There were a lot of moving parts on the Green Bay Packers’ roster coming into the week, as the team made four moves on Saturday to piece together a roster to play the Detroit Lions. There were also three in-game injuries for the Packers, on top of Green Bay missing starting Mike linebacker Zaire Franklin.
With all that chaos swirling around, who was on the field for the Packers on Sunday? Let’s go position-by-position to explain what is changing on this team, and what to expect from the personnel
moving forward.
Quarterback
- Jordan Love: 65 snaps
- Tyrod Taylor: 0
Running Back
- Josh Jacobs: 35
- MarShawn Lloyd: 22
- Pierre Strong Jr.: 8
- Scratch: Kaleb Johnson
Running back Josh Jacobs returned to the Packers as a full-time starter for the team, playing 54 percent of Green Bay’s overall offensive snaps in Week 7. For perspective, he played 59 percent of the Packers’ offensive snaps in the 15 games that he suited up for last season. For the most part, he played his full share of reps, instead of being on a pitch count.
The players who were pushed down by Jacobs’ addition were Pierre Strong Jr., who is now clearly the RB3 in Green Bay, and Kaleb Johnson, who is now a healthy scratch for the Packers. It will be interesting to see what Green Bay will do whenever Chris Brooks, who split time with Lloyd until Brooks’ injury, is activated from the injured reserve. I wouldn’t be shocked if Brooks takes Strong’s place on the 53-man roster, and the Packers try to re-sign Strong to the practice squad. There’s value in Johnson’s rookie contract, which would terminate if they waive him, as he’s still on a three-year cost-controlled deal.
Receiver
- Matthew G0lden: 55
- Christian Watson: 53
- Savion Williams: 40
- Bo Melton: 13
- J. Michael Sturdivant: 4
- Coleman Owen: 0
It’s clear at this point that Savion Williams is the Packers’ answer for losing Jayden Reed and Skyy Moore at the slot position. He’s been getting premier looks as Green Bay’s WR3, over Bo Melton and J. Michael Sturdivant. Coleman Owen has played two weeks without an offensive snap, as he’s been limited to the punt returner position. Melton is the Packers’ kick returner, with Sturdivant playing as the “off returner.” Previously, Moore was the team’s punt and kick returner, with Melton as the “off returner.”
Tight End
- Tucker Kraft: 57
- Mark Redman: 16
- Jonnu Smith: 15
- Josh Whyle: 7
Outside of one odd week, the Packers’ TE4 has been Josh Whyle this entire season. Mark Redman and Jonnu Smith are generally the team’s TE2 and TE3, but they play different roles. Redman usually comes in for more blocking situations, while Smith comes in for more route-running situations.
Offensive Line
- Jordan Morgan: 65
- Laken Tomlinson: 65
- Travis Glover: 65
- Anthony Belton: 65
- John Williams: 56
- Jacob Monk: 5
- Sean Rhyan: 4
- Aaron Banks: 0
- Scratch: Kevin Zeitler, Donovan Jennings and Jager Burton
The Packers only got nine combined snaps out of their top center (Sean Rhyan) and top backup at the position (Jacob Monk) before they both exited the game with injuries and never returned. Head coach Matt LaFleur has already said that they will both miss action against the Carolina Panthers next week on Thursday Night Football, so assume that John Williams will make his first career start in Week 8.
The only good news here is that Green Bay is oversigned at the offensive line position, so it’ll be easy for the team to slide in players with experience for those injuries. I think the Packers will have a bench of Aaron Banks, Kevin Zeitler and Donovan Jennings next week. Jennings will probably be the “next man up” at center, with Banks and/or Zeitler “next man up” at guard. If there’s an injury at tackle, we’re probably going to see Travis Glover have to slide out from right guard.
Defensive Line
- Karl Brooks: 46
- Chris McClellan: 38
- Jordon Riley: 29
- Anthony Campbell: 26
- Devonte Wyatt: 23
Devonte Wyatt left this game early with an injury before coming back, which opened up a lot of snaps for Jordon Riley in the second half, right off an activation from the PUP list — where he started the year recovering from his season-ending Achilles injury.
This was the second-half snap count for the interior defensive linemen:
- Brooks: 25
- McClellan: 25
- Riley: 21
- Campbell: 16
- Wyatt: 11
This is also a huge jump in snaps for McClellan, who was behind Brooks, Wyatt, Javon Hargrave (IR) and Jonathan Ford (IR) to start the year (with Warren Brinson also ahead of him until his preseason injury). Quickly, the rookie third-round pick has gone from DL6 to DL2 in the pecking order, due to injury.
Edge Defender
- Lukas Van Ness: 41
- Dani Dennis-Sutton: 33
- Barryn Sorrell: 32
- Brenton Cox Jr.: 28
- Arron Mosby: 0
The Packers continue to rotate their edge defender room liberally, and the Lions didn’t pass all that much when Lukas Van Ness was on the field. Between the runs the team saw with Van Ness on the grass, plus the fact that Van Ness dropped into coverage a few times when blitzers came from elsewhere, Van Ness only rushed the passer 15 total times against Detroit. So more than half of the time Lions quarterback Jared Goff was dropping back, Van Ness wasn’t coming after him.
Off-Ball Linebacker
- Isaiah McDuffie: 66
- Ty’Ron Hopper: 62
- Nick Niemann: 1
- Kristian Welch: 0
- Scratch: Zaire Franklin (injury)
With Zaire Franklin out with a shin injury, it was expected that Isaiah McDuffie would start at the Mike spot and Ty’Ron Hopper would start at the Will spot. That’s exactly what we got tonight. Hopefully, Franklin can play against the Panthers, as the Packers’ blitzes from the linebacker position didn’t go anywhere against the Lions, and Goff picked apart Green Bay’s zone defense over the middle of the field.
Cornerback
- Keisean Nixon: 65
- Brandon Cisse: 65
- Carrington Valentine: 4
- Kamal Hadden: 0
- Scratch: Benjamin St-Juste (injury)
Nothing new here. Keisean Nixon and Brandon Cisse are the starters, and Carrington Valentine is playing a couple of dime snaps here and there as the second slot defender.
Safety
- Xavier McKinney: 66
- Evan Williams: 66
- Javon Bullard: 35
- Kitan Oladapo: 0
The Lions played a lot more heavy sets on offense, as we expected. Because of that, slot defender Javon Bullard was only on the field for 53 percent of the snaps on defense this week. Against Dallas the week before, which played a lot more three-receiver looks, Bullard played 86 percent of the time.
