It didn’t take long for new Packers linebacker Zaire Franklin to establish himself as a team leader.
Franklin, who arrived in Green Bay via a trade in March, has been named one of the Packers’ captains. That’s not a surprise, as Franklin was a team captain on the Colts in each of the last six seasons. Some players exude leadership, and Franklin is one of them.
The Packers named five captains, Franklin and four players who were also Packers captains last year: quarterback Jordan Love, tight end Tucker Kraft, safety Xavier McKinney and special teamer Isaiah McDuffie.
Three players who were Packers team captains last year are not captains this year: Rashan Gary and Quay Walker, who are no longer in Green Bay, and Josh Jacobs, who is currently on the commissioner’s exempt list amid an investigation into an accusation of violence against a woman.
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With Packers running back Josh Jacobs on paid leave in light of multiple misdemeanor charges (including battery), time is of the essence when it comes to resolving the criminal case.
And the presiding judge apparently has accommodated Jacobs’s urgency. Via Michael Gross of Fox 11, Jacobs’s initial court appearance has been moved from November 17 to September 10.
Typically, a player remains on paid leave until the case ends, and then until the NFL imposes discipline. It’s possible, however, for the player to be sidelined for the anticipated duration of his eventual suspension, with credit later given for any game missed (and the salary earned forfeited).
The safest approach for Jacobs will be to get the situation wrapped up. Beyond the expedited hearing, it’s possible a prompt plea deal will be reached.
The NFL’s decision to put running back Josh Jacobs on paid leave has opened a big door for MarShawn Lloyd in Green Bay.
Lloyd enters the season as the Packers’ No. 1 back and it’s unclear when Jacobs will be back in the picture for the NFC North team, so the 2024 third-round pick will have a chance to make his case for an even longer run in the job. There hasn’t been much evidence of his fitness for the role because injuries have kept him off the field for all but one of the games the Packers have played the last two years, but Lloyd says that he’s prepared for all that comes with the job.
“I’m ready to play as much as they want me to play,” Lloyd said, via the team’s website. “I’m excited. It’s a dream come true playing for the Packers, so however much carries I get, however much they put me in the game, I’m ready to go.”
Lloyd will get a chance to prove his point about his readiness and the Packers will need him to be right for their offense to reach a high level out of the gate this season.
Vikings backup quarterback J.J. McCarthy did not play in the team’s final preseason game because of an ankle injury, but it does not sound like the team expects it to impact his availability for the season opener.
General Manager Nolan Teasley said at a Wednesday press conference that McCarthy, who hurt his ankle in the team’s second preseason game last month, was a full participant in practice the last two days. Teasley added that he expects McCarthy to be on the roster for the opener against the Packers, but declined to say whether he would be the backup to Kyler Murray.
“I wouldn’t really necessarily comment on depth immediately, but I’m pleased that he’s part of the present version of the Minnesota Vikings and excited about his future,” Teasley said.
Carson Wentz is also on the 53-man roster in Minnesota and the team could wait until they submit inactive lists before Week 1 to make their plans behind Murray clear.
The offseason consisted of a rumor that the Cardinals would be trading linebacker Josh Sweat to the Packers. On Tuesday, the man in charge of the Green Bay roster denied that it was ever a possibility.
“No one from our organization has had a conversation about Josh Sweat from anyone at Arizona,” Gutekunst said, via Ryan Wood of USA Today. “That’s coming out of thin air, someone is making stuff up, because that never happened.”
A report emerged in the offseason that the Cardinals were receiving calls about Sweat. And the Packers made sense on the surface; Sweat reunited with former Eagles offensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon after Gannon became the head coach of the Cardinals. With Gannon now the defensive coordinator in Green Bay, it’s a logical connection of the dots.
And to the extent the Packers had any interest in Sweat, it wouldn’t have taken much to kick-start a conversation. The Brothers LaFleur coach the two teams. It would have been easy for Matt to gauge with Mike whether a deal would have been possible.
Sweat is entering the second season of a four-year, $76 million deal with the Cardinals. In 17 starts last season, Sweat had 12.0 sacks.
Former NFL assistant coach Kippy Brown died this week, Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle reports. Brown was 71.
Brown spent 22 seasons as an NFL assistant, coaching for seven different teams. His final job was the wide receivers coach with the Seahawks on Pete Carroll’s staff from 2010-14. The Seahawks’ win in Super Bowl XLVIII gave Brown his only Super Bowl ring.
