Acme Packing Company
With the addition of linebacker Kristian Welch to the Green Bay Packers’ 48-man gameday roster, the Packers needed to name six members of the team’s 53-man roster as inactives going into their Monday Night Football showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. Three of them, offensive lineman Jacob Monk, offensive lineman Donovan Jennings and kicker Lucas Havrisik, were healthy scratches. Yes, Brandon McManus is going to start another game at kicker for Green Bay, as the Packers’ coaching staff stated earlier this week.
The players who are unable to play due to injury this week are receiver Matthew Golden (shoulder), defensive end Lukas Van Ness (foot) and cornerback Nate Hobbs (knee). This leaves the Packers with very few players at the skill positions, on both sides of the ball, since the team didn’t call up a practice squad receiver or cornerback this week.
At receiver, Green Bay will have five players, four of whom were limited or non-participants for multiple practices this week. Your reaction to this might be to say that cornerback Bo Melton will play some more receiver this week, but Melton is just one injury away at cornerback from having to play all of the team’s snaps on defense, too, on top of contributing on special teams.
The only backup cornerbacks that the Packers will have going into this game are Melton and Kamal Hadden, neither of which have ever taken a regular-season snap on defense in the NFL. Hadden, who was benched quickly off special teams earlier this season, has only played five total snaps this year in the kicking game, despite being regularly activated on Green Bay’s limited 48-man gameday roster.
The good news, if there is any, from the Packers’ inactives is that receiver Dontayvion Wicks (calf), receiver Savion Williams (foot) and right tackle Zach Tom (back) will be up for this game after being listed as questionable by the team on Saturday.
The Eagles’ inactives on Monday are quarterback Sam Howell, running back A.J. Dillon, center Cam Jurgens, defensive tackle Ty Robinson, cornerback Jaire Alexander and cornerback Mac McWilliams. Only Jurgens is out with an injury (knee).
New additions for the Eagles, pass-rusher Brandon Graham, pass-rusher Jaelan Phillips and cornerback Michael Carter II will all suit up for Philadelphia tonight, while Alexander didn’t make the trip.
Update:
It’s also worth mentioning here that this is the first time that the Packers have activated all five defensive tackles for action in a game. Don’t be surprised if the team uses their four-tackle goal line defense, which they’ve only used on four plays this season, to try to stop the Tush Push.
