Green Bay Packers Linebacker Group is Extremely Thin

With the news that Kamal Martin is going to miss some time, the Green Bay Packers’ linebacker group is now extremely thin.

Over the offseason, there were once again question marks surrounding the Green Bay Packers’ linebacker position. While Christian Kirksey certainly has the potential to be an upgrade over Blake Martinez, his ability to stay on the field is a concern. Meanwhile, with several young players on the depth chart behind him, we wondered who would step up as ILB2.

Now with training camp coming to an end, while those questions haven’t been completely answered – and they won’t be until the regular-season – I did feel better about the position in general. Kirksey has shown an ability to work in space that the Packers just haven’t had in recent years, and rookie Kamal Martin was one of the young stars of training camp.

However, on Wednesday, Rob Demovsky of ESPN reported that Martin had undergone knee surgery and was going to be out for 6-8 weeks. All of a sudden, this Green Bay linebacker group is dangerously thin.

Oren Burks has recently returned after missing some time with an injury of his own, but overall, he’s once again taken his lumps in camp. Ty Summers still has to prove that he is more than a special teams player, while Curtis Bolton has been sidelined this entire time, and UDFA Krys Barnes isn’t ready.

I suppose if there is a silver lining in all of this, it’s that under Mike Pettine, the Green Bay Packers ran over 50 percent of their defensive snaps in 2019 from the dime formation, which requires just one linebacker on the field. Even with a healthy Martin, there was a good chance that we were going to see a lot of Raven Greene next to Kirksey, but now, Pettine doesn’t have much of a choice but to do that.

I also have to imagine that GM Brian Gutekunst is currently looking at free agents as well as players on other rosters at the moment who are in danger of being cut. If the Packers do decide to bring someone in, we shouldn’t expect them to be a game-changer by any means, but rather some added depth at a position that desperately needs it.

The good news is that Martin will return at some point this season, and hopefully, he can quickly regain the form that he displayed in training camp. But for now, we better hope that Kirksey is able to stay healthy, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to explore options outside of the organization either.