Green Bay Packers: 6 Players & 6 Positional Battles to Watch v. Houston

The Green Bay Packers’ first preseason game is actually here as the Houston Texans come to town for a Saturday evening matchup. Of course, we won’t see much, if any, of the starters, but as always, there is still plenty to keep our eyes on–particularly those fighting for a roster spot.

For this game, I’ve identified six individual players along with six positional battles that will be taking place and why they should have your attention. Admittedly, just watching live on TV may make it difficult to keep tabs on everyone and everything going on, so picking out a player or two and a position or two from this list might be the best course of action.

Jordan Love

I mean, we might as well get the most obvious one out of the way. Who doesn’t want to see Jordan Love under center? We still haven’t yet.

Ultimately Love’s stat line will be what’s scrutinized, but at this point, it’s process over results. Two areas of emphasis for him this offseason have been his footwork and going through his progressions.

"“The main goal for me right now is that he just progresses properly, that he plays with his eyes and his feet,” said QB coach Luke Getsy via Packers.com. “If his eyes and his feet tell him to move in his progression, I want him to move in his progression. So if defense is taking something away, we need to progress. I don’t want him to think he needs to force something down the field.”"

So with that in mind, how does he look in the pocket? Is he balanced when throwing the ball? Do his eyes drop when he feels pressure? If his first read or two are covered, what does he do? How is his overall accuracy?

There’s plenty to watch for with Love, but focus on his footwork and whether or not he’s working through his progressions—that’s what’s important right now.

Eric Stokes

The Green Bay Packers first-round pick has taken his fair share of lumps during the first two-plus weeks of training camp practices. With that said, we’ve seen improvement as well, and he is coming off of what may be his best practice as a professional.

It certainly isn’t easy going up against Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams every day in practice—they give even the best cornerbacks fits. But as DBs coach Jerry Gray told reporters recently, it’s not as if Stokes has to go up against those two in an actual game. So how does he perform when he’s not facing two of the best at their respective positions?

TJ Slaton

As a fifth-round pick, TJ Slaton has taken a lot of reps recently with the starting defense since Kenny Clark and Kinglsey Keke have both been sidelined. At 6’4” – 330 pounds, he gives Green Bay a true run-stuffing nose tackle, and as we’ve seen in practice, he has upside as a pass-rusher—although I wouldn’t expect to see much of that from him early on.

With his ability to line up at 0 or 1-tech, he can give the Green Bay Packers an element upfront that they haven’t had as well as more freedom to move Clark around to create more one-on-one opportunities.