Packers 53-Man Roster Predictions

[Music] he [Music] welcome back to another episode of the packs with she said podcast I'm one of your co-hosts Maggie Looney joined as always by Perry Goldstein and rat Goldstein very briefly so if you were lucky enough to see his appearance he's here too um talking 53 man roster predictions and very quickly before we dive into that we just wanted to extend a very big thank you to Adam Bradley who became our very first subscriber or supporter on Spotify which is very very cool Adam we super appreciate it um if you're listening on Spotify remember that there is a support button there as well if you're finding us on YouTube please make sure you're liking and subscribing to the channel because it means a lot to us really helps us out to get our numbers out there and up there so Perry we saw the Packers me the Ravens in a really nice preseason wrap-up a really nice bounceback after the Broncos game that we had a lot more questions than answers after but I think as we kind of dive into the 53 man roster prediction we still are left with quite a few questions in regards to some very specific and important roles like I don't know kicker that's that's one I'm sure we're gonna have to talk about but any holistic thoughts before we dive into the actual 53 well I think we'll get to a lot of the game when we talk about our 53 because um a number of guys made their case for like why they deserve to be on the team in this game like you said it but this was like the antithesis of the Broncos game it was a nice showing from a lot of guys especially guys who are making um kind of that last ditch effort to show why they deserve to stick on to this roster um the defense especially I think is what stood out to me um as well as Michael Pratt getting a lot more time at QB than in previous games um really nice to see him and I thought he had um actually a great day minus the very bad interception but hey it's G to happen right um just a bad read uh and I like to see them bounce back I know it's just preseason but I think that momentum going going into the regular season like regardless is really important uh and now unfortunately we get to I think what is the worst part of the offseason which is unfortunately some guys are going to be let go from this team um and it's just part of the business unfortunately but um there are guys that have played their butts off and for whatever reason we'll get into it it's sometimes just a numbers game um will not stick on to a roster and so you and I both um have our rosters here but I think overall like really nice uh top to bottom showing against the Ravens and feeling good about where this team is going into the season like from a depth perspective I think I've been saying this all off season but they have tough decisions coming up because the depth on this team is really freaking good yeah and we're very fortunate to have that you know be in the position that the Packers find themselves in because that hasn't been the case in a previous season so really nice to be able to say oh man we're not sure there's probably 55 56 players that you would normally want on your 53 man roster so let's go ahead and get started with that um we'll kind of move through them a little give a little analysis here if we think it needs some explanations but starting with the quarterbacks this one is tough and I told myself that I wasn't going to Tinker with my prediction I'm gonna try to just stick by it leave it as is um on my 53 I have two quarterbacks and I just have love and Pratt but the more I think about it the more I'm I think Clifford probably sneaks onto your practice squad so you don't maybe need to claim a roster spot for him but I do think the Packers really would prefer to have all three of them around I agree with you I think all three are in the building um I actually don't know I I think everyone feels really high on Michael Pratt right and goody loves to keep his uh draft picks right so that's like kind of where I lean and yes we most recently saw more of Michael Pratt but I actually wouldn't this is just me Playing devil's advocate because I actually like a little bit more and agree with you where it's love Pratt Clifford on the practice squad I if they went love Clifford Pratt on the practice squad it wouldn't surprise me either right but I do think it's all three of them around yeah I think it'll be really tricky for them to keep all three just because I think as we're going to talk about there's other spots on the roster that really need those extra spots um and running back to me is one of those if we if we want to look there I have four which I think is kind of controversial maybe and I think it'll depend if you have to have Lloyd or Dylan starting on in deserve that would of course skew the numbers here but talking about them being on the initial before they can move to IR I have it as Jacob Dylan Lloyd and Wilson I think Wilson has just done so much to deserve that rb3 spot or even rb2 while they're kind of you know hoping that Dylan and Lloyd get back into into playing shape so unsurprisingly you and I are in lockstep um I also have four um