When the time comes for the Green Bay Packers to put together their 53-man roster, will they keep five or six safeties?
Part of the roster construction equation that the Packers will face when making their final cutdowns in late August is how many players to keep at each position group. While the ultimate goal is to keep the best players, rostering eight receivers, for example, isn’t realistic either.
As we look ahead to what the Packers’ final roster could look like, one of the positions facing a possible number crunch could be at safety, where a decision on whether to keep five or six players will have to be made.
What we know at this time is that Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard, Evan Williams, and Kitan Oladapo will be on the roster. I know we haven’t seen Oladapo in action yet, but he is someone who can contribute right away on special teams and, in the long term, is able to fill both the “free and strong safety role,” who can also line up as the “big nickel Sam linebacker,” as GM Brian Gutekunst put it.
That already leaves four roster spots accounted for. Based on how offseason programs unfolded, with Anthony Johnson seeing his share of snaps with the starters as Bullard and Williams acclimated themselves, he appears to be poised for a roster spot as well, especially when we consider that he began to carve out a role on special teams during the second half of the 2023 season.
If the Packers are going to keep a sixth safety, that battle could come down to either Zayne Anderson or Benny Sapp. Given the depth in front of them, special teams play will be the determining factor in who gets that roster spot since that is where their impact will have to come from.
Anderson played 152 special teams snaps from Week 9 and last season, and Sapp played 40 special teams snaps in the five games he appeared in. Anderson was active during the playoff games, while Sapp was not.
Going heavy at the safety position is something we’ve seen the Packers do in the past, even if they don’t begin with six on their initial 53-man roster. A good example of this came during the 2022 season when the Packers rostered five safeties initially but, on average, had 5.47 safeties active on game day over the course of the season and 5.71 safeties on their 53-man plus elevated lists each week, according to Ken Ingalls.
But for what it’s worth, and each year is different, the Packers have not carried six safeties on their initial roster during the Matt LaFleur era.
The challenge with going that heavy at one position means going light elsewhere. Perhaps that means only rostering five cornerbacks or four defensive ends.
And when it comes to these back end roster positions where special teams play is vital, Anderson and Sapp are not only competing with each other but other position groups. They’ll have to show they can bring more value to that unit than linebacker Kristian Welch or cornerbacks Robert Rochell and Kalen King.
The potential challenge that Anderson and Sapp will face within their own position group is that with McKinney, Bullard, and Williams presumably dominating the defensive snaps, there are already two primary special teams players in Johnson and Oladapo at the safety position already.
The point being, if I haven’t already made it, is that Anderson and Sapp better be really good on teams and be able to play several different phases of it.
