All eyes will be on the Green Bay Packers safety position this summer. Although there is still a lot that is left to be determined, here is how I believe things stand following what I saw during OTAs and minicamp.
In general, this was a position group that underwhelmed last season. This is also a position group with a number of new faces and, overall, is short on defensive experience as well. So not only is playing time up for grabs, but roster spots are as well, with the Packers typically keeping four or five players on their 53-man roster at this position.
The Packers’ offseason programs consisted of five practices that were open to the media. Ultimately, final playing time and roster decisions will be determined by what happens during training camp and the preseason, but these open practices gave us a glimpse into where things stand, at least for the moment. So if I were putting together the current depth chart, this is how I would have each player slotted, given what I saw take place.
1. Darnell Savage
As we saw last season when Darnell Savage was benched, things can change, but come Week 1 in Chicago, he is going to be a starter. Savage is by far the most experienced safety on this roster, with nearly 4,000 career snaps, along with some flashes of playmaking. However, those flashes have not been consistent, and poor tackling, which has never been a strong suit of his, and being out of position, which resulted in big plays for the offense, were regular miscues that we saw too often last season. Bouncing back in 2023 begins with consistency, wrapping up, and being in the right spot.
2. Rudy Ford
Throughout any of the team drills, every time it was Rudy Ford lined up next to Savage. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, either. In terms of experience in Joe Barry’s defense, Ford has seen the second-most playing time, and he brought that needed reliability to the team last season. Ford has shown that he is a willing tackler and run defender, and by being in the right spots, he came away with four takeaways, despite not seeing consistent playing time until over halfway through the season.
3. and 4. Tarvarius Moore and Jonathan Owens
Admittedly, I’m not sure who to slot into the third spot on the depth chart and who to put at four. If I were doing this after OTAs, it would be Tarvarius Moore in the third slot since he saw more snaps with the starting defense than Owens did. However, Moore did not participate in the two minicamp practices, so it was Owens taking those snaps. Moore played over 500 defensive snaps with San Francisco in 2020, missed all of 2021 with an injury, and played mostly special teams a season ago. Owens, meanwhile, played nearly 1,000 snaps for Houston last season, the first time he has seen significant playing time. Both have shown to be very good tacklers in their careers.
5. Anthony Johnson Jr.
There is a lot of excitement around rookie Anthony Johnson, but out of these players just mentioned, he was clearly the fifth option, spending all of his time with the second-team defense, lining up next to Moore or Owens, whichever one wasn’t with the ones that day. Johnson has the skill set to fill an Adrian Amos-like role in this defense, with his ability to help in the run game, however, he is not only battling the learning curve that comes with being an NFL rookie, but he’s also still learning a relatively new position, entering only his second season at safety after spending his first four seasons at Iowa State as a cornerback.
Dallin Leavitt
You’ll notice that I’m not even going to give Dallin Leavitt a number — which is intentional — because he is on this roster to be a special teams player. He played the second-most special teams snaps for Green Bay last season, has spent his entire career playing under Rich Bisaccia, and there were a few occasions where Aaron Rodgers complimented the leadership role that Leavitt had taken on in the locker room. I just can’t envision right now a Packers final roster without Leavitt, although again, you won’t be seeing him playing defense.
7. Innis Gaines
Innis Gaines is listed as a safety, but he saw his share of snaps with the second and third-team defenses from the slot during offseason programs. Gaines played 44 defensive snaps in 2022 during the final three weeks, with 32 of them coming from the slot. Given the sheer number of players at this position, it’s difficult to see what Gaines’ path to the 53-man roster is going to look like.
8. Benny Sapp
Benny Sapp is an undrafted rookie from UNI. He’s a versatile defender, lining up mostly as a free safety in college, but he has ample experience in the box and from the slot. Sapp also played nearly 500 special teams snaps as well. Again, given how crowded this position group is, Sapp’s ceiling as a rookie is most likely going to be as a practice squad player.
