Green Bay Packers: Key Injuries Could Play Major Role Against Dallas

The Green Bay Packers have a difficult matchup against the Dallas Cowboys this week and coming away with a win will be a lot tougher with these key players out.

As the Green Bay Packers continue to prepare for their week five matchup with the Dallas Cowboys, the injury report came out after Thursday’s practice and unfortunately, there were still some key names on that list that did not participate.

At this point, nothing is set in stone but oftentimes if a player is still not practicing by Thursday, it usually isn’t a very promising indication that they will be suiting up by Sunday.

Coming off a difficult loss to the Philadelphia Eagles where the defense was bullied and given that the offense is still trying to work some things out, missing these key players against a roster as well-rounded as the Cowboys certainly will make coming away with a win much more difficult.

Kevin King and Tony Brown

After sitting out most of training camp and all of the preseason, Kevin King has been available in each of the Packers’ first four games. Other than a rough game against Denver, he has played quite well including a huge interception in the endzone against Minnesota and last week he was rated as Green Bay’s best defender by Pro Football Focus with a grade of 92.6.

Unfortunately, the injury bug has bitten again and this groin injury could very well keep him out of Sunday’s game. If King does end up missing the game, it will be the 18th missed game of his career and he’s only played in 19 up to this point.

Tony Brown was also held out of practice on Thursday with a hamstring injury. Although Brown has only played 22 defensive snaps this season, he is a big contributor on special teams and if he, in fact, does not play, the overall depth of the secondary takes a big hit.

With both of these players potentially out, it means that Josh Jackson will likely take over as the number two corner out-wide or he could line up in the slot. Either way, he will be tasked with covering Michael Gallup or Randall Cobb and last year as a cover corner was quite the wake-up call for Jackson, so given his limited reps this season, I’m not really sure what to expect from him.

We should also anticipate seeing rookie Ka’dar Hollman playing on special teams and potentially taking some defensive snaps as well. Hollman had a nice preseason but hasn’t taken any snaps in the regular season where it is an entirely different world than football in August.

Davante Adams

Everyone is well aware that Davante Adams’ outlook for Sunday doesn’t appear to be great, especially after Adam Schefter reported that it was unlikely that he would suit up against Dallas. This means that someone else will have to step up in the passing game, but who will it be?

Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Geronimo Allison will be expected to lead the way but we’ve seen inconsistent production from them so far this season. This means that the inexperienced Jake Kumerow, Allen Lazard, and Darrius Shepherd will all likely see significant snaps as well. And who really knows what Jimmy Graham will do?

This was already going to be a difficult matchup for the Green Bay Packers offense going against a Dallas defense that is giving up just 14 points per game this season but without Adams, things just got a lot more difficult for Aaron Rodgers in the passing game.

Jamaal Williams

Jamaal Williams was the victim of a vicious hit against the Eagles that currently has him sitting in concussion protocol. With these types of injuries, we never really know how long the player will be out for. A few years ago, Davante Adams took a similar hit from Danny Trevathan of the Chicago Bears in a Thursday night game and was playing the following Sunday. The same thing could happen for Williams or he could be out a month, we just don’t know.

With that said, if he is unable to go against Dallas, it will put this already struggling Green Bay Packers’ running game in a tough spot. Currently, they average just 86.3 rushing yards per game and Aaron Jones has averaged less than two yards per carry in each of the last two games.

Without Williams, we will likely see some attempts for rookie Dexter Williams, who is an explosive on cut back but struggled mightily in the preseason with pass-catching and pass-blocking. As a result, he was listed as the fourth running back on the roster for much of the preseason behind Tra Carson who is now on the practice squad.

At Notre Dame and in the preseason we saw the playmaking potential that D. Williams has but he’s also been unreliable as well. For a team struggling to establish the run, this is another costly injury.

The Good News

While these injuries are making things more difficult, the Green Bay Packers have gotten some good news on the injury front this week as well. Bryan Bulaga who left last Thursday’s game was back at practice and considering the stout Dallas defensive front led by Demarcus Lawrence that they will be going up against, Green Bay really can’t afford to be without Bulaga this week.

Meanwhile, Oren Burks, Kyler Fackrell, and Montravius Adams have all returned to practice and will be needed to help put pressure on Dak Prescott and slow down Ezekiel Elliot as much as possible. Pressuring the quarterback and slowing down the running game were two things this defense did not do against Philadelphia.