Make or Break Seasons for these 4 Green Bay Packers Players
By Paul Bretl
Oren Burks
Back in the 2018 draft, the Green Bay Packers traded up in Round 3 to select Oren Burks, the converted safety from Vanderbilt. With his athleticism and pedigree as a former safety, Burks was supposed to provide this defense with a coverage linebacker. However, that isn’t how the first two seasons have played out.
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Each summer, Burks would suffer injuries that would derail the start of the season for him, and each time he hasn’t been able to get on track. Naturally, this missed time has played a role in slowing his development.
Burks struggles against the run and once he is engaged by blocker, he is all but taken out of the play. Meanwhile in coverage, he needs to diagnose what is going on much quicker and adjust to the speed of play in the NFL. When he can just simply react we see the potential, but at this point, those moments have been few and far between.
This is a Packers team that will have Christian Kirksey as their starting linebacker, but it’s worth pointing out that he has played in only nine total games the past two seasons. After that, there is just a lot of unknowns with Burks, Ty Summers, Curtis Bolton, and Kamal Martin. Like the two players listed before him, it’s Year 3 for Burks, and time to show some progress.