What the Packers’ game-day roster could look like: Week 2, New York Jets

(Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images) | Getty Images A couple of weeks ago, we did an exercise on what the Green Bay Packers’ game-day roster would look like, and I want to update that projection for Week 2 based on new information we have. To recap, here was my prediction on how the Packers would

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What is the story about?

A couple of weeks ago, we did an exercise on what the Green Bay Packers’ game-day roster would look like, and I want to update that projection for Week 2 based on new information we have. To recap, here was my prediction on how the Packers would drop their 53-man active roster to their 48-man game-day roster:

One tight end inactive (WRONG, all four tight ends were active in Week 1)

Two offensive linemen inactive (CORRECT, it was Aaron Banks out with injury and Travis Glover being a healthy scratch)
At least one defensive lineman inactive (CORRECT, Warren Brinson was out with an injury and Anthony Campbell was a healthy scratch)
One choose-your-own-adventure spot between receiver, defensive lineman and off-ball linebacker (WRONG, it was two of these players, not one, because the team kept four tight ends)

For the most part, I feel like I was on the right track going into Week 1 (even before that week’s set of practices began), but if you can’t tell…yes, I was surprised they used four tight ends.

Maybe that was just a Minnesota Vikings game-planned thing (I think it’s going to be very hard to keep four tight ends when injuries start to pile up), but it’s not like the New York Jets don’t blitz, either, if that was the justification for the volume at tight end.

Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of the roster, we should lay out the Packers’ injury report, which was finalized on Friday:

DL Warren Brinson (out, calf)
DL Javon Hargrave (doubtful, concussion/knee)
OL Zach Bako-Bewele (questionable, knee)
OL Aaron Banks (questionable, knee)
ED Lukas Van Ness (questionable, concussion)
CB Benjamin St-Juste (questionable, hamstring)

With seven defensive linemen on the roster (Packers used five last week) and ten offensive linemen (Packers used eight last week), Green Bay should be able to handle those positions — at least from a numbers perspective — even in an absolute worst-case scenario where Brinson, Hargrave, Bako-Bewele and Banks don’t play against the Jets. The real pressure points on the roster, injury-wise, this week are with Van Ness and St-Juste.

On the edge, the Packers only have four total players at the position — including Van Ness — a pretty low number for them historically. If Van Ness can’t go, they will almost certainly have to call up either Arron Mosby or rookie Nyjalik Kelly from the practice squad. In my opinion, Kelly seems like the more likely candidate, as Mosby is more of a special teamer than a true defender; thus, Mosby doesn’t really fix Green Bay’s “we only have one backup” issue. If the Packers think they’re going to be down Van Ness, they’ll probably let us know by calling up a practice squad player at the position (likely Kelly) on Saturday.

In theory, the Packers could keep just four “cornerbacks” if St-Juste’s hamstring injury issue keeps him off the field, but one of the problems there is that Kamal Hadden, officially listed as a cornerback, was actually a full-time slot player for Green Bay this preseason. Hadden worked out with the safeties, not cornerbacks, in individual drills, common for a slot defender.

A question I have is how much Hadden has been working with outside cornerbacks in-season, because if Hadden hasn’t been doing that before St-Juste first popped up on the injury report on Friday, will the team really want to rely on Hadden leaning on banked reps from 2024-2025 under a different defensive coordinator to be the “break in case of two injuries emergency” player on Sunday? If not, I could see a second practice squad call-up (rookie sixth-round pick Domani Jackson is the only practice squad cornerback for the Packers) this weekend, depending on St-Juste’s health.

So, how do we get to a 48-man gameday roster? First, it’s important to remember that practice squad call-ups aren’t extra players on game day. These players get added to the pool of players who could potentially suit up for game days, almost like the 53-man roster expands up to a 55-man roster, but the game-day roster still has a hard cap at 48 players. For every practice squad player elevated, another inactive must be made.

With all that said, here’s my prediction for Sunday:

QB: Jordan Love and Tyrod Taylor
RB: MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks and Kaleb Johnson
WR: Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed, Bo Melton and Skyy Moore
- J. Michael Sturdivant healthy scratch (was in Week 1)
TE: Tucker Kraft, Jonnu Smith, Mark Redman and Josh Whyle
OL: Jordan Morgan, Sean Rhyan, Jacob Monk, Donovan Jennings, Jager Burton and Anthony Belton
- Two of: Zach Bako-Bewele (questionable), Aaron Banks (questionable), John Williams or Travis Glover (Week 1 healthy scratch)
DL: Karl Brooks, Jonathan Ford, Devonte Wyatt and Chris McClellan
- One of: Javon Hargrave (doubtful) or Anthony Campbell
- Warren Brinson (calf) out
ED: Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox Jr. and Dani Dennis-Sutton
- One of: Lukas Van Ness (concussion) or Nyjalik Kelly (practice squad call-up)
LB: Zaire Franklin, Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie, Ty’Ron Hopper and Niemann
CB: Keisean Nixon, Brandon Cisse, Carrington Valentine and Kamal Hadden
- One of: Benjamin St-Juste (questionable) or Domani Jackson (practice squad call-up)
S: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard and Kitan Oladapo
SPT: Trey Smack (K), Daniel Whelan (P) and Matt Orzech (LS)

There might be an outside chance that the team elects to replace the St-Juste spot on the game-day roster with undrafted rookie receiver J. Michael Sturdivant, if the team believes that St-Juste’s special teams contributions are more important to replace than depth at the cornerback position, but that’s really the only alternative path that I can realistically see. For what it’s worth, St-Juste is a special teams ace, something backup cornerbacks Carrington Valentine and Kamal Hadden very much are not. Sturdivant was onboarded to play a lot of special teams in the summer (he was a difference-maker dating back to college), so I don’t want to rule out that option fully.

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Let me know what you think about this in the comments section. Tell me how you see it differently.

For reference, below is the Packers’ practice squad (they are allowed to, but not required to, call up as many as two players from there):