Kevin King Leads Packers in Slot Snaps, More to Come?

After taking only eight defensive snaps during the Green Bay Packers Week 1 matchup with New Orleans, it was crystal clear that Eric Stokes needed more playing time—especially after Kevin King’s performance.

The big question was, how would the Green Bay Packers go about doing that?

Well, the Packers went the unconventional route, moving Kevin King to the slot, something that I’m guessing no one saw coming.

Entering Monday’s game, King had only 118 career snaps from the slot over his four NFL seasons, according to PFF ($$). However, this was one way that allowed the Green Bay Packers to get their top-3 cornerbacks on the field together at the same time.

King would lead the team in slot snaps against the Lions with 22. Overall, he allowed three receptions on four targets for 61 yards, along with one pass breakup. Yet Matt LaFleur was encouraged by King’s performance inside.

"“He hadn’t been doing it very long,” LaFleur said of King’s slot experience via Packer Report. “There’s definitely some teachable moments and some things we definitely have to clean up, but I thought, by and large, when he was inside, I thought he did a really good job.“Putting Kevin inside was good for us.”"

Although LaFleur was, for the most part, happy with what he saw from King in the slot, is this a long-term solution that the Packers can lean on for the remainder of the season? I tend to think otherwise.

Listed at 6’3” – 200 pounds, King is massive for a slot corner. He also doesn’t have the hip fluidity or the speed to consistently compete inside with the prototypical shifty slot receiver. In fact, that sounds like a huge matchup problem for the Packers.

Lining up in the slot also requires the corner to be active in the run game, and as we all know, King has struggled with tackling over his career.

This approach may have worked against a Detroit team with a depleted wide receiver room, but going up against Kyle Shanahan, who will undoubtedly matchup his speedy wideouts with King in the slot, will cause major problems for this Green Bay Packers defense.

For one week against an inferior opponent, this strategy allowed Green Bay to have King on the field for 56 snaps and Stokes out there for 44. With that said, King playing a third of his snaps from the slot does not seem like the prudent move for this defense for the reasons mentioned above.

As I’ve discussed before, King is going to be a part of the defense this season—the question is in what capacity?

Based on what we’ve seen so far, Stokes should see more playing time. In two games, he has allowed one reception on five targets with three pass breakups, two of which came on fourth downs. And as we’ve seen, he has that 4.25 speed to make up ground if he does get beat initially—something that King just doesn’t have.

"“There were some critical stops there at the end of the game,” LaFleur said of Stokes after Monday’s game via The Athletic ($$). “Certainly the one on our sideline and the last play of the game were two great examples. He’s a young player, a guy that has a lot of talent, and we’ll continue to try to find ways to put him out there on the field.”"

As far as King getting more playing time in the “star” role to help keep him on the field, to put it simply, the Green Bay Packers have better options in Jaire Alexander, Chandon Sullivan, and Darnell Savage.

Ultimately, King’s overall snap count needs to be reduced in favor of more playing time for Stokes—and if you can’t tell, I don’t believe that should include more snaps from the slot.

Who knows, maybe by playing fewer snaps and not being on the field all of the time, Joe Barry is able to put King in more favorable positions more often, which would hopefully lead to some success.

But I just don’t see, given King’s skill-set and what we know about his game, how moving him to the slot is the answer.

We will see how the Green Bay Packers feel about this on Sunday when they take on San Francisco.