Brown was Jimmy Johnson’s offensive coordinator for two seasons with the Dolphins and served as the Lions’ associate head coach under Rod Marinelli during Detroit’s 0-16 season in 2008. He interviewed for the Texans’ head coaching job in 2006 after Dom Capers was fired, but Houston hired Gary Kubiak instead.
Brown coached Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Johnson in his four seasons in Houston.
In addition to the Dolphins, Seahawks, Lions and Texans, Brown also coached with the Bucs, Jets and Packers.
Brown was head coach of the Memphis Maniax in the short-lived XFL in 2001.
As a player, Brown became the first Black quarterback to play at Memphis during his time there from 1974-77.
The Packers signed quarterback Kedon Slovis to the practice squad, the team announced Tuesday.
He joins Jordan Love and Tyrod Taylor in the team’s quarterbacks room.
The Cardinals cut Slovis on Sunday.
Slovis, 25, signed with the Cardinals’ practice squad in 2025, and he earned a spot on the active roster on Oct. 11. He played two games, getting five snaps and completing 1 of 2 passes for minus-1 yard.
The Cardinals chose to keep Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew II and Carson Beck at the position for this season.
Slovis has also spent time with the Colts and the Texans.
The misdemeanor battery case against Packers running back Josh Jacobs includes surveillance video from a camera in his garage. The police report strongly suggests that the video includes images of the alleged assault.
On Tuesday, Packers G.M. Brian Gutekunst was asked at a press conference whether the team has seen it.
“We have not seen the video,” Gutekunst said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “Again, those are legal things going on right now, so we’ll let those play out. That’s really not for us, but in the appropriate times, if those things become available, we’ll figure that stuff out when that time comes.”
Gutekunst also was asked whether the team needs to see the video before making a decision about Jacobs’s future with the team.
“Again, we’re going to lean on the legal process and let that happen, but we’ll take things as they come,” Gutekunst said.
The situation brings back memories of the weeks preceding the release of the notorious Ray Rice elevator video. The league, as of August 2014, had not seen the video. We argued that it would be easy for the league to get it. It was part of his case file, and Rice ultimately controlled his case file. If the league told Rice he couldn’t play until his lawyer made the video available for review, the league would have quickly gotten it.
It sparked a somewhat spirited debate by phone with a league official. The conversation ended with this prediction: “If you don’t get that video, TMZ eventually will.” (By early September, TMZ had gotten it — and then all hell broke loose.)
In this case, it would be even easier for the league or the team to inspect the video. It came from Jacobs’s house. He owns the footage.
Why wouldn’t the Packers want to see it? Coach Matt LaFleur recently said regarding Jacobs, "[W]hat he tells me, I believe him and I trust him. I’m going to do that until proven otherwise.”
One way to be proven otherwise, or to have LaFleur’s current belief confirmed, would be to tell him to produce the video.
The Packers put tight end Luke Musgrave on the reserve/physically unable to perform list to start the season, but they believe he’ll be on the field before the season is over.
Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst said today that he’s hopeful about Musgrave’s recovery from his neck injury and expects Musgrave to play at some point this season.
A 2023 second-round draft pick, Musgrave has played his entire career in Green Bay. Last season he played all 17 games and was on the field for 41 percent of the Packers’ offensive snaps, plus 8 percent of special teams snaps.
Musgrave was expected to have a big role on the Packers this year, but he suffered the neck injury during a June minicamp and didn’t practice in training camp or play in the preseason. Now the Packers will work with him on rehab and get him ready to play in the regular season.
Defensive end Micah Parsons will miss the first four games of the season because he is on the physically unable to perform list and the question of how many more he might miss was a topic at Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst’s press conference on Tuesday.
Parsons said this summer that the team’s Week 6 game against the Cowboys the “most optimistic” date for his first game since tearing his ACL last year and Gutekunst put forth a similar timeline. Gutekunst noted that players on the PUP list can begin practicing after Week 2 and suggested that will be a possibility for Parsons.
“Once we get out of that four-week window, we’re going to be pretty close,” Gutekunst said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.
The Packers have too much invested in Parsons over the long term to push things too fast when they’re close to the end of the rehab process, but there will be plenty of interest in what happens once Week 3 rolls around in Green Bay.
