Morning Buzz: Packers hosting draft prospects

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a strong cup of coffee and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.

We’ll start with Michael Cohen’s look at how young safeties Kentrell Brice and Josh Jones will vie for a starting job when offseason work begins.

From Michael:

Which brings us back to Brice and Jones, the two players most likely to replace Burnett in the starting lineup. Despite an unsightly rookie year replete with blown coverages, missed tackles and mental mistakes, Jones is the player with the brightest upside for the Packers. It’s the reason former general manager Ted Thompson used a second-round pick on Jones, and it’s the reason the coaching staff envisioned him as a safety-inside linebacker hybrid in 2017.

While that can still be the long-term goal for Jones, who won’t turn 24 until September, the short-term focus involves paring down responsibilities to prevent last year’s overload. Rather than training Jones at both safety and inside linebacker, the Packers plan to use him only at safety in the coming months.

“I think he’s another one of those guys that has the ability to be an impact player,” McCarthy said. “We probably tried to do a little bit too much with him last year, you know? We’re going to start him in the safety room this year, that will be the starting point. It’s like anything, there will be packages where he may have other opportunities.”

Whether Jones can handle the verbal aspect of the safety position could go a long way toward determining his playing time in the early part of next season. First, he must demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of Pettine’s scheme, and then he must communicate that knowledge on a snap-in, snap-out basis during OTAs and minicamp.

Pete Dougherty offered great insight and analysis in his weekly chat yesterday:

I spoke about some of Brian Gutekunst’s decisions on my latest podcast:

The Packers announced the date and time of their annual shareholders meeting:

I chatted with readers via Facebook Live yesterday:

The Packers have a few pre-draft visits happening:

Elsewhere, Chris Peterson thinks the Packers are taking the right approach:

Zach Kruse is all in on Derwin James:

Cliff Christl looks at the drafts of Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson:

The Packers get Josh Jackson in the latest FanSided mock draft:

Aaron Rodgers appeared on Cabbie Presents:

Lane Taylor discussed his NFL journey with Ross Patterson: