GREEN BAY – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur is not freaking out about rookie kicker Trey Smack's uneven start to training camp and considers preparation for the regular season a work in progress.
He doesn't, however, want to make it easy on reporters covering the team to follow the rookie's results, so he has stopped having officials give a signal on whether his kicks are good. Reporters view practice from the sideline, so sometimes it's difficult to see if a kick made it through the goalposts, but the results reported are generally accurate.
"At the end of the day, you're talking about practice situations," LaFleur said of evaluating Smack. "I think the real tests will come in those preseason games, and then obviously into the regular season."
Smack went 5 of 8 in practice Aug. 3 after making 3 of 5 the previous day. He'll be expected to be a lot better than 8 of 13 come the regular season, but LaFleur pointed out that Smack is not working with what will be his normal operation team because long snapper Matt Orzech is on the physically unable to perform list with a calf injury.
"I just think it's going to be a work in progress," LaFleur said. "I mean, this is not our first time with a rookie kicker, so I know that there's going to be some good, and I know there's going to be some that he's going to want to have back, and I think that's just all part of the learning process.
#going #regular #green #matt
He doesn't, however, want to make it easy on reporters covering the team to follow the rookie's results, so he has stopped having officials give a signal on whether his kicks are good. Reporters view practice from the sideline, so sometimes it's difficult to see if a kick made it through the goalposts, but the results reported are generally accurate.
"At the end of the day, you're talking about practice situations," LaFleur said of evaluating Smack. "I think the real tests will come in those preseason games, and then obviously into the regular season."
Smack went 5 of 8 in practice Aug. 3 after making 3 of 5 the previous day. He'll be expected to be a lot better than 8 of 13 come the regular season, but LaFleur pointed out that Smack is not working with what will be his normal operation team because long snapper Matt Orzech is on the physically unable to perform list with a calf injury.
"I just think it's going to be a work in progress," LaFleur said. "I mean, this is not our first time with a rookie kicker, so I know that there's going to be some good, and I know there's going to be some that he's going to want to have back, and I think that's just all part of the learning process.
#going #regular #green #matt
3 months ago
