GREEN BAY, Wis.— The Packers and Patriots held a joint practice Wednesday in Green Bay. Both teams felt they got some good work in.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love said he enjoyed the challenge.
“I think it was a good day,” said Love. “A lot of things to clean up, to work on, and then obviously a lot of good things. I think it was just good for us to go against a new defense, see some new looks. They threw a lot of stuff at us today.”
For Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur, practices with the Patriots make sense.
“It's an opportunity to get better,” said LaFleur. “It’s nice to compete against somebody else, where you get different looks. You don't know their personnel quite as well what they like to do. And it it really challenges you, not only physically, but mentally.”
Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick praised the Packers.
“This team that's had a lot of success, won more games than any team in the NFC the last five years,” said Belichick. “Solid program, well coached, pretty well balanced team, with Rich (Bisaccia) on special teams and Joe (Barry) and Matt's offense. So, it’ll be a good week for us.”
“I think there were some good things,” said Love. “I think there's things we need to clean up. I wish I could have back some throws, some reads. I never get too high. I never get too low. So, I just learn from it, grow from it, look at the day and then come back out ready to go tomorrow. I think there's more looks in the joint practices. I think the defense is giving us more looks than they might not do in a preseason game. They’re trying to work things as well, and we're trying to work some new concepts. So, I think you dive a little bit more in the playbook.”
Freshly signed running back Ezekiel Elliott, formerly with the Cowboys, practiced with the Patriots but was not made available for interviews.
The Packers and Patriots practice together again on Thursday and play a preseason game against each other Saturday night at Lambeau Field.