The Green Bay Packers safety position has had more turnover than any spot on the roster over the offseason. None of the three top players on the depth chart from a year ago remain with the team. GM Brian Gutekunst signed free agent Xavier McKinney and drafted three safeties in April. Now, two of those three are battling for the starting spot opposite McKinney at what may be the Packers most improved position heading into 2024.
Safety May Be the Packers Most Improved Position: The Changes
Last season, the Packers had a lot of questions at safety, and it was considered a weak link in the defense. The top three players were former first-round pick Darnell Savage, Rudy Ford, and Jonathan Owens. Their play was inconsistent and far from spectacular. Ford did lead the team with two interceptions.
After the season, all three players were free agents. The Packers didn’t bring back any of them. Instead, the Pack signed the top free agent safety available in McKinney and then drafted three players to compete for the starting job opposite McKinney. They were Javon Bullard in the second round, Evan Williams in the fourth round and Kitan Oladapo in the fifth round.
Oladapo has been placed on the non-football injury list as he recovers from surgery to fix a broken toe. He has yet to participate in training camp. Meanwhile, Bullard and Williams are battling with second-year man Anthony Johnson, Jr. for the other starting spot.
Thus far, head coach Matt LaFleur is impressed with the progress and potential of both rookies. “I’m really excited about both those guys,” LaFleur told reporters on Sunday. “Certainly, they have a skill set, but the mental ability of both of these guys to be able to retain what they’ve learned throughout the course of OTAs and come back and continue to build on it day by day. I think it’s been super impressive. They are versatile enough. We can interchange the safeties so you can’t get a beat on who is going to be where. It’s such a competitive situation.”
Evan Williams Is Making Progress
Williams has worked hard as he and Bullard rotate working with the first-string defense. Thus far, it’s been a learning experience for the former Oregon star.
“I feel like I’m progressing every day, just trying to learn a little bit more. Just about how our coordinator thinks, what kind of calls he’s going to be making in certain situations, and just learning how to play with different people,” Williams said. “[We’re] throwing different safety combos out there, pretty much every drive. It’s been great just to be out there, learn offensive tendencies and learn the whole scheme, pick up the playbook on the fly and just be a playmaker out there.”
Williams has already made interceptions in practice and wants to make more of them, but he knows he’s still learning at this stage of training camp.
“I definitely like to be considered a playmaker, but I feel like whenever the ball is in the air, any good DB has to be aware of it,” He added. “You know we don’t get those type of opportunities very often.”
Williams was also thrilled to see quarterback Jordan Love participating in practice this weekend after signing his new contract.
“He’s obviously a special dude. We saw what he could do at the second half of last year when he gets going. He’s just able to make some really special throws,” Williams said.
“People think it’s all arm talent but he’s so cerebral, like he’s really smart. Pre-snap, he’ll switch his count up to get you to tip a blitz or tip what you’re doing. Then kind of see what you’re doing, see the movement of the DBs, see the drops before they happen and see a window before it appears. So, he’s able to fit a lot of balls into windows that shouldn’t be there. That seems impossible. It’s great for our defense to go up against a caliber of quarterback like Jordan. If we could play as well as we have with him behind center, then we should be all right versus a lot of the quarterbacks we see this year.”
Safety May Be the Packers Most Improved Position: Bullard Discusses the Competition
Bullard also admits he’s learning. In fact, sometimes, he admitted he’s not sure if he made a good play until the coaches review the film with him. “You think you had a good practice; you go into the meeting room, and you don’t grade out like you thought you did,” Bullard said over the weekend. “So, really, I’ve got to wait 45 minutes and we’re going to see if it was a good play or not.”
While he’s splitting time with Williams and Johnson, he sees the safety room as competitive but unified. “We feed off each other,” Bullard added. “Obviously, we’re all competitors, so we all want to make plays and be playmakers…So, we feed off each other, it’s all love in the room.”
He was also happy to put on the pads for the first time in training camp. But right now, he’s still learning. “I’m just trying to do my job, play within the rules within the practice schemes and just do my job,” he said.
The competition for the starting job remains open. We’ll see who learns the quickest and makes the most plays to earn the starting job. But the Packers appear to have improved dramatically at safety over a year ago with the potential to get even better as these young players learn the defense.
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