With the final preseason game around the corner, let’s take a look at the roster bubble players who have the most to gain or lose for the Green Bay Packers before roster cutdowns on August 26th. While we’re going to be pairing players positionally for this analysis, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an either/or situation for the pairs. The team might end up keeping two extra defensive ends, or neither, for example.
Considering that the Packers have 13 players who are too injured to practice right
now, the roster is still very fluid. The number of players who eventually go on the injured reserve, either on the day of cutdowns or the day after, will impact how the roster is shaped.
So let’s dive in.
WR Malik Heath
WR Mecole Hardman
There’s no reason for the Packers to keep more than a sixth receiver on the roster, especially with Christian Watson (ACL) likely to be called up from the physically unable to perform list by around midseason. The two candidates for this (possibly temporary) sixth receiver job are Malik Heath, who made the 53-man roster last year, and Mecole Hardman, who was signed as a free agent before the draft.
These two receivers couldn’t be more different.
Heath does the dirty work, playing in an Allen Lazard-like role as an outside/slot receiver who specializes in blocking. Beyond his contributions on the offensive side (head coach Matt LaFleur LOVES good blockers on the perimeter), Heath is also one of the few receivers whom special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia has ever trusted on the kick return unit as a blocker.
Meanwhile, Hardman signed with the Packers when they had real questions about where speed would come from at the receiver position following Watson’s injury. Since then, Green Bay has added Matthew Golden (4.29-second 40-yard dash) and Savion Williams (4.48-second 40-yard dash) as top-100 picks in April’s draft. Based on how the offense has deployed Hardman with the first- and second-team units this summer, the offense’s plan for Hardman seems to be to use him as a reserve slot receiver, a role that Jayden Reed starts at and Golden, Dontayvion Wicks and Heath all receive snaps at.
So is Hardman’s upside as a punt returner alone worth the nod over Heath? In three return attempts this preseason, Hardman has earned just 10 yards, which included a muffed ball. It’s getting harder and harder to justify a roster spot for that type of production, rather than just having Reed handle punts again.
TE Ben Sims
Prior to the injuries elsewhere on the roster, it was difficult to imagine that Ben Sims, who was slowly worked out of the lineup last year by mid-season pickup John FitzPatrick, could make this team as a fourth tight end. Depending on how many players get added to the injured reserve over the next week, though, he’s got a chance to come back to the 53-man roster.
No one is expecting much from Sims on the offensive side of the ball, but he’s been a contributor on the punt team and kick return team (as a starter) in the past. In the last preseason game, Sims received reps as a punt rusher on the punt return team, a sign that the team is trying to cross-train him for more special teams reps. That’s one hint that Green Bay is seriously considering hanging onto him.
Sims wouldn’t be a sexy keep, but the Packers are going to have to find 10 blockers on the kick return unit somewhere. Beyond Chris Brooks at running back, FitzPatrick at tight end and Malik Heath at receiver, the team is getting zero special teams reps at those positions without Sims. On top of that, 300-pound linemen hardly (if ever) contribute on kick returns. There are very limited options for Green Bay as it stands today, especially if the team doesn’t keep extra linebackers or defensive ends.
For what it’s worth, the kick return touchback rate this preseason is about one-third of the rate that we saw in the regular season last year, the first year of the dynamic kickoff. With touchbacks coming out to the 35-yard line now instead of the 30-yard line, the NFL has manufactured a lot more reps on special teams with their recent rule changes. In short, the league made special teams much more influential, for two years in a row, without expanding rosters in any way. It’s a good time to be a tight end.
OL Donovan Jennings
OL Kadeem Telfort
The Packers will keep nine offensive linemen, but there’s no good answer for who that ninth player will be now that Travis Glover is on season-ending injured reserve. Rookie draft pick John Williams is still on the physically unable to perform list for a back injury, too. Donovan Jennings is getting looks with the second-team offense as a guard, but he hasn’t been performing well this preseason. Kadeem Telfort is the next man up at tackle, but is still rough around the edges, despite his 6’7”, 322-pound frame. Don’t be surprised if Green Bay looks at the waiver wire following cutdowns if neither has a standout game against the Seattle Seahawks this week.
DE Brenton Cox Jr.
