Packers High-Fives: Players You’ll Be Talking About
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Ready or not, the Green Bay Packers will kick off their 102nd season on Sept. 13 at the Minnesota Vikings.
And, really, who’s going to be fully ready? With no offseason practices, an abbreviated training camp and no preseason games, profound challenges await general manager Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur. “I think you’re running on faith a little bit,” Gutekunst said in regard to Saturday’s roster cut from 80 players to 53.
Meanwhile, when the Packers line up in Week 1, they’ll do so without the key players going through any live tackling. “We want to have all our horses for the race coming in two weeks,” LaFleur said of the tradeoff between getting battle-tested but staying healthy.
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With only Friday’s practice standing between Gutekunst and 27 roster moves, here are five players who might not be considered the best player at their position group but could have a major impact.
RB Jamaal Williams
Oddly, it’s almost easy to forget about Williams. Aaron Jones emerged as one of the NFL’s top running backs and second-round pick AJ Dillon, if for no other reason than his mammoth legs, has been one of the talks of training camp. Williams, however, is coming off a solid season with career highs of 4.3 yards per rush and 39 receptions, and his five receiving touchdowns tied for the most by a back in Packers history.
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Where Williams has excelled in training camp is as a receiver. That’s the fruits of his labor from grueling workouts with trainer Luke Neal. He’s shown a flare for getting open and creating separation that wasn’t always there last season.
“He really has had a fantastic camp,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Wednesday. “Jamaal is such an energy guy for us. He brings so much to our team from that standpoint. But I think he’s really transformed his body even to the next step, and he’s been extremely explosive in the run game. He sets a great example of how to finish every single time he touches the football.”
RB/WR/KR Tyler Ervin
Like the Coast Guard responding to an SOS, Ervin raced in to rescue Green Bay’s historically awful kick-return units last season. Ervin was so good as a returner that LaFleur tinkered a bit in giving Ervin a role on offense.
A fourth-round pick by Houston in 2016, Ervin has 16 receptions and six rushes in his career. Don’t be surprised if Ervin crushes those numbers this season. His quickness is something the offense lacks. He’s used it to create several long gains at practice.
“He’s an explosive player. He’s pretty elusive,” LaFleur said. “We have Adam Stenavich, who was his O-line coach for a year at San Jose State. He’s been in our ear about what type of playmaker Swerve, as we like to call him, can be.”
CB Chandon Sullivan
While Gutekunst’s offseason was highlighted by signing the Smith Bros. and Adrian Amos, the addition of Sullivan after the draft hardly merited a ripple. After all, Sullivan was an undrafted free agent in 2018 who played only five games for the Eagles as a rookie.
Sullivan, however, proved to be quite a find. Pro Football Focus charged Sullivan with 13-of-32 passing (40.6 percent) for 140 yards with one interception and three breakups. With the decision to not re-sign steady veteran Tramon Williams, Sullivan has been the man in the slot throughout training camp.
“I’ll always have a chip on my shoulder,” Sullivan said. “I came into the league undrafted, so I’m going to continue to fight and snap and give the best I can on every rep.”
OLB Rashan Gary
Last year’s first-round pick didn’t make much of an impact as a rookie. He had only two sacks and played just three snaps in the NFC Championship Game. There was no disappointment, though. Everybody in the organization knew Gary would be a work in progress. Gary looks like a totally different player this summer. Already a big, strong man, Gary gets off the ball as if he’s been fired out of a cannon. His hand usage is quick and filthy.
“As a rookie, you’re just trying to survive,” outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, one of Gary’s staunchest defenders last year, said on Thursday. “Rashan coming in, he was so raw. You saw a lot of power (rushes) last year from him. He’s going to be a speed-to-power guy. And then a lot of it is how people are going to set. He’s extremely athletic and he’s big, but his speed, he hurts a lot of people. Everything comes off of speed, even your bull rush. Guys panic with Rashan’s speed. It looks like punt protection sometimes. Saw a few times today where the tackle just turns and is running to get out.”
OL Elgton Jenkins
Last year’s second-round pick was nothing short of sensational. Of the seven rookie guards to play 200 pass-protecting snaps, Jenkins was the only one to not allow a sack, according to PFF. Moreover, he allowed only one quarterback hit. He was excellent in the run game, too.
His dominance was no surprise to his offensive line coach at Mississippi State, Marcus Johnson. While Jenkins should be a centerpiece at guard, a position that had suffered through a couple years of attrition, Johnson’s words are worth remembering if the Packers’ Plan A and B at right tackle, Billy Turner and Rick Wagner, don’t pan out.
“Early in camp, I remember one time I put Elgton at right tackle against Montez Sweat,” Johnson told Packer Central after the 2019 draft of the all-SEC pass rusher who was a first-round pick by Washington. “We know how freaky of an athlete that Montez Sweat is, but he got to his spot so fast it was almost like he was waiting on him. He stoned him right there at the line of scrimmage. Then I put him at right tackle against [current standout] Chauncey Rivers, and it was the same thing. He looked like a natural. Then I remember playing him at left guard a bunch during bowl-game preparation and it was like he’d been there before. He’s a very impressive young man with God-given abilities and genetics and DNA.”
