The Green Bay Packers only made one roster move on Saturday, bringing up practice squad tight end Drake Dabney to the game-day roster for action against the New England Patriots. As always, the moves that the Packers make, and don’t make, give us hints at what the roster is expected to look like on Sunday. Let’s get into the information we have now.
Out with injury
Four players have already been ruled out with injuries, bringing the Packers’ 53-man active roster to 49. The players out are tight end Josh Whyle (concussion),
offensive lineman Travis Glover (knee), offensive lineman Sean Rhyan (ankle) and linebacker Zaire Franklin (shin).
The Packers lost Whyle in-game against the Carolina Panthers, carrying only three tight ends on game day and scratching Jonnu Smith for the first time this season, while Glover, Rhyan and Franklin did not play.
Expected scratches
This season, the Packers have seemingly had no interest in carrying four running backs on the game-day roster. The same can be said about a ninth offensive lineman, despite the team consistently keeping 11 on the active roster.
If you add in those scratches, Green Bay’s active roster drops down to 47 players. With the addition of Dabney, who is expected to replace the special teams snaps of Whyle (the only real special teams contributor on offense who isn’t a receiver), that gets us to a 48-man gameday roster. It’s pretty tidy.
Questionable players
The players listed as questionable going into the weekend were running back MarShawn Lloyd (knee), cornerback Keisean Nixon (groin) and running back Chris Brooks (ankle). Brooks isn’t on the active roster yet, as he’s going through his practice window after spending time on the injured reserve. If he were going to play on Sunday, you would have seen an activation today.
Nixon is highly likely to play, as the Packers don’t really have a replacement for him on the roster, as it stands currently. If he were going to miss this game, we probably would have seen a second call-up from the practice squad on Saturday. Lloyd may or may not play. If he can’t go, the team will displace him with Kaleb Johnson, Green Bay’s fourth running back, who has been a healthy scratch since Josh Jacobs’ return to the team.
Roster breakdown
Here’s what the team will probably look like on Sunday (with the biggest questions being which offensive lineman gets healthy-scratched and if Lloyd can go):
- QB: Jordan Love and Tyrod Taylor
- RB: Josh Jacobs and Pierre Strong Jr.
- One of: MarShawn Lloyd or Kaleb Johnson
- WR: Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, Savion Williams, Bo Melton, J. Michael Sturdivant and Coleman Owen
- TE: Tucker Kraft, Mark Redman, Jonnu Smith and Drake Dabney
- OL: 8 players up, 3 scratched (two for sure being Sean Rhyan and Travis Glover)
- Most likely: Jordan Morgan, Aaron Banks, John Williams, Laken Tomlinson, Anthony Belton, Kevin Zeitler, Mekhi Becton Sr. and Jager Burton active; Donnovan Jennings a healthy scratch, along with Rhyan and Glover being out with injury.
- DL: Karl Brooks, Devonte Wyatt, Chris McClellan, Jordon Riley and Anthony Campbell
- ED: Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox Jr. and Dani Dennis-Sutton
- LB: Isaiah McDuffie, Ty’Ron Hopper, Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch
- CB: Keisean Nixon, Brandon Cisse, Carrington Valentine, Benjamin St-Juste and Kamal Hadden
- S: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, Kitan Oladapo
- K: Trey Smack
- P: Daniel Whelan
- LS: Matt Orzech
That’s your 48-man roster against the Patriots.
