Welcome to our update of the Green Bay Packers’ defensive depth chart over the last two weeks. If you want to read the companion article covering the offensive side of the ball, you can find that HERE. Most importantly, this article will cover how the Packers adjusted to losing defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, who is now out for the year, with their Week 14 rotation against the Chicago Bears.
As always, all of the snap count data below is hand-charted and includes plays with post-snap penalties (like
holding) but not pre-snap penalties (like a false start), spikes or kneels. Cells in red mean that a player was unable to play in the game due to injury. Cells in yellow mean that a player dropped out of the game due to injury. Cells in black mean that a player was a healthy scratch.
Personnel
The Packers don’t really get to control their defensive personnel because so much of defense is just matching the offense’s personnel and down and distance. With that being said, Green Bay’s plans over the last two weeks were very different. Against the Detroit Lions, the team played a majority of their snaps out of nickel sets. Against the Chicago Bears, the plan was clearly for the Bears to hold onto the football and lean into the run, which forced the Packers to play their base 4-3 personnel the most.
One thing I do want to note about the last couple of weeks, though, is that since the Philadelphia Eagles game, the Packers have decided to start playing a 3-4 defense when offenses play six-offensive-line sets. You can call it a 5-2 if you want, since it’s really rooted with three defensive tackles, two defensive ends and two off-ball linebackers. Look for that to start popping up more in short-yardage situations moving forward.
Defensive End
In Weeks 10, 11 and now 14, Kingsley Enagbare has basically played as many snaps on the edge as Rashan Gary. Whenever Lukas Van Ness returns to the team, it will be interesting to see how the defensive end rotation adapts. The Packers seem to be leaning on Enagbare more in run-heavy scripts, in part because it forces more rotations in general and in part because Enagbare seems to be better at playing the run than Gary.
Green Bay also has to make a decision soon on whether to bring up Brenton Cox Jr. (IR) and/or Collin Oliver (PUP) from the injury lists. Next week, the Packers will need to officially bring these players up to the 53-man roster or shut them down for the remainder of the 2025 season. Last week, Cox was listed as questionable on Green Bay’s final injury report of the week, while Oliver was listed as out. That’s a sign that Cox is closer to a return than Oliver.
Defensive Tackle
There are a couple of big pieces of information in this one.
First of all, the Packers healthy scratched Nazir Stackhouse in favor of Jordon Riley, who the team used as a situational defensive tackle against the Bears. While Stackhouse hasn’t really been used situationally this year — he’s mostly just been rotated in on long drives — Riley was used almost exclusively in short yardage or red zone reps versus Chicago.
Here’s a list of the plays Riley was on the field for:
- 4th and 1
- open field
- red zone
- open field
- red zone
- red zone
- red zone / 3rd and 1
- red zone
- open field
- open field
- 3rd and 1
- 3rd and 1
- red zone
- red zone / 3rd and 1
As expected, following the Devonte Wyatt injury, the starting nose tackle was Colby Wooden, with Karl Brooks taking over as the under tackle. For the most part, Warren Brinson filled the role of playing as the team’s third defensive tackle, at both positions, with Riley coming in situationally.
In Cheetah packages, Micah Parsons played 10 snaps of stand-up defensive tackle against the Bears, the most of any game this year. If you are wondering why Caleb Williams was fleeing the pocket so much, it’s because Parsons was flushing him out. Now, I do wonder if the Packers would like to have Parsons play left end in their upcoming rematch against Chicago, considering that’s the direction that Williams generally travels, and he hardly ever stays in the pocket to deliver a ball. It’s something to think about.
If Lukas Van Ness is able to come back by the Bears rematch, he could play some of those interior Cheetah snaps, which would free up Parsons to play more on the edge, where he’ll have a better chance of chasing down Williams than either Rashan Gary or Kingsley Enagbare.
Linebacker
Quay Walker was out against the Lions, pushing Isaiah McDuffie into the starting Mike role and allowing Ty’Ron Hopper to backfill as the third linebacker in 4-3 looks. Kristian Welch got in on one snap in Week 13, when Edgerrin Cooper left the field for a play. This marked Welch’s first defensive snap of the season, but Welch left Sunday’s action with a concussion after hitting his head on a special teams play.
The Hopper and Xavier McKinney snaps at linebacker against the Bears came on a goal-line play.
Cornerback
Nate Hobbs returned to the lineup in Week 14, but only got in as an outside cornerback for two snaps following Keisean Nixon’s second penalty of the game against the Bears. Otherwise, it was all Nixon and Carrington Valentine at outside cornerback over the last two weeks.
Slot Defender
Nate Hobbs played eight snaps in the slot this week, which is more than in any other game this year that Javon Bullard didn’t leave with an injury. The Packers seemed to use Hobbs more on longer down and distances, particularly early in the game when the Bears were playing behind the sticks, while Bullard played the slot in neutral or run downs. For the most part, that follows season-long trends.
Safety
Even with Nate Hobbs available to play the slot, the Packers didn’t revert to splitting time at the safety position. It’s been all Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety, even though Bullard rotated in at the position from Week 7 to Week 11.
