Green Bay Packers: 6 Players & 6 Positional Battles to Watch v. Houston
By Paul Bretl
Jace Sternberger
As we all know, this is a huge summer for Jace Sternberger, who is trying to carve out a role in this Green Bay Packers offense. Although his career hasn’t gone as planned up to this point, he is playing a position that can often take two or three years before we see a player hit thier full stride. It also doesn’t help that he’s missed time each season.
So far, through training camp, Sternberger has put together some nice performances and has seen reps with the first-team offense. He’s shown off his ability to get open, flashed his hands, as well as his some wiggle in the open field–three reasons why Brian Gutekunst drafted him. But we need to also see it in a live game, and Saturday night is a prime opportunity.
De’Vondre Campbell
Admittedly, I’m not sure how much of Campbell we will see, but I’m quite excited to see him in action. As I’ve written about before, this was a signing that I was a big fan of. While Campbell won’t pop in any one particular area, he’s a well-rounded, three-down linebacker that can be effective against the run, pass, and as a blitzer.
Matt LaFleur would even call his play up to this point “lights out.” On top of that, this is a very linebacker-friendly Joe Barry defensive scheme which could lead to more impact plays from this unit.
Amari Rodgers
This offense is tailormade for Amari Rodgers and his skill-set as a slot/gadget player. And while we will see him in some capacity filling those roles, it is the preseason, so anything that LaFleur draws up is going to be pretty vanilla. So perhaps even more so than what Rodgers can add to this offense, I’m looking forward to seeing him as a punt returner.
Along with just about the rest of the special teams unit, this is an area that the Green Bay Packers have really struggled in. Last season the Green Bay Packers ranked 31st in punt return average, and they were last in total punt return yards.
At Clemson, Rodgers had 68 career punt return attempts and averaged 7.8 yards per return with one touchdown. Let’s see if he can help bring some life to this unit.