Equanimeous St. Brown photo

Packers wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown averaged 15.6 yards on 21 receptions in 2018. He set personal bests with five catches and 94 yards in a 44-38 victory over the Jets on Dec. 23, 2018.

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GREEN BAY — Equanimeous St. Brown said Saturday he’s not feeling any more pressure than any other wide receiver on the Green Bay Packers’ roster, even though his two bosses — coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst — have both talked at length about his importance to the offense.

“I believe that we’re leaning a lot on the wideout group as a whole, as a unit, as an offense,” St. Brown said during a Zoom call with reporters after Saturday’s practice, during which he had several nice catches. “We didn’t draft any wideouts the past few years, so I think as a unit we need to step up. There’s a lot of eyes on us so, I feel like there’s pressure on all of us to do well this year.”

That may be true, but with St. Brown, who spent all of last season on injured reserve with a severe preseason high ankle sprain that required season-ending surgery, the stakes are slightly higher. He seemed to be coming into his own near the end of his rookie season in 2018, when he finished with 21 receptions for 328 yards.

But after a lost year and then having the COVID-19 pandemic wipe out all offseason on-field work, St. Brown is trying to make up for lost time.

“EQ is extremely intelligent. Unfortunately, missing a whole season practically, you don’t get those reps,” LaFleur said. “So it’s just more or less, getting him out there, getting him comfortable with not only the play calls, but the routes, just working him back into it. But I have a lot of confidence in not only his ability but his mind. I know he’s working hard on it each and every day.”

St. Brown spent the offseason training with his younger brothers (Amon-Ra, who is at USC, and Osiris, who is at Stanford) and ex-Packers backup quarterback DeShone Kizer, who played with St. Brown in college at Notre Dame.

“As an older brother I’m trying to stay ahead of them, and as younger brothers, they’re trying to catch up to me,” St. Brown said. “I’m trying to set the example and they’re trying to pass me up, so it’s a good healthy competition to get us all better.”

Inside track?

Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has made it clear there is competition to start alongside veteran inside linebacker Christian Kirksey, and rookie fifth-round pick Kamal Martin is very much in the conversation. Martin has caught the coaches’ eyes and could wind up beating out Oren Burks and Ty Summers for that starting spot.

“The first thing that jumps out is he’s a long, athletic guy. He’s very intelligent, he works hard at it,” LaFleur said. “It’s going to come down to getting those reps and feeling comfortable in there and knowing what to do so he can go showcase that athleticism on Sundays.

“We’re going to keep on working those combinations. We can’t afford to have mistakes. You have mistakes, you give up big plays — not only in the run game but in the pass game. It’s just going to come down to who can consistently do their job at a high level.”

Less than thrilled

While LaFleur felt the 85-minute practice was productive, he didn’t like the false start and offsides penalties he saw and a fumbled center-quarterback exchange.

“There’s always stuff that bothers me. There was some sloppy play, obviously,” LaFleur said. “We’ve got to be more disciplined on the defensive side of the ball so we’re not jumping offsides, whether it’s a one-one-one pass rush drill or we’re in team. … Conversely, on the offensive side of the ball, we had a couple fumbled snaps, and that’s the stuff that can get you beat.”

LaFleur has his work cut out for him trying to get the most out of a jam-packed practice schedule while not wearing down his players in advance of the Sept. 13 opener at Minnesota. Saturday’s practice was the first of an eight-practices-in-nine-days stretch.“I felt like we got out today a lot of great effort. I thought our guys battled,” LaFleur said. “But (Sunday’s practice) will actually be even longer and potentially more intense. We’re going to try to pull back on that third day a little bit, just get some short burst with some individual periods. Anytime you’re stringing together four days of practice, you’d better be mindful of what you’re asking your guys to do. Certainly, we know we’re at our best when we have everybody healthy and fresh.

“This week is going to be a little bit of a grind on our guys and then we’ll adjust accordingly as we move forward.”

Extra points

Wide receiver Davante Adams returned to practice as a full participant after a mild foot injury early in the week. … Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith remained sidelined with an undisclosed injury but was at practice and even led a handful of defensive players on the sideline in an attempt to create their own crowd noise to bother the Aaron Rodgers-led offense. … Right tackle Rick Wagner, who left the practice inside Lambeau Field on Thursday with an apparent arm injury, did not practice. … LaFleur went out of his way at the end of his Zoom call to send his thoughts to Washington coach Ron Rivera, who was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer. LaFleur faced Rivera last year when Rivera was the Carolina Panthers’ head coach. “I just want to say our thoughts are with coach Rivera in Washington. I know he’s going through a tough deal right now,” LaFleur said. “I’ve had limited interaction with him, but when we played them last year, he certainly is a class act. We’re all in his corner. We’re pulling for him and we’re thinking about him.”


Get ready for Packers season with a position-by-position breakdown of Green Bay's roster

Get ready for Packers season with a position-by-position breakdown of Green Bay's roster

Jason Wilde breaks down the Green Bay Packers' roster by position in a nine-part series, looking at the team's depth, competitions for playing time and which players to watch out for this season.

This article originally ran on madison.com.

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