Darnell Savage (Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Packers Training Camp Preview: Safeties

In Part 10 of a series of Green Bay Packers training camp positional previews, it’s a look at the safeties – the most question-filled position on the roster.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 23, 2023 5:38 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Adrian Amos was allowed to sign with the New York Jets in free agency. Now what? Darnell Savage went from an All-Rookie safety in 2019 to benched in 2022. Now what?

That’s the theme of the safety situation with the start of Green Bay Packers training camp just days away. Let’s take a closer look in the 10th of our training camp position previews.

Projected Opening Depth Chart

Starters: Darnell Savage, Rudy Ford.

Backups: Jonathan Owens, Tarvarius Moore, Innis Gaines, Dallin Leavitt, Anthony Johnson, Benny Sapp.

Position Group Ranking (out of 11)

11th.

Strength

Hope springs eternal. Tasked with running the show, maybe Darnell Savage will become the player everyone thought he’d be after a solid rookie season. In fact, even after a dismal 2022, he ranks eighth in passes defensed among all safeties over the last four seasons and crushes the rest of the 2019 draft class.

“I’m excited. I’m ready to go,” Savage said. “Like, right now. Anxious, had a long offseason to kind of think about last year, had this kind of bad taste in my mouth for the longest time, so I’m ready to get it out.”

After starting six games with three teams in five seasons, Rudy Ford had three interceptions in six starts. A standout on special teams, he brings great athleticism and ball skills to the party. “You can feel his speed out there, and he’s physical, too,” coach Matt LaFleur said following Ford’s two-interception performance vs. Dallas.

Jonathan Owens had a breakout season for the Houston Texans. Can he take another step when paired with a veteran like Savage rather than a rookie like Jalen Pitre?

Tarvarius Moore was good enough to start eight games for the San Francisco 49ers’ stout defense in 2020.

So, maybe the Packers will be just fine. Maybe.

Weakness

Reality. If you’re the glass-half-full sort, it’s easy to project a bounce-back season from Savage. He’s talented, experienced and might be playing for his NFL career this season. Owens had 125 tackles last year for the Texans and seems a natural to replace the sure-tackling Amos. Moore has big-time speed.

If you’re the glass-half-empty sort, you see Savage’s disappointing 2022 season and four years of missed tackles. Ford wound up losing the starting job to Savage down the stretch. Yeah, Owens started and had a lot of tackles, but that was with the terrible Texans. Plus, he hardly made any plays on the ball. Moore missed all of 2021 with a torn Achilles.

Quite often in the NFL, you get what you pay for. Amos’ cap number with the Packers – even while he lines up for the Jets – is bigger than all the other safeties other than Savage combined.

Key Questions

1. The Packers have a lot of options to start next to Savage. Will any of them be truly good enough?

2. Can Savage become at least a decent tackler? Based on 440 snaps per season, Savage ranked 77th out of 80 safeties in missed-tackle percentage in 2022, 69th out of 79 in 2021, 65th out of 72 in 2020 and 60th out of 69 in 2019. That’s a long track record of bad tackling. There’s little reason to believe he’s going to become Adrian Amos 2.0 but mediocre would be nice.

3. Can Tarvarius Moore resurrect his career and perhaps even start? He was a third-round pick by the 49ers who started a total of 14 games during his first three seasons. Howxever, the Achilles cost him all of 2021. Not unlike a torn ACL, that’s often a two-year injury – one year to get on the field and the second to return to prime form. Does he still have that 4.32 speed? He made a couple noteworthy plays during the offseason practices.

“He has some coverage skill and he does have some power on contact, too, which I saw when I viewed him as a free agent,” defensive backs coach Ryan Downard said before the start of OTAs. “Obviously, athletically when he came out he was top notch, he had some top-end speed. I know he’s dealt with some injuries in the past, but he’s been in some good schemes, he knows how to play hard, I think he understands what the standard needs to be.”

4. There are a lot of players ahead of seventh-round pick Anthony Johnson, a four-year starter at Iowa State who moved to safety for his final season, on the depth chart. Can Johnson climb over enough of them to make it on the 53?

Biggest Battle

Rudy Ford vs. Jonathan Owens to start. At least through the offseason, that was the battle. Mostly, the Packers lined up with Savage and Ford as the starters, though Owens got his opportunities alongside Savage, as well.

Both had breakout seasons. A sixth-round pick by Arizona in 2017, he started one game in two seasons for the Cardinals, one game in two seasons with the Eagles and four games in one season for the Jaguars. When Jacksonville released him at the end of camp last summer, the Packers pounced and got a reliable contributor.

Owens entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2018. He missed his rookie season with a torn ACL, played in 14 games with two starts in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before starting all 17 games in 2022.

Two key numbers from Pro Football Focus:

Coverage: Ford was one of 80 safeties to play at least 266 coverage snaps. He ranked 56th with a 106.8 passer rating allowed, with three touchdowns and three interceptions. Owens ranked 71st with a 124.8 rating, with zero interceptions and three touchdowns.

Tackling: Ford was one of 80 safeties to play 440 total snaps on defense. He ranked 54th with a missed-tackle rate of 13.3 percent. Owens ranked 24th at 8.6 percent.

“I’d like to have a two-way safety,” Downard said. “What I mean by that is a guy that can cover and a guy that can tackle. If you can thump, if you bring power on contact, that’s a bonus. But I’ve got to be able to get guys on the ground. So, tackling’s a premium.

“Obviously, coverage and taking the ball away is a premium. If we have two of those guys who can do both, then we can play them left and right. If we have a guy whose skill-set is anchored more towards tackling or physicality to his game, then we might place say in the boundary and the other guy in the field. So, we’ve got to see who’s going to be that guy.”

Star Search

There are eight safeties on the roster. Savage was taken in the first round, Moore in the third, Ford in the sixth and Johnson in the seventh. The other four went undrafted.

Based on where he was drafted, salary (the fifth-year option of $7.901 million dwarfing everyone else on the depth chart) and career production, Savage has to lead the safeties by word and by deed. He’s played high-level football in the past. He can do it again.

“I’m the kind of guy, I believe you go through experiences for a reason,” he said. “I never shy away from any experiences or any life lessons or anything like that. it’s kind of just how you look at it. I looked at this as, ‘I’m going to come out better on the other side.’ And thinking back on it, it was tough. Because I still have to come in here, I still have to be a good teammate, I still have to do everything the right way. It was tough. You learn a lot about yourself. So maybe I needed that.”

Don’t Forget About

Innis Gaines. He’s got size, athleticism and physicality. This will be his third training camp with the Packers, so he knows Joe Barry’s scheme. Don’t forget, Gaines started the Week 18 game against Detroit and had earned a regular role on defense for the final three games.

Even if Gaines doesn’t move into the competition for a starting job, don’t be surprised if he’s got a role for Week 1 at Chicago.