Everything That Happened at Practice 12 of Packers Training Camp

The Green Bay Packers appear set to play their starters – at least a little – for Saturday night’s preseason game against the New York Jets. One key starter definitely won’t play, though.

All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney sat out Thursday’s practice with a calf injury.

“I’ll be good,” McKinney said. “I’ll be ready. I’ll be ready when I’ll be ready.”

He didn’t anticipate playing in the preseason but said he’d be ready for “Week 1. Yeah, I’ll be ready.”

McKinney called it a “lingering” issue.

“I’m just going with the plan,” he said. “Obviously, glad that we caught it when we caught it, so just trying to take it slow and then the buildup, obviously. But I’ll be ready when it’s time to go, for sure.”

After the longest practice of training camp on Wednesday, coach Matt LaFleur scaled things back on Thursday. The players worked in shells rather than full pads.

Here are the highlights from the 12th public practice of Packers training camp.

Jordan Love’s Day

Jordan Love had a lighter workload than usual, too. During individual drills, he went through the typical footwork drills and threw the ball into nets. During the next period, which was with the running backs, he only went through the motions of throwing the ball while the other quarterback did throw it.

He took his usual reps in 11-on-11, though, and was sharp, going 9-of-11 passing with three touchdowns. Of the two incompletions, one was perhaps a questionable call by the official and the other was an intentional throwaway.

For more on his day, follow to the next segment.

Player of the Day: Jordan Love

Jordan Love was sharp from the start. His first pass was a bullet into traffic to Savion Williams, who made a leaping catch in front of Bo Melton.

A red-zone period started with a short completion to Matthew Golden. On the next play, Love fired one over the middle, with Tucker Kraft making a one-handed catch in the back of the end zone against Quay Walker. Defensive backs coach Ryan Downard signaled that Kraft was out of bounds, and the official eventually agreed.

On the next play, Love rifled one over the middle to Williams, who caught the ball just beyond the goal line and contorted his body for what would have been a big hit by linebacker Edgerrin Cooper if it were a game.

On the next play, Love threw a touchdown pass to Golden – more on that in a moment. On the next play, Love perfectly worked an old-school quarterback option. Isolated one-on-one with linebacker Isaiah Simmons, Love faked the pitch, Simmons took the bait and Love cut inside for the touchdown.

Love’s final snap of the day was a touchdown pass of about 20 yards to Romeo Doubs. Doubs beat Corey Ballentine up the sideline. The coverage was good but the throw was better, with Doubs making the catch by the pylon. He continued on for a “Nitschke Field Leap” with some fans sitting in the bleachers.

Play of the Day: Matthew Golden

One play after Tucker Kraft’s one-handed grab was ruled incomplete, Jordan Love zinged a pass into the back of the end zone to Matthew Golden, who made a sensational catch by keeping both feet inbounds while landing on his back.