Green Bay Packers: Vernon Scott Provides Coveted Versatility at Safety
By Paul Bretl
Seventh-round pick, Vernon Scott, has made some noise early on in camp as he provides the Green Bay Packers with that coveted versatility at the safety position.
Once you get to the latter portion of Day 3 of the NFL Draft, NFL teams are really just swinging for the fences in hopes of finding some sort of contributor, even if it’s only on special teams. When it comes to the Green Bay Packers and this past draft, one of those “swings” was on safety Vernon Scott from TCU, a player that many draft analysts didn’t even do much scouting on.
Scott wasn’t a full-time starter until his final season – although he would appear in numerous games prior to then – where he totaled 44 tackles, two of which came for a loss, along with one sack, two forced fumbles, one interception, and seven pass breakups.
Yes, solid all-around production but nothing eye-popping by any means. However, if we look past the stats, GM Brian Gutekunst saw a safety with excellent size at 6’2′ – 206 pounds and someone with versatility. Something that this Green Bay Packers’ defense covets. Shortly after the draft, Gutey had this to say about the selection:
"“We really like his versatility. He’s got a little bit of that ability to play safety but he can cover in the slot a little bit. He’s a little of a late bloomer, some struggles to get through the early part of his college career but once he took off this year, we just really liked his upside.”"
In the Mike Pettine defense, the safety plays an important role, simply because of how often three are utilized on the field at the same time. According to Sports Info Solutions, last season, over 50 percent of Green Bay’s defensive snaps came from the dime formation, which has six defensive backs on the field.
When it comes to the safety position in Green Bay, the Packers are in particularly good shape. They, of course, have Darnell Savage and Adrian Amos, and Raven Greene will be returning from injury to fill that dime linebacker role, playing closer to the line of scrimmage.
So it’s not as if Scott is going to step in and see immediate playing time. However, what he can provide is some much-needed depth. We saw last season how the Packers were gashed up the middle by the run game and gave up big plays over the middle of the field to tight ends in the passing game.
Now, this isn’t to say that if Greene were healthy, these wouldn’t have been issues, but having that versatile skill-set that can help against the run or pass would have certainly helped.
As Gutey pointed out above, Scott gives Green Bay another versatile chess piece that can be moved around while also providing coverage duties in the slot. And through the first week of practice, Scott has already made some nice plays on the ball in coverage that has caught the attention of Matt LaFleur:
"“Not a surprise,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Scott’s breakups Monday. “He definitely showed that ability in college. I think anytime – it’ll be interesting when I go back and look at the tape, because there were a couple of times where he’s got to be careful as the post player, being too shallow so balls don’t get thrown over his head. But he definitely has great instincts, and we expect him to be a playmaker.”"
Any season, no seventh-round pick is a lock to make the final roster, but this season it is even more challenging considering there were no offseason programs, there are no preseason games, and time in the building and on the field, in general, have been limited.
With that said, when it comes to Scott, he provides the Packers some added depth at a key position in the Pettine defense, and after just one week, he’s already on LaFleur’s radar.