GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Kentrell Brice was eating lunch earlier this week when he felt someone looming. He looked up, and that person -- quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- was also smiling.

"He was like, 'You've got to have stronger hands than that,'" the Green Bay Packers rookie safety said, shaking his head. "He was just joking around, playing around."

Rodgers wasn't the first to give Brice a hard time about letting a would-be interception slip through his fingers during Sunday's practice. Safeties coach Darren Perry and the rest of the guys in his meeting room beat the two-time NFL MVP to that.

"He gets one right in the basket and he drops it," Perry said, chuckling. "You've get a chance to pick off one of the best and you get one right in your hands and you drop it? You can't miss out on those opportunities. He'll learn from it."

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Brice seems to be a quick learner, having made an impression through the first few weeks of training camp on a team known for keeping several undrafted rookies each year.

Asked if there's a quality those rookie free agents have had in common, general manager Ted Thompson replied Tuesday, "Being the kind of instinctive player that's where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there."

The drop notwithstanding, that's exactly what Brice has done. Not only was he in position on Rodgers' throw, but he's been in the right place throughout camp. In Friday's preseason victory over Cleveland, he played a whopping 47 snaps (36 on defense, 11 on special teams) and recorded three tackles (one for loss) on defense and three more on special teams.

"I don't worry about Kentrell's hands. He can catch the football. I'm sure he'll capitalize the next opportunity he gets," Perry said. "He's coming along, he's doing some good things. You see him do some things that you like and you see some areas of improvement. As with all those guys, first time out of the gate, they're not going to be perfect, but you're looking for them to go out and play with a certain attitude and a certain aggressiveness and display some of the abilities that you look for in order to play at this level."

Brice got the Packers' attention with a strong showing in his on-campus pro day -- 4.44-second 40-yard dash, 42-inch vertical leap, 11-foot, 1-inch broad jump -- and he seems to have chosen wisely after going undrafted out of Louisiana Tech.

Should the Packers decide to keep five safeties, there are only four -- starters Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Morgan Burnett, versatile No. 3 Micah Hyde and special-teams ace Chris Banjo -- whose roster spots appear safe. While surpluses at other positions could affect the final roster calls, Brice will be tough to cut if he continues on his current trajectory.

"I feel like it's gone pretty well so far but I need to continue to build on the things I've done so far and get better," Brice said. "[The near-interception] gives me a little extra confidence. For me to be in the position to even get near a ball from a two-time MVP, one of the greatest players of all time, it's just a confidence-builder and makes me feel like I can continue to elevate my game to a different level.

"I just have to make sure next time, I catch it."