Most of the Green Bay Packers’ major roster decisions are going to come on the defensive side of the ball at cutdowns. Considering that the Packers haven’t had more offensive players than defensive players since Week 3 of special team coordinator Rich Bisaccia’s first season with the team, though, this shouldn’t come as a shock.
Here, we’ll continue our tracking of which defenders have played first-team snaps with the defense this year, following the first-team’s single 10-play drive against the New York Jets. If you want to read our article breaking down the two drives on offense, from a personnel standpoint, you can check it out here.
I will note, this might be the last time we’re going to see the Packers’ first-team unit on video. After Green Bay’s loss to the Jets, head coach Matt LaFleur stated that his plan is not to play the starters against the Indianapolis Colts next week. For the next two weeks, the Packers will have joint practices with their upcoming preseason opponents.
For the snap count tables we’ll be discussing, FN means reps on Family Night with the first-team defense and W1 is the Packers’ game against the Jets. A red cell means the player missed the entire practice/game with injury, while a yellow cell means a player dropped out due to injury. The order players are presented will be our best guess at the current depth chart.
If you’ve been following news from Green Bay this summer, it’s been obvious that Lukas Van Ness is going to start opposite Rashan Gary in 2025. Unless there’s an injury, Van Ness will make his first start since high school back in 2019 when the Packers take on the Detroit Lions in Week 1.
Behind them, there’s uncertainty. Van Ness, as a non-starter, already played 428 snaps on defense last year, which was on par with Kingsley Enagbare’s 511. Enagbare was the team’s starting defensive end following the trade of Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers. On top of that, Van Ness also played 221 snaps of special teams in 2024, which was the fourth-most on the team. Enagbare isn’t too far behind him with 184 of his own there.
Overall, special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia leaned heavily into the defensive end position to play roles that are typically filled by linebackers or tight ends on the punt team, punt return team and kickoff team. So this begs the question: If LVN is going to be playing more defense, how will the Packers be able to make up those special teams reps?
Rookie fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell didn’t get playing time with the first-team defense on Saturday night, but he was on the first-team kick return team. He was flagged for a penalty on the opening snap of the game.
Rookie fifth-round pick Collin Oliver hasn’t practiced with the team at all during training camp due to a hamstring issue. Head coach Matt LaFleur said only two injuries going into training camp were going to be long-term issues for the team, but Oliver is still on the squad’s injury lists with receiver Christian Watson (ACL tear) and offensive lineman John Williams (back).
At least right now, Brenton Cox Jr. and Enagbare have a slight edge at getting on the field defensively for the team, but Cox hasn’t been much of a special teams contributor. Van Ness, Enagbare and Arron Mosby, all part-time defensive ends last year, average 215 special teams snaps each in 2024. Cox only played 40. And now he has two rookie draft picks to compete with, too.
How the five or six roster spots at the defensive end position shake out on the Packers’ roster is one of the biggest question marks in Green Bay right now. The team seems to want to play Cox on defense, but they go out of their way to not play him on special teams.
With TJ Slaton out of the picture, Kenny Clark is moving back to nose tackle. This allowed former first-round pick Devonte Wyatt to become a full-time starter at the three-technique position for the first time in his NFL career.
There’s a lot of love for rookie Georgia nose tackles Warren Brinson (sixth-round pick) and Nazir Stackhouse (undrafted free agent), but returning veterans Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden continue to get snaps over them on both the first- and second-team units. When Clark was injured earlier in the summer, Wooden, who is listed at under 280 pounds, was actually the “replacement starter” at nose tackle for Clark in practice.
On top of that, Brooks is also a contributor on the punt rush team, which is a rarity for a defensive tackle, especially under special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. The Packers probably can’t afford to keep six defensive tackles, but they also can’t lose Brooks if they’re going to go light on special teams-centric positions like tight end, defensive end or linebacker, either. Ultimately, I think one of Brinson or Stackhouse is going to have to leave town, unless they both show out to end the preseason.
With Quay Walker still recovering from his offseason ankle surgery, the starters in two-linebacker sets against the Jets were Edgerrin Cooper and Isaiah McDuffie. This isn’t always the case, as Isaiah Simmons has gotten looks over McDuffie at various points in practice this summer.
Simmons filled in as the team’s third linebacker in true 4-3 looks. The Packers ran some funky variations of their defense against New York, including a 3-4 defense out of 4-3 personnel where Van Ness reduced to an interior line position like a 3-4 defensive end while Simmons played at the line of scrimmage like a 3-4 outside linebacker.
The most memorable play of the night at this position, though, comes at the expense of Simmons. He tried to “ROBOT a crosser,” which basically means turn backwards and take a deep crossing route in coverage that he expected to be behind him, but it never came. The result? A wide open fullback in Andrew Beck, who was on Green Bay’s roster to start the 2024 season before being released.
Nate Hobbs, who at minimum will be starting at outside cornerback in two-cornerback sets for the Packers, missed Saturday’s action due to his recovery from meniscus surgery. Green Bay has options when Hobbs returns, including kicking him inside to the slot position in nickel sets where five defensive backs are on the field together.
Without Hobbs, the starters were Keisean Nixon, who is going to start outside this year, and Carrington Valentine, who would be brought off the bench in nickel if Hobbs is kicked inside. There’s little to note at this position beyond that. Receiver-turned-cornerback Bo Melton and Kalen King both got work with the second-team defense. It’s worth mentioning here that Kamal Hadden, who some believed was higher than King on the cornerback depth chart before his injury, also didn’t participate in this game.
Corey Ballentine, who was re-signed by the team last week and was a major special teams contributor for the Packers last year, did get first-look opportunities with the punt team as a punt gunner and with the kick return team as a lead blocker. He started at both positions in 2024. Those may not be relevant to play on defense, but they are in terms of Ballentine’s ability to make the 53-man roster.
On both Family Night and in Week 1, safety Javon Bullard has gotten all of the team’s first-team snaps as a slot defender. This isn’t much of a shock, as Bullard was the Packers’ primary slot corner once Evan Williams displaced him at safety last year. When Hobbs returns from injury, this could change, but it won’t until then. If Bullard ever goes down, the next slot defender up will probably be King, unless Green Bay wants to kick Nixon inside.
The last position we have to talk about here is safety, where there are a couple of notable injuries. All-Pro Xavier McKinney is out with a calf that the Packers are hoping heals before the start of the regular season.
With Bullard playing in the slot and McKinney out, special teams ace Zayne Anderson came off the bench in nickel looks to play safety with the first-team unit opposite of Evan Williams against the Jets. Unfortunately, Anderson went down with what LaFleur described as a knee injury. That’s all the information we have on that issue at this time. When Anderson dropped out of action, Kitan Oladapo stepped up in his place.
Interestingly, even when McKinney was healthy, it was Bullard and Oladapo who got first-team looks (rotationally) on Family Night, not Anderson. The difference between Anderson and Oladapo probably isn’t too wide defensively.