Winners, Losers From Roster Bubble
GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Friday, we published a last look at the Green Bay Packers’ remaining roster battles. Here’s our snap judgment of the winners and losers following Saturday’s 19-0 loss at Buffalo.
Quarterback
Keep zero or one: Kurt Benkert
Benkert went 7-of-11 passing for 61 yards. Once again, he played pretty well. But, once again, he failed to deliver touchdowns. In 18 preseason possessions, he led the Packers to 14 points. That doesn’t all fall on Benkert, who played with the deep backups against Houston and Buffalo, but it’s also up to the quarterback to be the rising tide that lifts all boats. Ultimately, Benkert’s fate might be tied to how the Packers handle the injuries to left tackle David Bakhtiari and outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith.
Receiver
Keep zero or one: Malik Taylor vs. Equanimeous St. Brown vs. Reggie Begelton
The top five receivers are etched in granite. Really, they don’t need to keep more than five, given the versatility of running back Aaron Jones and coach Matt LaFleur’s affection for tight ends. If the Packers do keep six, Taylor would seem to be the clear front-runner. He caught 5-of-6 targets for 69 yards, including a catch against premier corner Tre’Davious White and a 21-yarder on a free play in which he got popped out of bounds by the safety. In three preseason games, Taylor caught 14 passes for 185 yards while St. Brown didn’t play a single snap. Begelton has been understatedly solid, too. He’ll turn 28 on Tuesday, when roster cuts are made, which might work against him.
Offensive line
Keep two or three: Lucas Patrick vs. Ben Braden vs. Yosh Nijman vs. Cole Van Lanen
If David Bakhtiari and Dennis Kelly were healthy, this exercise would be a lot easier. But they spent last week going through challenging rehab assignments together. How those two are handled from a roster perspective on Tuesday (and Wednesday) will have an obvious impact on the number general manager Brian Gutekunst picks for his 53-man roster. If the Packers are wedded to fourth-round pick Royce Newman as the right guard, then the veteran Patrick should be the left guard. Nijman has taken advantage of all the reps he’s gotten with Bakhtiari sidelined. Braden’s ability to play the two guard spots and right tackle should help his cause, too. Van Lanen’s bubble probably has burst.
Defensive line
Keep one: Tyler Lancaster vs. Jack Heflin
Officially, Heflin had one tackle, which was a tackle for loss, and one quarterback hit against Buffalo. He was much more impactful than those numbers would indicate. His quality play with Lancaster sidelined by injury would seem to put him on the right side of the roster bubble. Gutekunst, however, could choose to go with the sure thing (the steady Lancaster) and gamble that he could get the undrafted Heflin to the practice squad. “I just love the game of football. I love competing,” Heflin said last week. “You get an opportunity every time you step on the field, every day. That’s all I’m trying to do is stack days and every practice and every meeting try to learn something new.”
Outside linebacker
Keep one or two: Jonathan Garvin vs. Chauncey Rivers vs. Tipa Galeai
Rivers’ sack was set up by Garvin’s pressure. Galeai didn't even show up on the stat sheet during a completely ineffective finale. Really, other than a play here and there, nobody has stood out during training camp. So, we’ll lean on this line from outside linebackers coach Mike Smith when asked about Garvin: “Garvin’s a damn good football player. The one thing I love about him is he knows who he is. He’s not going to go out there and try to be flashy and do all this finesse stuff. It’s his strength. You can ask any of those offensive linemen; they struggle with him. He’s still learning – a lot like Rashan was his first year – but he’s going to be a damn good football player. One of the smartest, if not the smartest, in the room.”
Inside linebacker
Keep zero or one: Isaiah McDuffie
Last week, here’s what Gutekunst said about the importance of the last preseason game: “You guys that have been around here awhile, there’s always guys in that last preseason game that end up making the team because of what they did in the last preseason game. There’s always guys in that last preseason game that make a name for themselves.” On Saturday, that was McDuffie. After missing the first half of training camp, the sixth-round pick has come on strong. If anyone outright won a roster spot on Saturday, it was McDuffie, who had nine tackles and a half-sack when he stormed through unblocked. He routinely got into the backfield on his blitzes.
Cornerback
Keep two: Isaac Yiadom vs. Kabion Ento vs. Shemar Jean-Charles
Bills quarterback Josh Allen attacked Yiadom relentlessly on the opening series. Assessing blame without knowing the call is always a dicey proposition, but it looked like Yiadom allowed five catches for 67 yards and a 31-yard touchdown on that series alone. He did have a nice breakup on third down on the next series. Ento, however, still tackles like the receiver he was in college. Considering the last-on-the-depth-chart cornerback will be playing a lot of special teams, that’s problematic. Jean-Charles, a fifth-round pick who feasted on mediocre receivers and horrible quarterbacks at Appalachian State, didn’t play particularly well, either, though he did make a nice play on a receiver screen. Yiadom (because of tackling) and Jean-Charles (a developmental player for the slot) might have the slight edge.
Safety
Keep one or two: Vernon Scott vs. Innis Gaines vs. Christian Uphoff
Gaines played fairly well on Saturday but his feeble tackle attempt on quarterback Jake Fromm’s touchdown run was spectacularly awful. If you can’t tackle a quarterback with 5.01 speed in the 40, how can you be expected to tackle a shifty punt returner in the open field? He also missed a tackle on a screen. Uphoff, however, missed a tackle on defense and special teams. It was a disappointing showing by two under-the-radar players who had been having strong training camps. Scott missed the game with a hamstring injury; he probably did more by not playing.
Special teams
Keep zero or one: Long snapper Hunter Bradley
The big news on Mason Crosby’s 28-yard missed field goal was that the snap from Bradley wasn’t to blame. A seventh-round pick in 2018, Bradley had a miserable last week at camp and was inconsistent overall.
