GREEN BAY, Wis. -- All eyes around the practice field went to Richard Rodgers when the tight end barked into the earhole of Josh Jones' helmet. Rodgers clearly didn’t like the hit that rookie safety had just put on receiver Malachi Dupre, and he told him about it.
Somewhere on the field, Mike Daniels must have had trouble holding back a smile.
“If people are noticing that he’s playing with a mean streak, that’s definitely a good thing,” Daniels said after Saturday’s practice, the first of training camp in full pads. “Just his demeanor alone screams out that he’s here for business.”
That’s exactly the kind of thing the defensive tackle has been saying the Green Bay Packers need more of. Daniels, the vociferous sixth-year pro, has grown tired of the defense being to blame for the team’s failure to get back to the Super Bowl.
It’s what Daniels heard after his rookie season, when Colin Kaepernick ran all over the Packers in the NFC divisional round. It’s what he heard after the 2014 season, when the defense collapsed in the overtime loss to the Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game; after 2015, when the defense broke down in overtime against the Cardinals in a divisional round game; and after last season, when the Falcons blew out the Packers in the NFC title game.
“We have to take it personal,” Daniels said. “You have to get pissed off that people are saying, ‘You guys suck on defense’ every year. ‘Oh, it’s the defense’s fault. Oh, the defense is terrible. Oh man, we need to get Aaron [Rodgers] a defense.’ That’s got to make you angry to the point where you’re like, ‘I’m going to shut these people up.’”
Don’t stop even if you’ve heard this before from Daniels.
Yes, Daniels uttered something similar before the 2014 season, when he said it was time for the Packers defense to get meaner. That defense made a jump from 25th in the NFL to 15th.
But Daniels has been perhaps even more vocal -- both in the locker room and on social media -- this time around after the Packers finished 31st in passing yards allowed last season (and 22nd overall).
In response to a story about Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman saying he swore at his own quarterback, Russell Wilson, after a practice interception, Daniels tweeted his approval, saying: “You want a top ranked defense, then you HAVE to ruffle some feathers!! I respect this team’s process. PC culture is ruining football.”
If you want a top ranked defense, then you HAVE to ruffle some feathers!! I respect this team's process. PC culture is ruining football. https://t.co/egKcMHfxtT
— Mike Daniels (@Mike_Daniels76) July 23, 2017
“Sherman had gotten some heat for bringing the attitude to practice,” Daniels said. “But there is no NFC [championship or] Super Bowl-winning team that had a, how do you say, a pacifist-type defense. It’s just impossible. You’ll never see it. You’ve got to have some guys with a renegade mentality who’ll go out there and they’re not afraid to teeter that line -- not cross it, but teeter it -- and put the offense on their heels. And that’s exactly what Seattle does. You see it year-in and year-out.”
Daniels took it a step further.
“You name me a Super Bowl that had a pacifistic defense and I’ll give you my paycheck,” he said. “I’m serious. There aren’t any. Every last Super Bowl-winning team had a defense that was filled with renegades that weren’t afraid to hold each other accountable. And if you can’t do that, if you can’t hold each other accountable because you’re afraid of hurting somebody else’s feelings, well guess what, you’ll never be great.”
When last anyone saw the Packers defense, it couldn’t slow down the Falcons and Julio Jones in the 44-21 NFC Championship Game loss.
“That’s a terrible impression,” Daniels said. “It makes me sick. It’s hard. I’m certainly proud of what we accomplished, and I’m excited to see what we can do this year.”
It was only one day of practice in pads, but it was lively -- perhaps buoyed by left tackle David Bakhtiari’s decision to buy a WWE custom-made championship belt and bring it to practice. Bakhtiari said the belt will go to the daily winner between the offense and defense.
Despite some hard hits from Jones, who said “that’s what they drafted me for,” Bakhtiari said the offense retained the belt.
But Daniels was pleased nonetheless.
“It’s good to have guys coming in with that hit-you-in-the-mouth mentality,” Daniels said. “We just have to keep building on it. [Saturday] was a very good practice. Nobody backed down from anybody, everybody went hard, nobody complained. Just a lot of good, hard, consistent competition, and if we keep doing that, we’re going to like our results on game day.”