GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers had its first Training Camp practice on Wednesday.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that they’ve signed contract extensions.
“Very appreciative of Mark and the organization,” said Gutekunst. “I’ve been here a long time. I count my blessings every day just to be around this place. That was, the fact that it didn’t come out, was probably on me. Just something I kind of think is a private thing.”
“I’m very grateful to this organization, to Mark Murphy to Ed Policy to Gutey to Russ [Ball] to our assistant coaches to our players,” said LaFleur. “It takes everybody, so that wouldn’t happen without all these guys.”
This year, Training Camp looked a lot different compared to last year for Aaron Rodgers. He has signed a lucrative contract extension and is no longer at odds with the Packers’ front office.
“Just tapping into the love of this game, love of my teammates,” said Rodgers. “That’s what gets me up in the morning, coming in here and loving what I do.”
Offensive tackle David Bakhtiari started Training Camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list. He had another procedure on his knee in the offseason.
“Concern level, low. I really like where I’m at especially compared to where I was overall last year,” Bakhtiari said. “It’s a nightmare that I have to live. I don’t know how many days it’s been, but I’m just excited to wake up one day. When I’m ready, I’ll be out there. What I can say is I do feel really good. I feel normal. My knee feels normal, and that’s the biggest plus. Now it’s just getting that normal feeling again when I play football.”
Rodgers echoed his optimism.
“I’m not concerned about him not coming back,” Rodgers said. “I’m really not. I’m more concerned about the mental side, as a friend. Just loving on him and taking care of him and spending time with him. Making sure, first and foremost, is him taking care of himself. When he gets back, he’ll be back.”
Nobody put a timetable on when Bakhtiari might be able to practice.
Tight end Robert Tonyan, who’s coming off an ACL injury, was among other teammates not able to play Wednesday.
“Just continuing to work in the dark, and just do it for yourself,” said Tonyan. “Internal motivation and discipline, rather than the external aspect of it, is probably the main thing.”
Kicker Mason Crosby has a sore knee and was also unable to play.
“Just trying to get healthy and get right,” said Crosby. “Make sure that by the regular season, at the very latest, I’m ready to roll.”
Crosby said he wouldn’t be concerned at all if he couldn’t kick in preseason games.