Green Bay Packers Surprisingly Cut IDL Kingsley Keke

Even though the Green Bay Packers are just a few days away from their NFC Divisional Round matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, there was a surprise cut made on Wednesday. According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Green Bay Packers would waive third-year interior defensive lineman Kingsley Keke.

This comes as a surprise because, for much of the season, Keke was a regular contributor along the Green Bay Packers defensive line.

Keke would appear in 12 games this season and in 11 of those games when healthy, he was on the field for an average of nearly 35 snaps per contest, including nearly 400 total snaps for the season. According to PFF ($$), Keke logged a career-high 24 pressures while tallying three sacks and one tackle for loss.

In fact, out of 145 eligible interior defensive linemen, Keke ranked 26th by PFF’s pass-rushing grade. He would record 47 pressures and seven sacks over his three-year career, with a bulk of his playing time coming over the last two. Keke was also a special teams contributor as well.

"“Year 1 to Year 2 was a huge step,” said IDL coach Jerry Montgomery via Packers.com. “Year 3 should be another drastic step for him. Obviously affecting the quarterback, being more consistent in the run game and just building his brand. That comes with all the hard work that he’s put in during the offseason and that we’re doing right now, and once fall camp comes. He’s working and trending in the right direction. But definitely, I expect him to take a drastic step again this year.”"

However, after playing 45 snaps against Baltimore in Week 15, Keke was a healthy scratch the following game against Cleveland. He would then miss the Minnesota game on the reserve/COVID list, and he was inactive Week 18 with an illness.

Earlier in the week, the Green Bay Packers protected both Abdullah Anderson and RJ McIntosh on the practice squad, which in hindsight, should have been our first clue that a move was coming along the interior defensive line—although I imagine many of us still wouldn’t have guessed that it would include waiving Keke.

For the remainder of the playoffs, Kenny Clark and Dean Lowry will continue to be the primary interior defenders for Green Bay, with Tyler Lancaster, TJ Slaton, and Anderson playing anywhere from 10 to 25 snaps each as rotational players.

This Saturday, the Green Bay defense will be up against the run-first 49ers. Running back Elijah Mitchell totaled 963 rushing yards in only 11 games this season, while Deebo Samuel has averaged 6.3 yards per rush since Week 10, per PFF.

With this move, the Packers now have 52 players on the roster, with that last roster spot in all likelihood going to Randall Cobb, who will have to be activated off IR by Thursday. But if Green Bay also plans to add Za’Darius Smith and Whitney Mercilus back to the 53-man roster, two more cuts will have to follow.