Green Bay Packers: Now or Never for Members of 2018 Draft Class

It’s Year 3 for the Green Bay Packers’ 2018 draft class and in order to make another Super Bowl run, they’ll need several of these players to produce.

With limited spendable cap space this offseason, the Green Bay Packers weren’t able to make those big free agent signings that they did a year ago. Then in the draft, they didn’t exactly land some immediate, high-impact players either. Sure A.J. Dillon and Josiah Deguara will have their specific roles, but at least in year one, they aren’t the missing pieces for this offense.

This means that Green Bay is going to need players already on the roster to continue to develop and play bigger roles in 2020 if they hope to make another Super Bowl push this season.

Naturally, this would include the 2019 draft class made up of Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage, Elgton Jenkins, Jace Sternberger, Ka’dar Hollman, and Ty Summers. But that also means that members of the 2018 draft class need to take steps forward as well. And truthfully up to this point, overall they’ve been quite underwhelming.

Now, of course, Jaire Alexander is excluded from this group but when it comes to a number of other players from this class, it’s really now or never if they are going to produce in Green Bay.

Second-round pick Josh Jackson was injured early last summer and was never able to get back on track. In the end, he would play in only 9.9 percent of the Packers’ defensive snaps last season, and when he was on the field, he allowed seven receptions on eight targets with a touchdown.

In Round 3, the Green Bay Packers traded up for converted safety Oren Burks. However, he has suffered injuries during each preseason, struggles to defend the run, hasn’t given them the boost in coverage at the linebacker position that they hoped he would, and like Jackson, Burks hasn’t seen regular playing time.

Meanwhile, J’Mon Moore was cut before the 2019 season began, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is coming off a forgettable season where his snap count decreased to the point that he was rarely on the field, while punter J.K. Scott has had his moments but his short career has been filled with a lot of inconsistency as well.

A few other names in this class include Cole Madison who will be returning from IR and could provide the Packers depth along the interior of the offensive line once again. However, the competition is going to be tough this summer with a number of players vying for just a few open spots.

And we also can’t forget about Equanimeous St. Brown who will be returning after missing the entire 2019 season. In 2018 he was able to make some noise as a rookie, he has received high-praise from Aaron Rodgers, and he could give Green Bay a consistent weapon from the slot in 2020.

Although the first two seasons for several members of this draft class hasn’t gone has hoped, the book on them has not been written yet and the jury is still out. Oftentimes in the NFL, we don’t see players make significant impacts until their second or third seasons.

But with that said, if another year goes by with inconsistent play or spending more time on the sidelines than on the field, well, then it’s certainly fair to wonder if they will ever produce. Not to mention that this was a  Green Bay Packers’ team that was on the cusp of reaching the Super Bowl last season and if they hope to get there in 2020, a few of these players are going to have to step up.

So who is it going to be?