Preston Smith is the third oldest player on this Green Bay Packers roster. The esteemed linebacker played for the Washington Commanders from 2015 to 2018, and has been a Packer since 2019. He has missed only one game in his entire career, and Smith also led the Packers in sacks last season with 8 and a half.
Safe to say given his vast experience in the NFL, he’s going to be a huge asset in leading a relatively young Packers roster into the future.
He once again demonstrated his leadership and hunger in a one-on-one sit-down with reporter Larry McCarren, to which was uploaded to the official Packers YouTube channel this morning.
The Interview:
Despite seemingly earning his stripes in the NFL already, Preston still says in the interview with Larry, that he’s bringing it on extra hard this year.
Larry goes on to ask him what the key is to the kind of health required to only miss one game, in his 8-year career. His response demonstrates the kind of leadership any Packers fan should be proud of, and would want to see out of their star linebacker.
” You have to take care of your body even when you don’t want to take care of it ” he says.
He continues on to compare maintenance on an athlete’s body to keeping a car’s tires from being flat. ” Even when you’re feeling good you still have to do some maintenance because you don’t want to decide to change the cars on a tire when they’re already flat “, Preston went on to say.
The sit down with Larry wraps up with Preston being asked about the key to this Packer team’s success. Larry suggests that the talk in town is that Jordan Love will be said key to Packers success.
Preston pushes back at this notion a little, suggesting that the keys fall on the whole team rather than just one guy. ” You know putting it on Jordan Love, it’s all about putting it on yourself “.
Final Thoughts:
You could maybe argue that I am just reading a little too deep into a small 3 minute interview uploaded onto the Green Bay Packers YouTube channel, but I still think it’s a small snapshot into the leadership capabilities Preston Smith brings to this team.
I do however believe that when you combine this with the amazing preseason performance against the Bengals yesterday, things are looking to be on the up and up for the Packers going forward.
