Packers in search of their starting safety next to Darnell Savage
By Paul Bretl
At the NFL Owners’ Meeting earlier in the week, Matt LaFleur provided some insight into what the Green Bay Packers secondary would look like when training camp begins.
On the outside at cornerback will be Rasul Douglas and Jaire Alexander. Keisean Nixon will have every opportunity to earn the starting nickel cornerback role, and Darnell Savage will be back at safety, despite a rocky 2022 season.
Now, this could all be subject to change once Eric Stokes returns from injury, but for the most part, this is what the secondary will look like over the summer and potentially into the season. However, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, there is still one spot in the secondary unaccounted for, which is Savage’s running-mate at safety.
My guess is that Rudy Ford is the front-runner for that starting role. Although he began the 2022 season as a primary special teams player, due to injuries and poor play, he saw defensive snaps on the back end. Ford proved to be a willing run defender, ranking 19th out of all safeties in PFF”s run-stop rate last season. He was also often in the right spot, coming away with four takeaways as well.
The recently signed Tarvarius Moore has the second-most defensive snaps at the safety position on the team, behind only Savage, with nearly 1,100. Moore would, however, play just 60 defensive snaps with San Francisco in 2022, and he missed all of the 2021 season due to injury. The 541 snaps he saw in 2020 were the most in his career. Moore may end up being more of a special teams addition than anything else.
The other three safeties currently on the roster are what I would consider dark horses for that starting job. Tariq Carpenter saw his playing time on special teams as a rookie and is more of a linebacker than a safety. Innis Gaines, when given the opportunity, mostly played from the slot, while James Wiggins is an unknown.
Between adding Ford and Moore, along with limited spending power in free agency and already a large chunk of cap space devoted to the safety position, with Savage carrying a cap hit of almost $8 million and Adrian Amos leaving behind a dead cap hit of $7.9 million, Green Bay is like done adding to their safety room in free agency.
This means that any further outside additions that could potentially challenge for that starting spot will likely have to come through the draft. Although if you want a few names to keep your eyes on, Rodney McLeod, Duron Harmon, and Kareem Jackson are three options that should come with a reasonable cap hit, even for the Packers.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a very top-heavy class at the position. Only one safety cracked Daniel Jeremiah’s top 50, and Brian Branch spent the majority of his career in the slot–not as a traditional safety, which is what the Packers need.
Some of the other top safeties in this class, according to PFF, include Antonio Johnson, Sydney Brown, Jammie Robinson, Jordan Battle, Jartavius Martin, JL Skinner, and Christopher Smith. However, only Brown and Martin from this list meet the Packers’ usual athletic thresholds, illustrating just how limited Green Bay might be when it comes to finding an impact player early in the draft.
With the uncertainty surrounding safety for the Packers both in 2023 and beyond, you can expect them to spend at least one of their 10 picks on that position, and possibly even two. Perhaps once Stokes is available, Green Bay could explore moving Rasul Douglas to safety, something Brian Gutekunst has discussed this offseason, but for the time being, that starting spot next to Savage may be Ford’s for the taking.