Nickelback.”
Then they zoomed off. This has been your LUVN69 update for the day.
Aaron Rodgers loves calling
@RobDemovsky
Bob because he doesn’t like it. So today Rob put a “I AM NOT A BOB!” sign on the back of his computer as a joke.
Rodgers does a double take at it, then proceeds to call him Bob again.
Matt LaFleur says he texted Jordan Love this morning saying he wanted to change the first play.
Love responded saying he wanted to keep it. Hit Christian Watson for 53 to set the tone and the Packers never trailed.
Aaron Rodgers on Jamaal Williams:
“I’m a hugger, so if I see Jamaal, I’m giving him a hug. I love Jamaal. He’s one of my all-time favorites. He’s one of the happiest teammates we’ve ever had, one of the greatest guys in the locker room that I’ve been able to work with.”
Quay Walker on Justin Fields: "Whenever we can keep him in the pocket and allow him just to play quarterback and not allow him to run, we got a real, real good chance of winning the game."
Heard Aaron Rodgers told people in his inner circle that he likes private flights so he’s open to playing for the Jets. Sources also say he likes the zoo so would be open to the Jaguars and Lions.
Packers defense just put on an absolute clinic against the Saints offense. Pocket collapsing repeatedly. Tight coverage all over.
Rasul Douglas is talking an incredible amount of shit. Just a preposterous amount.
Shawn Davis caps the period with a pick-six of QB Ian Book.
Aaron Rodgers in the locker room today:
"All the other teams in the NFC North, it seems like every single year, I think their fanbase and their teams feel like, 'This is our year to win the North.'
"Hasn't really been the case during my time, for the most part."
Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence stopped en route to his victory interview to take a selfie with this woman and her mother. Waited for mom to scoot over with her walker.
“Who’s going to take the picture?” the woman asked.
“Here, I’ll take it,” Lawrence said.
Appreciated this lengthy response from Davante Adams on why he puts the amount of effort he does into interviews with us after being named the first-ever unanimous winner of our Tom Mulhern Stand-Up Guy Award:
Packers punter Pat O’Donnell is the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
I repeat. The Packers have the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
This is not a drill.
Keisean Nixon on his late INT:
“We were watching mannerism tape earlier in the week and (Mahomes) tapped his knee and they put two off the ball and I'm like, 'Oh, I've seen this before.' I knew he was gonna run it and he ran it.”
.
@PatMcAfeeShow
asks Aaron Rodgers how much Green Bay’s 38-10 loss to the Buccaneers in Week 6 matters:
“I think the Week 6 game matters as much as when the Saints went to their place and beat them 38-3.”
One of the funniest moments tonight was after Love’s TD pass to Wicks to go up 20-0, the press box announcer reminded everyone no cheering in the press box.
I’m not sure the press box PA knew, but it was Brian Gutekunst and his staff going nuts.
Jaire Alexander bet me 20 push-ups on Syracuse-Louisville last week.
Syracuse dog walked them 31-7 on Saturday.
Saw me on his way back in from Packers picture day and immediately dropped down. Man of his word.
The Packers should be getting David Bakhtiari, Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kevin King back for next Sunday's game in Kansas City.
A very nice man stopped me at 5:30 a.m. in the Green Bay airport this morning to make some conversation and ask where I spent most of my time during the offseason.
You normally let people be at that hour, but I’ll let it slide since it was Aaron Jones.