Green Bay Packers: 3 Veteran Cut Candidates Who Create Needed Cap Space

Oren Burks

Injuries early on during Burks’ first two seasons with the Green Bay Packers would derail each of those years for him. While he would return both seasons, he never saw any consistent playing time, totaling only 195 defensive snaps over that two year span.

The 2020 season was much of the same, minus missing the large chunk of time with an injury, as Burks still saw very little action on defense with 96 total snaps. Green Bay even tried moving him to edge rusher, which, as you can imagine given his frame, didn’t work out too well.

Injuries have been a part of his career so far, but when on the field, he’s also struggled. That athleticism and coverage ability that the Packers hoped they were getting hasn’t shown through. Burks struggles against the run and has been slow to diagnose plays.

With all that said, to his credit, he’s been a very good special teams player, and maybe that will be enough reason to keep him around as Green Bay hopes to turn their struggling special teams unit into a competent one. However, when you spend a third-round pick on a player, the hope is that they become more than a core special teams member.

Something else that Burks has going for him is the lack of depth at the linebacker position. Green Bay isn’t exactly in a position to be picky—beyond Krys Barnes and Kamal Martin, there are several question marks.

It’s going to be an important summer for Burks as he enters the final year of his rookie deal, but if the Green Bay Packers do decide to move on from him, they’ll save $945,000 in cap space.