Grant DuBose has arrived

The battle for roster spots in the wide receiver room is hotting up, as 2023 seventh-round pick Grant DuBose staked his claim in the first pre-season game.

He ran crisp routes throughout the game and made an impressive athletic catch along the sidelines, evoking memories of Jared Cook’s grab versus Dallas in the 2016 playoffs as DuBose dragged his feet close to the sideline.

Perhaps more important to his chances of not only making the roster, but earning playing time during the regular season, was his work as a blocker. DuBose gave great effort all afternoon and had some impressive blocks.

These included staying engaged with his opponent far longer than he expected to need to after Bo Melton initially fumbled an end-around before regathering the ball, and later helping clear a lane for Emmanuel Wilson’s touchdown.

DuBose has more natural athleticism and pass catching upside than Malik Heath, who was the sixth and final receiver on last year’s depth chart, and now having shown he can be trusted to do the dirty work which Heath was often tasked with, DuBose looks to be in the process of moving ahead of him.

In truth, DuBose may be closer to Melton, who had a poor day by his standards, including multiple drops, than he is to Heath. Do not be surprised to see DuBose be active each week and play a cameo role in the regular season.

The Evan Williams camp hype is real

Evan Williams has received glowing reviews for his play in practice during his limited time in Green Bay so far, and based on Saturday’s performance, it is completely justified.

The rookie showed great instincts, effort, a willingness to tackle, and the ability to do it effectively with controlled aggression. His strong showing was rubber stamped with a forced fumble, which was then recovered by Kristian Welch for the Packers.

GM Brian Gutekunst completely remade the safety group during the offseason, and appears to have hit a home run.

Between Williams, free agent addition Xavier McKinney and second-round pick Javon Bullard, the Packers now have three versatile pieces on the back end who can play deep, down in the box, or in the case of Bullard and Williams, even at slot cornerback.

If Green Bay’s new crop of safeties can hit the ground running – as it seems they will – it should raise the ceiling for Jeff Hafley’s new defense considerably.

First look at Jeff Hafley’s defense

Speaking of Hafley; Packers fans got their first taste of the new defensive coordinator’s defense on Saturday, and while the vast majority of DC’s roll out vanilla coverage in the preseason so as not to give anything away to future opponents, there were some clear differences to the previous regime.

As expected, Hafley’s defense features a lot more ‘one deep’ safety looks, rather than the ‘two high’ safety alignments Joe Barry mostly deployed. In fact, the Packers played with only one deep safety on over 90% of the snaps versus the Browns.

Beyond the formation of the defense, there was a clear improvement in tackling, both in terms of effort and quality.

This has been helped by simply drafting players on the back end who want to tackle and are good at it, such as Williams, Bullard and Kalen King, but the entire team’s commitment to rallying to the football, and getting the ball-carrier to the ground in a physical fashion, was encouraging.

Green Bay’s front, unencumbered by Barry’s conservative system, was able to get off the ball and cause consistent problems for Cleveland. The Packers are deep both on the interior and the edge of their defensive line. Former first-rounders Devonte Wyatt and Lukas Van Ness were both particularly disruptive. 

Judgment needs to be reserved until the regular season of course, but it is hard not to be pleased by the early signs.

Backup offensive linemen are a work in progress

Green Bay’s starting offensive line is pretty much set, with the only remaining question being who will start at right guard between Jordan Morgan and Sean Rhyan, but behind the starters, there are plenty of backup spots up for grabs, and right now, it is anyone's guess who wins out.

Saturday offered an opportunity for Caleb Jones and Kadeem Telfort, who have been on the ‘Yosh Nijman Plan’, spending time learning before hopefully eventually developing into startable NFL offensive linemen, as well as rookie Jacob Monk and veterans Royce Newman and Andre Dillard.

The results were mixed. The offense was able to function, but all four linemen showed they still have areas to improve.

Jones and Telfort are massive human beings, the former laughably so, but the pair need to continue to work on their technique, as their hand placement is too often poor and opponents were regularly able to swipe them away for an easy win.

Dillard and Monk have plenty of athleticism, and Monk had some quality reps where he seamlessly mirrored and redirected opponents towards his help, but both players are susceptible to power.

Newman is still just Newman.

There is plenty of time for the depth chart to sort itself out, but right now the Packers are not blessed with reliable options after their top five linemen.

Love-Wicks

The only takeaway from the three snaps played by Jordan Love and the starting Green Bay offense was the 65-yard touchdown pass from the QB to receiver Dontayvion Wicks, which gave credence to the reports of Love's improved deep ball.

If Love can find a way to consistently hit on deeper passes, it will take the Packers offense to another level, especially given the threat posed by Christian Watson to take the top off a defense.

Wicks, who was tremendous in his limited snaps as a rookie, once again showed what he is capable of on the long touchdown reception, and the fight for playing time among Green Bay’s receivers is real.

Romeo Doubs has enjoyed an excellent training camp so far, and at least early in the season is likely to be a starter alongside Watson and Jayden Reed, but the coaching staff should not forget to give Wicks his share; he might be the best pure receiver on the roster.