DE Arron Mosby
Brenton Cox Jr. is currently the Packers’ fourth defensive end, behind starters Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness and preferred backup Kingsley Enagbare. When Green Bay took Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver in the middle of this year’s draft, I thought it would be certain that at least one of the Packers’ veteran defensive ends, Cox, Enagbare or Arron Mosby, would end up getting cut. But with both Sorrell and Oliver now hurt, there’s a chance all three could make the 53-man roster.
If this roster spot comes down to defensive play, Cox will easily win out. At best, Mosby is the sixth defensive end on the Packers’ depth chart, and that’s before including Oliver in the mix. With that being said, Cox is a virtual non-factor on special teams, which usually is a death sentence for backup players at this position. Meanwhile, Mosby is a four-core starter, playing all of the significant units in the kicking game, and he lines up in both defensive end-like and linebacker-like special teams positions, rare for his position.
So that’s your decision: An all-around special teams player who can play defense in a pinch or a defensive player who can’t play special teams outside of punt rush. Maybe the Packers, by keeping both, can push this decision until later on in the year, when they’ll be able to start pulling guys off the injured reserve.
DT Warren Brinson
DT Nazir Stackhouse
The rookie Georgia defensive tackles are behind Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks in the pecking order right now. Earlier this offseason, there was real concern about how the team would back up Clark at the nose tackle position, but now it’s clear that Wooden has added weight to his frame and is the team’s preferred backup at that spot.
So with either draft pick Warren Brinson or undrafted player Nazir Stackhouse, the Packers would be getting a third credible nose tackle on the roster. Brinson seems to be getting on the field earlier than Stackhouse, who is mostly getting reps on obvious running downs outside of his work with the fourth-team defense. On top of that, Brinson has a little more flexibility in that he sometimes plays the three-technique position instead of just nose tackle like Stackhouse.
LB Isaiah Simmons
LB Kristian Welch
Wars will be fought over Isaiah Simmons over the next week. The former first-round pick is converting to the linebacker position for the first time in his life, at least in the coaching staff’s mind, after bouncing around as a hybrid player for his whole career.
Simmons has not played well on the defensive side of the ball this preseason, but he was pushing Isaiah McDuffie for the third-linebacker job as recently as a few weeks ago. Now, his preseason performance has fans ranking him behind backups like Ty’Ron Hopper and Kristian Welch.
Simmons is an odd special-teams player in that he plays a lot of defensive back positions in the kicking game. Here’s the issue, though: You need a lot more linebacker-types on special teams than you need defensive back-types, especially when you roster five safeties as often as the Packers have in the past.
On the other hand, Welch has been playing really well on special teams this summer in linebacker-like roles and has at least performed better on defense than Simmons. Right now, he’s on the starting kickoff, kickoff return and punt teams for the Packers. He’ll probably be contributing on the punt return team, too, whenever we get a look at that first-team unit.
CB Corey Ballentine
CB Kalen King
CB Kamal Hadden
At a minimum, I at least understand the decision matrix for why roster bubble players will or won’t be Packers come August 26th…but I have no handle on who the favorite is for the fifth cornerback job in Green Bay. You’d think that Corey Ballentine, who was re-signed mid-camp, would be the number one candidate, considering that he has starting experience at outside cornerback. Instead, all of Ballentine’s looks this preseason have come at slot cornerback — something he never played in his previous three seasons with the team.
It’s quite possible that the Packers aren’t even interested in keeping a fifth outside cornerback and are instead thinking of using that roster spot on a player who could back up Nate Hobbs and Javon Bullard, the team’s primary slot defenders. If that’s the case, it’s bad news for Kamal Hadden, who has been splitting time with Kalen King as an outside cornerback on the second- and third-team units.
But it’s not Ballentine who is getting looks as the second-team slot defender. Instead, it’s actually King, who has been kicking inside in nickel looks. So is King gonna get the job because he’s getting playing time on defense ahead of Ballentine? Is Ballentine’s versatility as an inside-outside cornerback who was a core special teamer last year gonna earn him a spot? Does Hadden’s time at outside cornerback with the backups even matter?
The only clarity that we seem to have for the fifth cornerback spot is that Micah Robinson isn’t getting a lot of premier looks, which means the rookie draft pick is probably well behind the rest of the pack.
