With Interception, Scott Makes Play at No. 3 Safety Job

There are wide-open battles to be the top backup at safety and cornerback. A pick-six at training camp on Monday should help Vernon Scott.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Aug 1, 2022 9:28 PM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ starting 11 look tremendous, on paper. Also on paper, the depth in the secondary is precarious, at best.

On Monday, Vernon Scott made the type of big plays that will be necessary to be the primary backup to the top safety tandem of Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage. Practice ended with a backups vs. backups two-minute drill. On first down, Jordan Love fired a pass into the flat to receiver Ishmael Hyman. Tight coverage by Scott helped force an incompletion.

A play later, on third-and-7, Love fired a pass downfield to tight end Tyler Davis. Scott read the play like a book for the “game”-winning interception. If that wasn’t enough, he returned it for a touchdown, then was mobbed in the corner of the end zone by his defensive teammates.

“My read was running a crosser and I just used my instincts and I just jumped it,” Scott said afterward. “The ball was there, and I just picked it and made the play that I know I can make – a big play in the game. We happened to be in quarters and he ran a crosser, and I just jumped it using my instincts, my grit, my keys and just made the play.”

Scott didn’t make many plays last season. Heck, he didn’t make any plays. At this time a year ago, Scott was battling Henry Black to the be the No. 3 safety. Black, an undrafted free agent in 2020, beat out Scott, a seventh-round pick in 2020, for the job. Black wound up playing 262 snaps on defense – a not-insignificant 24.3 percent of the defensive snaps – in 17 games. Scott played a completely irrelevant zero defensive snaps in three games.

It was a disappointing season, to be sure.

“Just to control what I can control, just coming to work every day and get better, to focus on what I can get better at regardless of the situation that was going on,” Scott said of how he handled being glued to the bench for most of season. “Just putting my best foot forward and cheering for my guys, for the defense, for guys making plays in the game. Really just cheering for teammates success and just knowing that one day, I’ll come full circle.”

Indeed, it has.

Due in part to his role in the season-killing blocked punt against San Francisco, the Packers didn’t bother to re-sign Black as an exclusive-rights free agent. That leaves Scott and Shawn Davis, a fifth-round pick by the Colts in 2021, leading the battle to be that third safety. So, just like last season, a role on defense and special teams is within Scott’s grasp.

There’s more to playing safety than big plays. But they do count a little extra.

“It means a lot just making a play like that,” Scott said. “I already knew I could make plays like that. In OTAs, I made big plays like that. Just picking up where I left off is how I felt, really. It’s a big play but just continue to get better every day, come into work every day and get better and just building trust with the defense.”

At cornerback, Shemar Jean-Charles has been that next-man-up player with Keisean Nixon out with an injury. He had what appeared to be a red-zone interception on Saturday but, upon film review, he bobbled the ball before going out of bounds.

“Everybody knows,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “The defense, in our team meeting just a second ago, ‘Hey we’re going to find out about our integrity right here.’ I asked Sherm, ‘Hey, Sherm, did you catch that?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Well, we have a bunch of liars in this room.’”