With the Green Bay Packers’ preseason over, all of the information has been laid out ahead of roster cutdowns. For the fourth year, we’re tracking the Packers’ first-team snaps, from the preseason and Green Bay’s Family Night practice, so that you can understand where the roster is at.
You may have attached yourself to a favorite roster bubble player, but does the coaching staff, which decides these rotations, feel the same? Here’s your temperature check.
In the tables below, a cell highlighted in
red means that a player didn’t suit up due to injury. A yellow cell means that a player did suit up but was injured during action. FN is for snaps on Family Night, while W1 and W3 are snaps from the preseason. As a reminder, the first-team offense didn’t play during Week 2 against the Indianapolis Colts.
We’re going to do our best to list the players in the order of the Packers’ depth chart, based on the information we’ve learned this summer.
Running Back
When healthy, the Packers’ running back rotation behind starter Josh Jacobs has gone: MarShawn Lloyd, then Chris Brooks and then Emanuel Wilson. Brooks also contributes as a blocking back, both in two-back looks and on passing downs. Lloyd is currently dealing with a hamstring injury, so we’re uncertain if he’s going to start the regular season on the injured reserve. It is worth noting that in both Week 2 and Week 3 of the preseason, when Wilson was healthy, Green Bay chose to give carries and priority snaps to Brooks before Wilson.
Wide Receiver
Dontayvion Wicks and Savion Williams have been banged up for basically all of training camp, but rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden has looked the part as an outside receiver with those ramped-up reps as their replacement. In the limited snaps that we got to see from healthy Jayden Reed this year, he was used as a slot-only player, as he was during his first two seasons in the NFL. The Packers seem to have a lot more faith in Malik Heath than Mecole Hardman offensively, especially as an outside receiver.
Slot Receiver
It’ll probably be a rotation at outside receiver, but if Dontayvion Wicks comes back from injury before Jayden Reed does, don’t be surprised if Matthew Golden is used as a slot receiver in Week 1. The Packers haven’t hesitated to play Golden in a couple of different spots, which is relatively rare for the team. As you can see, Malik Heath out-snapped Mecole Hardman 10-to-3 in the slot and 17-to-3 at all receiver positions with the first-team offense this preseason.
Tight End
The only news here is that John FitzPatrick has indeed passed Ben Sims on the depth chart, momentum he started to build in the second half of the 2024 regular season. If Sims makes the team, it’s so that he can help on special teams, where TE2 Luke Musgrave is a non-contributor. Usually, teams can count on backup tight ends to play on teams, so Musgrave presents the team with an issue that they have to work around.
Offensive Line
The offensive line position is so fluid that we’re not even going to track the snaps here. They don’t matter with the injuries that Green Bay has had.
Here’s what you need to know: Rasheed Walker and Jordan Morgan are rotating reps in practice if and only if the entire offensive line is healthy. When someone is hurt, Morgan immediately goes to guard to help the team mask the injury. The only exception is at right tackle, where Anthony Belton has been tabbed as the Zach Tom replacement.
If a center goes down, it’ll be Sean Rhyan kicking in from guard to replace Elgton Jenkins. From left to right, you can think of the Packers’ starting offensive line as Walker, Aaron Banks, Jenkins, Rhyan and Tom. Morgan rotates in at both left tackle and right guard when everyone is healthy.
Defensive End
There’s really no surprise here. Lukas Van Ness is going to make his first career start since the high school level in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, barring injury. When Van Ness dropped out of practice last week, his injury replacement was Kingsley Enagbare, who started in the second half of the 2024 season following the Preston Smith trade. That’s your pecking order. Barryn Sorrell is now dealing with a knee injury, while fellow rookie draft pick Collin Oliver is still on the PUP list with a hamstring issue. Neither is certain to be healthy for the start of the regular season, leaving the door open for Arron Mosby, a special teams ace who the team doesn’t really want to play on defense, to make the initial 53-man roster.
Defensive Tackle
Kenny Clark is back at nose tackle, which will allow Devonte Wyatt to start as the team’s full-time three-technique for the first time in his career. Whenever a defensive tackle has dropped out this summer, Colby Wooden has received the first opportunity to come in as the replacement starter. Overall, Wooden and Karl Brooks have both been given premier looks over Georgia rookies Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse.
Linebacker
When Quay Walker was out with an injury earlier in camp, Isaiah Simmons pushed Isaiah McDuffie not only for the third-linebacker spot but also looks in two-linebacker nickel sets. That seemed to end when the preseason began, but as far as we know, Simmons is still the team’s next man up off the bench, despite Ty’Ron Hopper performing much better than Simmons this preseason. Both Simmons and Hopper are getting looks over Kristian Welch, a special teams ace, in two-linebacker sets with the second-team defense, too.
Outside Cornerback/Slot Corner
Nate Hobbs is currently dealing with the recovery from his meniscus clean-up, but prior to his surgery, he was playing both outside cornerback and the slot for the team. The assumption is that when he’s healthy, he will start with Keisean Nixon as outside cornerbacks in base two-cornerback looks. When the Packers play a slot in their nickel defense, they have the option to bring safety Javon Bullard off the bench to play the slot or kick Hobbs there, which would bring Carrington Valentine off the bench to play outside cornerback. The next man up at outside corner appears to be receiver convert Bo Melton.
Safety
While there was a little bit of a rotation between Evan Williams and Javon Bullard as the safety opposite of Xavier McKinney earlier on in camp, Williams has apparently run away with the job. Bullard is still the next man up at safety, but Zayne Anderson will be brought off the bench in Bullard safety starts if Bullard kicks down into the slot in nickel looks. After Anderson went down with a knee injury in Week 1 of the preseason, his job went to second-year player Kitan Oladapo.
