GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers leave Thursday for Denver.

They’ll have a joint practice with the Broncos Friday and a preseason game Sunday night.

Packers rookie safety Evan Williams will be going up against a college teammate this weekend: Broncos quarterback Bo Nix.

Williams is a California native; he played at Fresno State before transferring to Oregon. Nix and Williams played at Oregon together last year.

“You obviously had that time together, kind of understand each other’s competitive nature,” Williams said. “I’m definitely just a big fan of what a competitor he is. We had a great year together. Just seeing how he operates was a lot of fun. But now it’s a different playing field, right? We’re on different sides of the ball. It’s my job to make sure he doesn’t have any success in that department.”

Williams has embraced the aggressive mentality of defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.

“Honestly, just trying to keep a big center of focus,” Williams said. “Matching that with kind of a relentless, attack-type mentality when the ball is out. That’s something that [Hafley] just preached. A ‘ball out’ break has to be just like a machine-like response.”

Williams said Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has stressed to the players to not let the joint practice with the Broncos turn into a series of fights.

Williams is very much in the competition to start at the other safety spot opposite Xavier McKinney.

“We got some dudes,” Williams said. “It’s pretty evident. Every day we go out, it’s going to be a battle and everybody in our room knows it. I think that just raises the level of play of all of us. [It] lets us know what’s at stake and just allows us to play fast, play free.”