Green Bay’s Overhaul At Safety Follows A Familiar Model - Zone Coverage (2024)

After trading Davante Adams before the 2022 season, the Green Bay Packers devoted six picks over the next two drafts to overhaul the wide receiver room and turn what was a weakness into a young group brimming with potential. Like he did to replace players like Adrian Amos, Rasul Douglas, and Darnell Savage at safety over the past two seasons, Brian Gutekunst has taken the same approach in the defensive backfield. Through the first week of training camp, early returns indicate that the Packers might be on track to see a similar level of success in the secondary as they have at wide receiver.

The main difference between the approach at wideout and on defense is Green Bay’s free-agent signing of Xavier McKinney in the offseason. McKinney is a premier acquisition that allows Gutekunst and new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to have an anchor in the secondary to build around. Hafley has raved about McKinney’s abilities and commended the 24-year-old on his communication and leadership skills within the position group.

Green Bay only selected one safety in the 2023 draft. They waited until the seventh round to take Anthony Johnson Jr. out of Iowa State, and Johnson appears poised to be the only returning player from last year’s roster at the position. In addition to signing McKinney, the Packers selected safeties in the second, fourth, and fifth rounds this year, taking Javon Bullard, Evan Williams, and Kitan Oladapo, respectively.

The Packers drafted Bullard as an ideal complement to McKinney. He looks like he can mirror the veteran’s abilities to play as a single-high coverage look while also being able to attack and give run support in the box. Williams is a fourth-rounder out of Oregon, and he provides similar versatility, adding depth to a group where it is sorely needed. Oladapo profiles more as a traditional strong safety, and Johnson is a ball-hawking free safety. They may not be ideal fits, but they still provide good depth and value, given where Green Bay drafted them.

Drafting players like Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, and Dontayvion Wicks has been successful in that it helps foster competition at the position, something Gutekunst has preached from Day 1. It also has the added benefit of syncing up the players’ developmental trajectories.

“We feed off each other,” Bullard said this week. “Obviously, we’re all competitors. We all want to make plays and be playmakers. But it’s all love in the room.”

Some people may want to know exactly who the WR1 is on offense, but it doesn’t matter because each player has had time to shine. The receivers create production in the aggregate. In 17 regular-season games last season, the Packers had nine different players lead the team in receiving yards when you sprinkle in games by Aaron Jones, A.J. Dillon, Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft, and Bo Melton.

While there isn’t an identical type of defensive metric to compare players like on offense, there is the early test of cool plays we hear about and then the glowing quotes that follow them, which is equally important. In the first week of training camp, Williams seems to be the leader in the clubhouse in that department.

Given some of the early practices, Bullard still seems to be in pole position for the second starting safety position, but there’s still the possibility that Bullard also sees some time at nickel to allow Williams on the field. Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur praised Bullard’s cognitive abilities and his studies between the draft and training camp. The head coach has been complimentary of both men.

“I’m really excited about both those guys,” LaFleur said this past weekend. “Certainly, they have a skillset, but the mental ability of both of these guys to be able to retain what they’ve learned throughout the course of OTAs and come back and continue to build on it day by day. I think it’s been super impressive. They are versatile enough, we can interchange the safeties so you can’t get a bead on who is going to be where. It’s such a competitive situation.”

It’s one thing to double down in the draft at a position to add depth; it’s another to completely recreate an entire position in 12 months. It’s certainly worked well for the wide receiving corps, and Brian Gutekunst just may have done it again at safety.