The 90 to 1 Green Bay Packers roster countdown: No. 39

The Green Bay Packers, and their 90 players on the roster, are in the midst of their first training camp under coach Matt LaFleur. In an annual tradition from my 11 years at Packer Report, I rank the players in order of importance from No. 90 to No. 1. This isn’t just a listing of the team’s best players. Our rankings take into account talent, importance of the position, depth at the position, salary and draft history. More than the ranking, we hope you learn something about each player. (Note: The start of this series can be found with my former employer.)

No. 39: DT Tyler Lancaster ($570,000 cap)

Lancaster went undrafted after a standout career at Northwestern. He spent the first month of the season on the practice squad and didn’t get on the field until playing three snaps in Week 6. Down the stretch, though, as injuries destroyed the defensive line, Lancaster stepped to the forefront. The more he played, the better he played. In his 271 snaps, he logged 33 tackles. His 8.21 snaps per tackles ranked second among the defensive linemen.

He was superb against the run, with opponents averaging 1.25 fewer yards per carry with Lancaster on the field. Pro Football Focus has a stat called run-stop percentage, which essentially measures impact tackles. In that metric, Lancaster finished third in the league behind Damon Harrison (when he played for the Lions) and Damon Harrison (when he played for the Giants). That’s elite company.

“It didn’t surprise because I saw it every day in practice,” defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said. “He got better each day. But when he got here, I would have never said, ‘Oh, man, this kid is one of the most productive d-linemen we have in the amount of snaps that he had.’ But each day, he was kind of like Kenny when he got here from the standpoint of, one, he was just happy to be in the building and he was going to do whatever we asked him to do the best of his ability. If I said ‘Hey, Tyler, you need to lose 20 pounds,’ he would do it tomorrow.’ If I said, ‘You need to put on 30 pounds,’ he would do it tomorrow. He’s that kid. If I tell him how to do something a certain way, it’s going to kill him until he does it right. That’s just his mind-set. So, I wasn’t shocked when he got his opportunity. I wasn’t nervous putting him in the game. It was one of those deals where I’m like, ‘All right, Bud, go do what we do.’ And he did.”

Last year at this time, Lancaster faced an uphill climb to make the roster. Entering camp this year, it would be a surprise if Lancaster doesn’t make it.

“His game was a little broader I think than most of us in the organization would’ve thought it would have been,” GM Brian Gutekunst said at the start of camp. “He always had strength and power and really kind of anchored down, but I think the thing with Tyler coming out of college was could he get off blocks and be more of a playmaker, especially between the tackles, which is what a nose does. Certainly down the stretch last year, he showed a lot of that, his ability to get off blocks and make plays. So, yeah, I think we were all pleasantly surprised.”

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