GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last year, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst dropped a nuke on the safety corps. In the football version of Extreme Makeover, Gutekunst swept just about everyone out the door, signed Xavier McKinney to a huge contract and drafted Javon Bullard, Evan Williams and Kitan Oladapo.
After a superb Year 1 together, what’s the next step with organized team activities beginning on Tuesday?
Packers Safeties Depth Chart
Veterans: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, Zayne Anderson, Kitan Oladapo.
Rookies/first-year: Omar Brown (returning practice squad), Kahzir Brown (undrafted).
Big Question: What’s Next?
Green Bay’s safety group went from one of the worst in the NFL to one of the best. In a master class in personnel, Gutekunst added:
Xavier McKinney, who was first-team All-Pro after signing a four-year, $67 million contract. He ranked second in the NFL with eight interceptions and tied for first with nine takeaways. The entire roster intercepted seven passes in 2023. What can he do for an encore?
“I guess that’s the challenge that’s laid out for me is how do I keep trying to stretch this guy to continue getting him better,” defensive backs coach Ryan Downard, who focuses on the safeties, said recently. “But his attitude, he’s ready for anything and everything. He wants more and more.”
Javon Bullard, who started 11 games and played in 15 as a second-round pick. Facing the challenge of playing safety and nickel, he had 85 tackles but just two tackles for losses, zero interceptions and one pass breakup. Can he become a playmaker to be a starter in the slot or at safety?
“Javon, he did a great job playing violently,” Downard said. “That guy plays the game the right way. He addresses blocks the right way. We saw it in Week 1 and we saw it throughout the season.”
Evan Williams played in 13 games with six starts as a fourth-round pick. He had one interception, one forced fumble and three passes defensed to earn All-Rookie honors. While he didn’t break up a pass after Week 5, the Packers were 8-0 when he had at least four tackles or a breakup. Can he beat out Bullard to be the starter opposite McKinney?
Kitan Oladapo was a fifth-round pick who suffered a broken toe at the Scouting Combine and was brought along slowly. Thrust into duty in Week 18, he played well against the Bears. With his size and athleticism, can he at least be a weapon on special teams?
“We all taught KT last year the scheme and the system, but it’s totally different when you’ve got to be out there on the field and make the checks and be in position,” Downard said. “He’s got to keep growing.”
Special teams got Zayne Anderson’s foot in the door with the Chiefs in 2021 and 2022 and kept it in the door when he joined the Packers at the end of training camp in 2023. When injuries decimated the group last year, he had four tackles off the bench at Detroit and an interception in his first career start against the Saints. Can he be a next-man-up in the defensive backfield?
Bonus Question: Who Will Be Odd Man Out?
The Packers have a lot of pieces in the secondary. It will be interesting to see how it all fits together.
The first question is who will man the slot. Keisean Nixon played 1,336 snaps there during his first three seasons with Green Bay. Nate Hobbs played 1,662 snaps there during his four seasons with the Raiders. Bullard played 361 snaps in the slot as a rookie.
Let’s say the Packers roll with Jaire Alexander and Nixon as the perimeter cornerbacks with Hobbs in the slot. Or maybe it will be Carrington Valentine and Nixon at corner with Hobbs as the nickel.
That would make it Bullard vs. Williams to be the safety alongside McKinney. That also would banish a talented player to the bench.
That’s a good problem to have if you’re a coach, obviously, but not a good problem for a talented player.
“One day better, that’s the deal in our room,” Downard said of what’s next for Bullard and Williams. “I’m going to push both those guys to continue pushing themselves. Building a better routine as a pro – not to say they didn’t have one – but it can always be better. They were just trying to figure out and stay afloat last year as rookies, whether they’ll tell you that or not.
“I think they did a hell of a job but, as a rookie, you’re coming in and you got so much going on. The same thing with them as X. They have a great grasp of the system now, and so now we’re attacking, ‘OK, what issues are offenses going to try to attack us with and how can I become a better safety.’ See, when X came in, he had more experience than those guys. He was in the league for four years, so last year he was speaking to these young guys trying to share some of that with them. So, they’ve acquired one year, so we’ve just got to keep getting them more and more reps. It’ll keep making them better because of the process.”