Greene’s injury will test Pettine’s creativity

The Green Bay Packers played their No. 1 dime linebacker on IR on Monday.

The Green Bay Packers’ defense, which has stolen the show in the team’s 2-0 start, has to deal with its first piece of adversity with safety Raven Greene being placed on injured reserve on Monday.

The team’s No. 3 safety but No. 1 dime linebacker, Greene played 70 snaps in six quarters. On the first play of the third quarter against Minnesota, he suffered an ankle injury on a cut block and was taken off the field on a cart.

“I’m as good as I can be,” a dejected Greene said before exiting the locker room to visit with family after the game.

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The Packers don’t have an obvious replacement for Greene, who played 55 snaps against Chicago in Week 1 as a focal point of defensive coordinator Mike Pettine’s unusual 3-3-5 defensive grouping. Green Bay finished Sunday’s game with starter Adrian Amos moving into the box and Will Redmond taking Amos’ spot in the deep secondary alongside Darnell Savage.

In time, the returns of inside linebacker Oren Burks and safety Ibraheim Campbell will help. Burks, a third-round pick last year, suffered a partially torn pectoral during the first preseason game. On Monday, he said he was going to meet with the training staff to “see what the schedule looks like for me.” Campbell played the dime linebacker role last season but is on the physically unable to perform list following last year’s torn ACL and is ineligible to start practicing until after Week 6.

For now, Redmond and Chandon Sullivan are reserve defensive backs who played safety in the preseason, and veteran Tramon Williams played safety for the second half of last season. And cornerback Josh Jackson, a physical second-round pick last year, has played only four snaps this season. The team no doubt would like to get him on the field somehow, though the path at corner is blocked for now with Jaire Alexander, Kevin King, Williams and Tony Brown.

“The versatility part, it helps you with your depth when you have a guy that can multiple things,” Pettine said last week. “An outside linebacker you can cross train as a defensive lineman and he can play end. Or an outside backer you can cross train to play off the ball. Or the safety that can also play nickel. A corner who can slide in and play safety. You always want to be in the mode of we’ve got our best 11 out there and sometimes if everybody is kind of locked into their position and you’re just bumping the next guy up on the depth chart that’s not always going to be the case of having the best 11.”

Williams believes the Packers have better depth in the secondary than past seasons to overcome injuries.

“That’s the great part about it. The guys stepped in today and we didn’t miss a beat,” Williams said. “That’s what you want to see, especially against a team like this. This is a quality team and we’re going to have to face them again and it’s not going to be easy but we’re ready for the challenge. We still have some tough opponents coming in here over the next few weeks. It’s going to be tough. We’ve got to stay locked in.”

Greene, who had seven tackles and one pass defensed this season, ended last season on injured reserve, as well. Last year’s ankle injury allowed Greene to bulk up from 196 pounds to 212.

“It felt great just to be out there at all,” Greene said last week. “It was a lot of fun. Just getting back into the flow of things. I’m excited to see where it heads.”

While the move is not official, the Packers claimed cornerback Tremon Smith off waivers from Kansas City, according to his agency. A sixth-round pick in 2018 out of Central Arkansas, he averaged an impressive 26.8 yards per kickoff return as a rookie. In limited action on defense, he allowed 4-of-7 passing for 76 yards. In the Chiefs’ opening game of this season, he played zero snaps on defense and 16 snaps on special teams but didn’t record any stats.