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Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur made it clear on Thursday that the Packers’ starters will play in the preseason opener against the New York Jets, though it’s uncertain how many snaps they’ll be on the field for. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that safety Xavier McKinney will be out there with the rest of the team.
McKinney didn’t practice on Thursday do to a calf injury, even though he had been on the field for the rest of training camp. After practice today, McKinney told the media that he won’t practice “for a while,” according to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, and that “he doesn’t expect to play in the preseason.” The hope is that he’ll be ready by Week 1 of the regular season.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky added the following statement from McKinney: “Glad we caught it when we caught it, but I’ll be ready when it’s time to go.”
If McKinney really does have a multi-week injury, the Packers’ secondary is really going to have to thread the needle. Green Bay is already down free-agent cornerback Nate Hobbs, who had a meniscus clean-up that places his return to the field right around the start of the regular season.
Without McKinney, the Packers’ safeties should be Evan Williams and Javon Bullard. Without Hobbs, the Packers’ outside cornerbacks should be Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine. The problem? Hobbs and Bullard are really the only defensive backs who have played the slot role with the first-team defense in training camp, so if Bullard is starting at safety and Hobbs is rehabbing, we’re in pretty uncharted territory for who Green Bay’s next man up is at the slot position.
As a reminder, the Packers play about two-thirds of their defensive snaps in five-defensive back “nickel” personnel, compared to just one-third of their snaps in their 4-3 “base” defense. Maybe they’ll play more base if their secondary is stretched thin, but that also means one of their outside linebackers, be it Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah Simmons or Isaiah McDuffie, being matched up on slot receivers frequently.
