Green Bay Packers Still Lacking Proven Depth in the Secondary
By Paul Bretl
If we looked at who will be starting for the Green Bay Packers in the secondary this season, they likely have one of the best units in all of football.
At safety are Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage, while at cornerback are Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, and Eric Stokes. Again, this group should be among the league’s best.
However, unfortunately, injuries are a part of the game, and substitutions are needed. It’s in these two instances when the Green Bay Packers secondary goes from looking really good to all of a sudden being filled with question marks.
Currently on the depth chart behind Amos and Savage are Innis Gaines, Shawn Davis, Vernon Scott, and Tre Sterling–along with maybe Tariq Carpenter, but it sounds like he will be moved to linebacker. Scott has 90 career snaps and was inactive all of last season, while Gaines and Davis haven’t seen any regular season action, and Sterling is a UDFA.
Perhaps we will see a few three safety sets from the Green Bay Packers this season with the addition of Quay Walker, who will allow them to stay in their base nickel defense more frequently. But even if that’s the case, it’s not likely that the role of the third safety is going to completely disappear either–and as already mentioned, injuries happen.
Meanwhile, at cornerback, behind Alexander, Douglas, and Stokes are Shemar-Jean Charles, Keisean Nixon, Kiondre Thomas, Raleigh Texada, and Kabion Ento. Thomas and Ento do not have any NFL snaps, and Texada is a UDFA. Jean-Charles was on the field for 38 snaps as a rookie, and Nixon has 274 career snaps over three seasons, per PFF ($$).
Although Alexander may be the go-to slot cornerback for the Green Bay Packers, it’s also not as if he is going to take every snap there, either. More likely, how many snaps he takes in the slot verse on the boundary is going to vary from week to week depending on the opponent.
So in those instances when he is lined up outside, who will take those nickel snaps? Will Green Bay move Stokes or Douglas inside? Is Jean-Charles or Nixon ready for that workload? Not to mention that adding some experienced depth to this position wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
These are reasons why if the Green Bay Packers do look to add to their roster at this point, safety and cornerback should be high on the priority list–the depth at both positions are major question marks.
Currently, the Packers have just over $14 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, and according to Rob Demovsky, signing the draft class will account for $12.8 million in cap space this season. However, Green Bay still has a few cap-saving moves remaining, including adding on voided years to Allen Lazard’s RFA deal and an extension for Alexander.
So while I certainly wouldn’t expect a major addition by any means, if the Packers want to add a veteran on a league minimum deal, I imagine that’s a move they could still make work.
Now, having said all of that, a variable in all of this that we don’t have the answer to is how Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekunst, and the rest of the decision-makers feel about the backups at safety and cornerback.
Having seen most of these players in practice, it’s certainly possible that they are much higher on a few of them than what us on the outside are, considering that we’ve seen very little of them. If that’s the case, then maybe Green Bay stays put and doesn’t make any additions there.
However, even if that is true, there is still some risk involved in potentially having to rely heavily on players who have such little NFL experience.
To truly get an idea if any of these players are ready for larger roles, we will have to see how training camp and the preseason unfolds, but just because the starters at these two positions look so robust doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement on the depth chart. Because, truthfully, at least from the outside looking in, it would appear that improving the depth at safety and cornerback shouldn’t just be a consideration but rather a must.