Rasul Douglas to S plus early round CB pick may be answer in Packers secondary
By Paul Bretl
An early-round draft pick at cornerback, coupled with a position change for Rasul Douglas, could very well end up being how the Green Bay Packers address the safety position.
The safety position was one of the Packers’ biggest needs at the beginning of the offseason, and even with the re-signing of Rudy Ford and the addition of Tarvarius Moore, it still needs to be addressed. Both Ford and Moore have defensive experience but have more so been special teams players throughout their careers. Darnell Savage is better in the slot than in the traditional safety role, while Tariq Carpenter, Innis Gaines, and James Wiggins are all relatively inexperienced.
When it comes to addressing this need in free agency, the Packers are low on spending power and options. Although they have $22.49 million in available cap space currently, once you factor in Aaron Rodgers’ dead cap hit from a trade, along with other expenses that are incoming, such as the draft class and practice squad, among other things, the amount that Green Bay has to spend in free agency is only about a quarter of that original amount.
The free agent market at safety is drying up as well. Only six players at the safety position remain available from PFF’s top 200 free agents list, and of those six, only three come with projected annual salaries of under $5 million, which is likely where the Packers’ price range falls. These players are Rodney McLeod, Duron Harmon, and Kareem Jackson.
As far as the draft goes, the Packers should absolutely add a rookie to the mix at safety, but when it comes to early-round options, this is a position group in this year’s class that is lacking high-end talent. On Daniel Jeremiah’s latest big board, only one safety cracked the top 50, and for what it’s worth, Brian Branch has spent most of his career in the slot.
So a potential solution for the Packers at safety would be moving Douglas inside, which is something that GM Brian Gutekunst discussed with reporters at the NFL Combine.
A safety room made up of Douglas, Moore, Ford, Savage, Carpenter, and Gaines, at least, gives the Packers options at the position. In all likelihood, the safety position won’t be a strength for the Packers in 2023, but what they can’t have is it being a liability. Douglas would hopefully help provide some of that stability.
Doing this, however, weakens the cornerback position, but that is a problem that can be much more easily fixed in the draft, given the depth of the position group. Behind the edge rusher class, in terms of top talent, the cornerback position may be the second-strongest position group in this draft class. Six cornerbacks ended up making Jeremiah’s top 50 list.
Even with Douglas at safety, cornerback still may not be a top need, but that doesn’t mean Gutekunst won’t be tempted when on the clock. For one, he’s addressed other perceived strengths early on in the draft in previous years, so adding a cornerback in 2023 wouldn’t really be that out of character. This is also a premier position – which is important to the Packers in Round 1 – and especially early on, some of the best players on the board when the Packers are picking could be cornerbacks.
With that said, adding a cornerback with Douglas at safety still doesn’t fall into the must category because the Packers still have options for those slot snaps, assuming Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes are on the boundary. If Douglas is at safety, Savage could play in the nickel, or other options include Keisean Nixon and Innis Gaines, both of whom took snaps there in 2022.
However, it’s worth noting that Nixon’s role on defense shrank once he emerged as a key special teams player, and providing some competition for Savage and Gaines wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Douglas moving to safety along with the Packers spending an early-round pick on cornerback may not have been how many of us expected the Packers to solve their secondary conundrum this offseason, but at this point, it seems like one of the more likely paths that they could go down.