Morning Buzz: DeShone Kizer gaining in Packers' backup QB battle?

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

The Packers locker room is open to the media later this afternoon but there is no public practice for the team until Monday at 12:15 p.m.

We’ll start with Tom Silverstein’s latest on the role Blake Martinez has grown into on the defensive side of the ball for the Packers.

From Tom:

If you were to pick the guy the Green Bay Packers defense could least afford to lose this season, your thoughts would naturally shift toward Mike Daniels, Nick Perry, Kevin King and Clay Matthews.

Those are the big names, the guys who have the potential to lead the resurrection of this maligned unit.

But really, there’s a strong case to be made for the third-year guy from Stanford who almost never gets mentioned despite being the nerve center of new coordinator Mike Pettine’s defense.

Aaron Rodgers, David Bakhtiari, those are easy Nos. 1 and 2 on offense, but Blake Martinez?

Is he really the guy the Packers can’t live without this season? The one who might be the linchpin of this amorphous collection of Dom Capers holdovers, Mike Pettine castoffs and wide-eyed young guys?

Yes, Blake Martinez.

Even before inside linebacker Jake Ryan went down with a torn ACL, Martinez was being prepared for the professional equivalent of the 12-hour work day with the possibility of no days off. Pettine, like Capers, inserted Martinez into the middle of the defense to make tackles and direct traffic.

Don’t forget to tell us how you became a Packers fan:

The Packers brought in a new running back:

Elsewhere, Erin Underwood writes Kizer should be ahead of Hundley:

Rob Reischel talks to one of Jake Kumerow’s old coaches:

Michael Cohen looked at the tape:

Cheesehead TV has three more thoughts from Thursday’s game:

Packers Wire takes a look at the depth at offensive tackle:

KDG has a recap episode up from the Steelers game:

ESPN looks at unique training camp drills, including the use of “Man Hands” in Green Bay:

Max Kellerman says all the pressure is on Aaron Rodgers this year:

Packers fans got jokes:

21 days to go: