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Matt LaFleur is earning the ire of several of his Green Bay Packers players early in training camp.
On Tuesday, LaFleur punished offensive tackle Rasheed Walker for his altercation with defensive end Kingsley Enagbare.
However, the most interesting interaction of the day came between LaFleur and tight end Tucker Kraft. Per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, LaFleur called out Kraft for two questionable fumbles during the first week of practice.
Both “fumbles” came after the play was over or when the ball fell out of bounds.
“Certainly, we all know what kind of player Tucker Kraft is and can be,” LaFleur said. “He can’t allow Evan Williams to reach around and punch a ball out, so it is challenging everybody and hopefully that makes us that much better.”
The third-year tight end took issue with LaFleur calling him out in front of the media and blamed the coaching staff for implementing practice rules that made it easy for offensive players to fumble.
“I’d say a lot of the times — there’s certain rules you play with in practice, like just letting the defense punch repeatedly,” Kraft said. “You’re not allowed to stiff-arm. I guess all I have are excuses. Yes, I am working on not fumbling the ball in practice.”
Schneidman said Kraft answered the question with a tone of sarcasm. Kraft was frustrated that he couldn’t defend the ball by stiff-arming a defender trying to poke the ball from his undefended arm.
Kraft acknowledged that during practice, he has to “play by the rules” LaFleur makes and is trying to work on having a “yes sir, no sir” attitude with his head coach. He then made a vague reference about a “bus fine” and accused LaFleur of throwing him under the bus in front of the media.
Schneidman believes the tight end might be calling for Green Bay to fine LaFleur after his discouraging quote Tuesday morning.
“So yes, the Packers’ third-year tight end might be calling for his head coach to be fined — not by the league, of course, but by the team — for what he perceived as throwing him under the bus,” Schneidman wrote. “Is Kraft being serious about fining LaFleur?
“Probably not. Is he peeved LaFleur called him out? It sure seems like it.”
LaFleur might do better to have a conversation with Kraft before dragging his name into news conferences with reporters. It’s clear Tucker doesn’t see eye-to-eye with LaFleur about fumbles.
This is a good reminder to those getting overly excited or nervous reading practice reports that what happens at practice should be taken with a grain of salt.
Most likely, Tucker is going to be fine.
