Green Bay Packers: Kevin King says not to over-analyze practice snaps

With NFL training camps in full-swing, Green Bay Packers cornerback Kevin King says not to put too much stock into how players are looking early-on.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Kevin King had some strong words for people who like to analyze practice snaps. Everyone does it when it comes to training camp — perhaps because we’re so ready to talk about anything that involves football being played at this point.

King, however, says to proceed with caution in that regard.

According to beat reporter Wes Hodkiewicz, King spoke about the dangers of overanalyzing how players appear in practice:

"“There’s time to work on your craft. You’re with your team, you’re out there. I might try to do a brand-new thing against Davante [Adams]. He’s one of the top three, top five receivers in the league. It may not work, but on film, it’s like, ‘Damn, Kevin King cannot guard Davante Adams.’ But you (the public) don’t know what I was doing. You see these clips, they don’t tell the tale of anything. It’s all about getting better. It’s like, what if your notes were published to Twitter every day. It’s not my [final] draft yet. I’m not finished here. Just wait for the finished product.”"

King has a fair point, and there’s certainly something to be said about the dangers of critiquing every detail in a player’s performance, especially from a short, 30-second clip on Twitter.

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan also had a few things to say on the matter after Richard Sherman was seen getting torched on a play against Marquise Goodwin. Sherman was guarding Goodwin on a fly route and couldn’t flip his hips in time, or jam Goodwin at the line of scrimmage to prevent a good release.

“I mean, you guys (the public) have got to put yourselves in these players’ shoes,” Shanahan stated via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. “We didn’t used to get reports of stats on practices, and I don’t get the reports and judge our guys off them.”

There’s a common theme between King’s and Shanahan’s statements. A video on Twitter isn’t going to tell the whole story, and sometimes it won’t tell us anything at all. Like everything else in life, practice plays should be evaluated contextually.