GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It took a few minutes for the crowd to gather around Brett Hundley's locker on Tuesday. He already was into his question-and-answer session with reporters who were interested in knowing how it felt to hold Aaron Rodgers' place as the Green Bay Packers' No. 1 quarterback.
"Yeah, I feel a lot more comfortable," Hundley said before he stopped briefly to welcome more cameras and reporters.
"Hey, everybody," he said to the late arrivals.
And then, without so much as a pause in his voice, he went on with his answer.
"Just from the standpoint of knowing the offense and sort of just what I was saying, it's really more about the steady growth and the slow building," Hundley continued. "You want to take those gigantic leaps that were made last year. But now, it's really about learning the details of the play, why we're running things, why we're going to check to this versus that. And you know, protection adjustments, run adjustments, sort of all that stuff. When you get all that stuff, that's when you start taking your game to a whole new level."
Yes, Brett Hundley looked as comfortable on the field as he was in front of the media on Tuesday. Hundley knew last week what coach Mike McCarthy announced shortly before the first minicamp practice -- that Rodgers and 14 other veterans were going to be excused from this week's minicamp.
He knew that it meant an opportunity for him to run the No. 1 offense -- or what was left of it with starters like Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Bryan Bulaga, T.J. Lang and Josh Sitton all gone. And he barely seemed fazed by it.
"Just play football, that's what it comes down to," Hundley said. "That's what we're doing every day. So that's sort of our approach."
The fifth-round pick last year moved up one spot from No. 3 to the primary backup role this offseason after Scott Tolzien signed with the Indianapolis Colts, but the reality is that he showed last preseason that he probably could've handled the No. 2 job as a rookie. He led the NFL in touchdown passes (seven) last preseason and posted the second-best passer rating (129.6). He threw just one interception and completed 45 of 65 passes, and then he was inactive for every regular-season game and the playoffs.
On Tuesday, he threw a spot-on deep ball to receiver Jeff Janis that covered some 50 yards in the air, but Janis, flanked by two defenders, couldn't haul it in. He even got the defense to jump offside a couple of times on Aaron Rodgers-like hard counts.
"Yeah, that's something that I easily learned from Aaron," Hundley said. "I mean, pretty much everything I learned from Aaron. But that is something that I really got into this year. Last year, just picking up the offense, I wasn't really too big into changing the snap counts. This year, that's an easy thing, easy asset as a quarterback that I've learned, studied. And you know, listen to Aaron's tape, watch his tape, sort of see how he fluctuates his cadences and goes back and forth between, and that's something that's really helped me out this offseason."
It was a strong start to what McCarthy called "a big three days for Brett."
"It's a great opportunity for Brett Hundley and the other two quarterbacks," McCarthy said. "These guys have been playing quarterback pretty much their whole life, but it's different to be in command for the majority of a practice."
It's also more training for what Hundley may see later this summer. With five preseason games, Hundley is likely to get even more work than he did last year given that Rodgers' preseason work has waned in recent years.
"I'm happy," Hundley said. "Five preseason games, it's a lot when you add on the season and playoffs, but to me I'm ready. I'm trying to play them all. More reps and I'll be happy when I get out there and get to show what I can do some more."
