Matt LaFleur assesses the growth from second-year defensive lineman T.J. Slaton

Former Florida Gators defensive lineman Tedarrell ‘T.J.’ Slaton is heading into his sophomore season in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers. And so far, during the Packers OTA’s, head coach Matt LaFleur has liked what he’s seen from his second-year player. LaFleur recently assessed the growth from Slaton so far and the challenges he faced in his rookie season.

“Yea, T.J. has done a nice job. I think just his work capacity alone has definitely increased, and I think that that’s a learning curve for a lot of young players,” said LaFleur. “They don’t know what necessarily they’re getting into when they first get into this league. And a lot of these guys, after the combine, they go on basically a world tour. They got teams bringing them in, and they have inconsistent workout routines. So it is a little bit more challenging for some of the guys than others, but T.J.’s done a nice job. I think he’s lightyears ahead of where he was a year ago.”

The Packers picked up Slaton in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. In his rookie campaign, he did not register a single start but played in all 17 games for Green Bay. Slaton helped out on both defense and special teams, recording 23 total tackles, 14 solo, two hits on opposing quarterbacks, and one sack.

The Packers young nose tackle is likely to compete for more playing time against veteran Kenny Clark. Slaton will be a part of an influx of young and upcoming talent along with the Packers defensive front along with this year’s first-round pick Devonte Wyatt.

LaFleur recalls past experience with Sammy Watkins

In order to help fill their void at wide receiver, the Green Bay Packers went out this offseason and signed Sammy Watkins in free agency. Head coach Matt LaFleur has previous experience with Watkins as his offensive coordinator in Los Angeles back in 2017. They’ve reunited five years later in order to give quarterback Aaron Rodgers a weapon to count on on the outside.

When asked in his recent press conference about Watkins, LaFleur remembered how well Watkins picked up his offense with the Rams.

“Sammy was great for us. Just a guy that came to work each and every day,” said LaFleur. “We didn’t get (him) until it was a couple of weeks into training camp. He had to pick it up pretty quickly and he did a heck of a job with that.”

This will be Watkins’ fifth stop in his eight year NFL career. He had previous stints with the Bills, Rams, Chiefs and Ravens. He’s caught an average of 43.5 passes a year for a total of 5,059 career yards and 34 touchdowns.