Green Bay Packers: 4 Early takeaways from training camp

The Green Bay Packers first training camp with Matt LaFleur at the helm is underway and there are some interesting takeaways early on.

Things are anew in Wisconsin as it pertains to the Green Bay Packers. After Mike McCarthy was relieved of his head coaching duties at the end of the 2018 regular season, general manager Brian Gutekunst and the Packers brass landed on Matt LaFleur to take over the position. The change certainly brings optimism but also a venture into the unknown.

LaFleur enters the 2019 season in his first year as an NFL head coach, which obviously means he has to prove himself. Thus, virtually every move that we see from the Packers in training camp will be under a critical lens. True to form, that has indeed been the case since training camp got underway on July 25 — but that’s not necessarily been a bad thing.

There is a lot of optimism about the Packers entering this new era. Aaron Rodgers is healthy once again and the offensive line protecting the star quarterback again appears to be a strength in Green Bay. Furthermore, a busy offseason saw Green Bay greatly improve their defense with signings of Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Adrian Amos along with selecting both Rashan Gary and Darnell Savage in the first round.

Yes, the Packers did lose some players from their past, most notably seeing long-time (and oft-injured of late) slot receiver Randall Cobb leaving in free agency. That leaves some questions about who Rodgers is throwing to but, on the whole, Green Bay has improved their roster — even with the recent shocking release of Mike Daniels.

Now that this new era for the Packers is underway with LaFleur leading the way as training camp has begun, though, it feels appropriate to check in on the early goings-on in Green Bay. Subsequently, let’s dive into four early takeaways from the Packers 2019 training camp after the first handful of practices.