Josh Jacobs will practice with the Green Bay Packers on Wednesday for the first time this season. Matt LaFleur said on Monday that the running back will get a full week of work, but he would not say yet whether Jacobs will play Sunday in Detroit.
“I think that’s to be determined,” LaFleur said. “We feel like he’s in a pretty good spot. He’s been training, but he’s missed the exposure to football.”
Jacobs came off the Commissioner Exempt List on Monday, October 19, the day after Green Bay’s 23-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys. He had been on the list since August 30 and missed the first six games. He pleaded no contest in September to two misdemeanor charges, battery and criminal damage to property, from a domestic incident in Wisconsin in May. The league’s personal conduct review of the case is still open, and any discipline would be a separate decision.
“He’s certainly not going to hurt it”
Green Bay needs the help. The Packers ran 26 times for 57 yards against Dallas, and they rank last in the league in rushing at 59.8 yards per game. LaFleur did not hide what he thinks Jacobs can add. “He’s an elite-level back. He’s certainly not going to hurt it,” he said. “I think he can provide a spark.”
LaFleur described what Jacobs was allowed to do while he was away from the practice field. “He could go to meetings, he could lift with our strength coaches and condition with them,” he said. “He couldn’t go to any of the team activities, the practices and whatnot. So he’s been engaged and he’s been working out.” Asked whether Jacobs could hit the ground running, LaFleur said, “Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s possible. But again, we’ve got to go through the week and just see where he’s at.”
He said the club had planned through training camp as if Jacobs would be available. “We handled it like, I didn’t know what was going to happen,” LaFleur said. “So you just handled it like he’s going to be a part of it, until they made a decision.”
LaFleur also warned that the run game can become too easy to read when certain backs are in for certain plays. “You can’t be predictable that way,” he said. “They know what could be coming based on a certain back, a certain tight end, if a certain wide receiver gets in the game. So you just got to be cognizant of what you put on tape.”
No practice yet for Parsons
Edge rusher Micah Parsons, working back from a torn ACL, will not practice this week. Green Bay plays at Detroit on Sunday and then hosts Carolina four days later. LaFleur did not rule out bringing Parsons along during that short week. “There’s things that you could do on a short week if you got a guy like that that you’re trying to get primed and ready to go,” he said, “but again, he’s got to clear some hurdles yet before we get to that point.”
“You just want it to be called both ways”
Green Bay was called for roughing the passer three times in the fourth quarter on Sunday night. Lukas Van Ness was flagged on a play that wiped out a Carrington Valentine interception, then Karl Brooks and Evan Williams were flagged later in the quarter. LaFleur said he disagreed with the call on Van Ness. “I didn’t think it was a forceful hit to the quarterback,” he said. On Brooks, he gave the officials the point: “It did look like body weight. So that’s one where you have to peel off them as best you can.”
His larger complaint was about his own quarterback. “At the end of the day, you just want it to be called both ways,” LaFleur said. “If they’re going to call it one way, it should be called for the other team as well. And I feel like there’s been a lot of times when Jordan’s taken some close to potential roughing calls, and he’s not getting the calls.” He joked that Love may need to start lobbying the officials. “You see some guys do it and it works,” he said. He said the club sends plays to the league office after every game and uses the answers to teach its players.
“I thought he balled out”
Love went 23 of 41 for 276 yards with a touchdown and an interception and was sacked three times. LaFleur liked what he saw. “I thought he balled out,” he said. “I thought he played about as good as you could have played, and taking hits in the process.” He said Love stood in after “some of the abuse he took early on in the season,” and pointed to the drops around him. “Certainly there was far too many drops, and it’s been kind of a problem throughout the course of the season,” LaFleur said. “But I don’t think any of us have lost any faith in our guys.”
He was less happy with the protection. “We did bust a couple of protections, which can’t happen,” he said. “It’s one thing if you get beat. It’s another thing if you bust a protection.”
Gannon’s defense and the safeties
LaFleur praised defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and his safeties. He singled out Evan Williams’ second-quarter interception of Dak Prescott at the Green Bay 3. “Just the disguise, showing down away from where the quarterback was going to throw the ball, how he kind of went out of it straight back,” he said. “Dak never even saw him, I don’t think.” Of Williams, Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard, he said: “I would put that trio up against anybody in the league.”
He said the blitz-heavy look is making life harder for offenses around the league. “It’s hard when you have everybody up and you’re ripping zeros or fire zones and then everybody’s bailing out,” LaFleur said. “It’s a little bit unsettling.”
The Packers, now 4-2 after three straight wins, visit the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Sunday, October 25, at 4:25 p.m. EDT. They host the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, October 29.
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