MAX SCHARPING: I've been back once before obviously a couple years ago. It's going to be super special again to get to go back to Green Bay. I'm excited.
Q. What do your parents think about you coming back there?
MAX SCHARPING: They love it. They don't have to travel. They travel a lot to all the games. The fact that they can just host it and tailgate and stuff, they're going to be happy.
Q. How many tickets will you get?
MAX SCHARPING: That's all on my parents. I have no idea. I'm not in charge of that one. That's on them. That's too much for me to handle.
Q. Have you had an opportunity to see them very much?
MAX SCHARPING: I mean, depending on what the schedule is and stuff, I think maybe we'll be able to see them after the game, family and friends or something maybe. We'll see how it goes.
Q. You started that game there. There's been a lot of things happen since then. Can you compare your game today with what it was?
MAX SCHARPING: Obviously, that was my first ever game at all, so obviously I was going in with a lot of nerves, and now I just feel a little bit more comfortable in where I'm at as a player going into that game. So it will be fun just to be able to take in the atmosphere.
Q. Can you talk about what that area means to you?
MAX SCHARPING: I grew up my whole life there, so it's everything. It's who I am. That's where I came from. So it built me into who I am today. I wouldn't be here without Green Bay.
Q. During the course of the preseason, what have you felt like is the biggest focus on the line just progressing together?
MAX SCHARPING: I think you just said it, together. As an offensive line, you have to be five working as one. So I think, because we have new faces in, new O-line coach, it's just kind of meshing everything we've done separately and combining it into working together to be the best possible offensive line that we can be.
Q. (Inaudible) on the offensive side. What do you see from that?
MAX SCHARPING: I just think he brings a great mentality into the room. Obviously, he's been doing this a really long time. He's played at this level himself. So he knows what it's like. He knows what needs to be done. So just getting us in, getting our mentality -- finish, cover the ball, and make sure we take care of our guy, stuff like that. It's great.
Q. (Inaudible question)?
MAX SCHARPING: I mean, I think it was tough for the whole team last year, as you said, with everything going on in the world, and obviously the season didn't end the way anyone wants it to. So it's a fresh start right now. Every single year, new faces, new coaches now for us. So it's a good place to be where we're starting fresh and working back to getting to winning ways.
Q. How positive are you with this group and going into this first preseason game?
MAX SCHARPING: I think I'm -- this is a great group. I mean, you guys just talked to J.B. I don't think I've ever been around a more positive guy every single day. He's in here at 5:30 every morning. He loves this stuff. So just having him as a guy that's up front leading us to the ball every single play, it changes your mindset when you're following someone like that. It's just -- it's a great mentality to follow and to get on board with.
Q. What is your top memory of a Packers game?
MAX SCHARPING: So they won the Super Bowl against the Steelers when you was a freshman, I believe, in high school. So I remember going to a movie theater with all my buddies and watching the game. Then we got the day off from school for the parade the next whenever they came in and did the parade. So that was pretty cool.
Q. (Inaudible question)?
MAX SCHARPING: I think it's just confidence level. He's been moving me around left guard, right guard, just to see how I can grow as a player, and I think just having that confidence that I can go out there and play either position there right now and work on technique in both places, it gets you to think about your hands, your feet, balance, all that stuff.
So I think it's just kind of a mental aspect of the game that I think is getting better.
Q. T.J., your rookie year, told me you're one of the smartest guys on the team. What I worry sometimes about with smarter guys is they tend to overanalyze things when they're young. Did you catch yourself doing that the first couple of years, maybe thinking a little too much before the snap?
MAX SCHARPING: Oh, yeah, that always happens. That's definitely one of my tendencies is to overthink things and try to be too perfect, try to do too much at one time. I think that's also part of it, just slowing it down in your own mind, thinking like I have to be able to rely on the guys next to me. Otherwise, we're all going to fail. So just being comfortable in who I am and what the guys around me can do and just focusing on my job.
Q. With the new offensive line, are you guys are doing much differently schematically for the run game?
MAX SCHARPING: Like I said, we're just trying to figure out how every guy up front can work together to the best of their ability. So really, when you think about it, if you look at teams all around the league, they're basically pretty much the same plays. It's just about how they're scheming it based on their personnel up front. So we're just trying to figure out our guys, what their best abilities are and working to improve our offense and our offensive line to be the best that we can be.
Q. What have you noticed from Charlie Heck? What have you noticed in him as a player and just impressing you?
MAX SCHARPING: Charlie's great. I love playing next to him. He's a smart kid. He works his ass off. He's just a great guy to have by you. Like I said, he's probably one of the hardest working guys in the room honestly. And his background with his dad as a coach, he's really smart in the game of football. So he gets what's going on out there, and he brings a level of that work ethic that every single offensive line needs to have.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports