The Green Bay Packers just wrapped up their first preseason game of the 2019 season, and here are my immediate takeaways from what I saw.
How fun was tonight? We finally had Green Bay Packers football back on our television screens!
Overall it was a pretty good performance for this Packers team as they came away with the 28 to 26 victory over the Houston Texans in their first preseason game.
It is still early so as expected there are still things to work on, but there were plenty of positives to take away as well. So let’s not waste any time and dive into what we saw!
Ty Summers was an absolute BEAST. His speed and athleticism were on full display tonight as he was making tackles all over the field. He recorded nine in the first half alone and finished with 10 tackles overall.
A lack of turnovers has been a huge issue for this Green Bay Packers team in recent seasons but tonight they came away with four, including three in the first quarter.
DeShone Kizer continues to struggle with inconsistency. Kizer played the first half of the game and we saw beautiful throws to Robert Tonyan across the middle and he hit Darrius Shepherd in the end zone as he was scrambling. However, there was an overthrow to Danny Vitale in the flat and throw behind J’Mon Moore across the middle as well.
Speaking of J’Mon Moore, he is playing himself off this team. He continues to have issues with dropping passes, and even the catches that he did make were bobbled.
Oren Burks left the in the first quarter with an injury. At the time that I am writing this, I am unaware of what the severity could be, but losing him for an extended period of time will hurt this team.
Keep your eyes on the undrafted rookie receiver, Darrius Shepherd. He has caught the attention of Aaron Rodgers and coaches in Training Camp and he came up with a big touchdown grab tonight. With Moore struggling and Trevor Davis injured, he could be a darkhorse candidate to make the final 53-man roster.
Tackling has been an issue for this Green Bay Packers team in the past and tonight we saw plenty of that. This needs to be more buttoned up.
Although limited, Jake Kumerow continues to show his value and as the wide receiver battle heats up, I’m not sure how you keep him off the final roster.
Montravius Adams continues to build upon his nice start to Training Camp with another strong performance tonight.
Penalties are to be expected in the preseason and boy did we see them tonight. In the handful of Training Camp practices that I’ve attended this has been an issue as well – more so for the offensive side of the ball – and is something that will need to be cleaned up moving forward.
Next: 4 positional battles to watch
As I said above, it was just fun having Green Bay Packers football back and there is plenty to be excited about. Green Bay’s next preseason game will take place a week from today on August 15th, on the road against the Baltimore Ravens.