The Green Bay Packers added a whopping 13 players and hopefully strengthened multiple positions in last month’s draft, but plenty of questions still need to be answered between now and the beginning of the regular season in mid-September.
With an extremely young 90-man roster (average age is 24.3) scheduled to report to Organized Team Activities (OTAs) in a couple of weeks, the following are the five biggest questions still facing GM Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur:
🏈WHO’S THE KICKER?
The first two kickers drafted – Jake Moody by the 49ers and Chad Ryland by the Patriots – missed a combined 37 field goals in their college careers. The third kicker selected – Anders Carlson by Green Bay – missed 31. Gutekunst blamed a torn ACL suffered in November 2021 for the former Auburn star’s underwhelming stats last season (12 of 17, including 4 of 8 from 40+ yards). He also admitted that the pick was made mainly on the recommendation of assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, who worked with Carlson’s brother in Las Vegas. Parker White, the other kicker on the roster, missed 27 field goals while at South Carolina. Gutekunst probably shouldn’t lose Mason Crosby’s number.
🏈WHO’S THE BACKUP QB?
It’s hard to believe Green Bay will go into the season with either fifth-round pick Sean Clifford or journeyman Danny Etling as the No. 2 quarterback behind new starter Jordan Love. Nobody expects the backup signal caller to put up 30 points and 400 yards, but let’s be honest, would anybody wager on either Clifford or Etling eclipsing 10 and 200? The former was projected as a priority free agent in last month’s draft, and the latter was switched to wide receiver by the Patriots a few years ago. One available veteran quarterback who would make sense is Mason Rudolph, who started 10 games for Pittsburgh, including eight (five wins) in 2019. He’s far from great, but with little cap room, beggars can’t be choosers.
🏈WHO’S PLAYING SAFETY?
It’s a problem when a player (Darnell Savage) benched for poor play last November is still the best safety on the roster, but that’s what happens when the only offseason additions have been a late-round pick and a seldom-used free agent from the 49ers (Tarvarius Moore). While re-signing veteran Adrian Amos is still a remote possibility, it’s far more likely that Savage and journeyman Rudy Ford will be the starters in Week 1. That’s only good news for opposing quarterbacks. Gutekust had an opportunity to add the highest-rated safety in the draft but passed three times on Brian Branch. The versatile former Alabama standout wound up in Detroit, so the Packers could see him at least twice a year for the next decade.
🏈IS O-LINE GOOD ENOUGH?
Sixty percent of last season’s offensive line (center Josh Myers, right guard Jon Runyan Jr., and right tackle Yosh Nijman) was mediocre, and after ignoring the position in the draft, those three players are once again the presumptive starters. That has to change. It would be coaching malpractice to keep Zach Tom on the bench, so why not move him to center and let Myers compete with Runyan and perhaps Sean Rhyan at right guard? Tom has the potential to be a Pro Bowl-caliber pivotman, and as I’ve been saying since the day Myers was drafted, his skill set is better suited for guard. As for right tackle, talented second-year players Caleb Jones and Rasheed Walker should be given a legitimate chance to win the job.
🏈TOO YOUNG AT RECEIVER?
Unless Gutekunst adds a veteran in the next few months, which won’t be easy considering the lack of talent available and the team’s very tight salary cap, the Packers will begin the season with one of the least experienced group of wide receivers in league history. As of today, the top five names on the depth chart (Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Samori Toure, and Dontayvion Wicks) are all rookies and first-year players. How rare is this? Besides Green Bay and Tennessee, every other team has a minimum of two receivers with at least three years of experience. Throwing to so many young players would be an immense challenge for any veteran quarterback; it’s going to be a herculean task for Love.
It’s crazy that both Packers kickers are 6-foot-5. I can’t think of more than a handful of kickers that tall in all the years I’ve been watching football.
Longer leg = more velocity? I don’t understand physics.
I’m not sure about velocity, but there are two negatives to being a really tall kicker. It takes a little longer to get to the ball, and it’s easier for mechanics to get out of whack.
Given these questions and the relative inexperience of this team and especially it’s QB, this looks like a 6-win team, at best. Which is fine with me, given that they need this year to get right with the cap and hopefully to see enough from Love to realize he can be the starter for the next decade.
Of all these question marks, Safety appears to me to be by far the biggest question mark. Perhaps the salary cap is standing in the way – or Amos is asking too much money – but it makes too much sense to bring Amos back on a relatively cheap contract, maybe 1 year, 3 mil.? He would stabilize that position group and give them another year to try to find a safety in next year’s draft.
I feel fine with Bisaccia handpicking the Kicker. While I don’t love that we took Van Ness over Broderick Jones – I’ll be watching how Jones’ career unfolds – I think the OL will be OK, not great or elite as it needs to be, but OK. The WR’s will take their lumps but this will give them an opportunity to take a lot of snaps and build chemistry with Love. As as for backup QB, it doesn’t much matter who’ll be back there because they won’t win a single game with him either way. But safety, that’ll be an issue unless Gutey makes a signing.