I just feel like Emanuel Wilson has done way too much and shown way too much to say like he does not deserve a spot on this roster I also agree with you that given like where some of the injuries are and I don't know if either Dylan or Marsha lyd are IR worthy but certainly I don't think either both of them are going to be ready to start week one you need Emanuel Wilson on this roster you need him on this team um so I have Jacobs Lloyd Dylan Wilson um just the clear difference to me in the Ravens game when he was in versus when he got taken out and we'll get to our practice squad like I I think Ellis Merryweather sticks around as well on the practice squad but it was just night and day what um what Wilson can do versus the other running backs um so yeah four running backs for me and it was really nice to see we'll talk about that group in a little bit but the blocking from the o line because that was one of the knocks you know earlier in the season was that boy once you once you take the Stars off the field the depth is shaky and I thought that they've played better as the preseason progressed so wide receiver have to talk about it obviously this one's a really really tough one I've got six I okay I this is the one where I told myself I wasn't going to Tinker because we know we have Watson dos Reed and Wix as the four I give the nod to Melton and de bose and then of course mly Keith in this last game has a touchdown plays really well is a phenomenal blocker was one of the undrafted players to make the 53 last season but I think maybe he's one of the really likely candidates to stick on the practice squad or you know we'll talk about it a little bit here too there's a lot of rumors floating around that some of these receiver needy teams there's a lot of depth here and maybe if Goot needs some leverage to go get himself a kicker or something one of these guys could be exiting the building so I'm curious who your six are who you give the nod to here what if I have seven do you okay this is this was the toughest one for me this and inside linebacker were the toughest ones for me like hands down because to me I agree top four are locks easy I also think Bo Melton for whatever like difficult early preseason quotes if you're listening to this on audio I'm putting this in quotes had throw that out the window that guy is a roster lock um and to your point we have heard Rumblings that if receiver needy teams are looking to potentially make a very late in the offseason trade he could be a very good candidate for that so there is absolutely no way that they are getting rid of him um that touchdown that he had early in the Ravens game was just like hello hi remember me yes I'm very good still yes thank you um it's to me between Heath and Duos and they just bring different things to the table right Heath is an absolutely better blocker than Duos is which is super important this in this Matt lefur offense um I think he is probably stronger on special teams as well than Duos is and he has the extra season of experience but I think Dubose has more of the upside as far as like an actual route Runner and like long-term wide receiver so it's just a matter of what they want to covet and what the Packers want to do in terms of like their Vision right long term um I can see it going like you said where they keep Heath and try to stash toose on the practice squad but also like I kind of have I kind of want to put toos on my 53 yeah he's on mine he's my six I had them yeah I but it's it's tough and I think I think maybe that's something to you know the Packers are playing chess here trying to figure out who is more likely to clear waivers if they have to try to stash one of them um and I mean we've seen receiver is such an injury-prone position that all of these guys could see playing time time during the season so however you have them on the active roster or the practice squad you want those guys in your locker room is it crazy to keep seven on the active roster like I don't think it's crazy I think you know because if you if we kept three running backs then seven makes a lot of sense so I think it just it's it's where you're willing to sacrifice the body and I think that would be one of the cases for not keeping three quarterbacks right or you know like let's talk about tight end I have three only and we've seen the Packers historically keep four or at least the last couple Seasons when they had Josiah deguara and Ben Sims to round out that room this year I just have them keeping Musgrave craft and Sims I love Tyler Davis I love his story I think he'll stick around on the practice squad but as far as contributing right now I think Ben Sims has had the best Camp he's the most familiar you know since he was your last season um has played a lot on special teams and I think can kind of take that over from Tyler Davis I love Joel Wilson I think he's like a fun upside kind of practice squad player but I think three is where you have to lock the tight ends if you want to stash another skill player somewhere else on the roster I'm with you I had the exact same and I think just with Tyler Davis also still working back from that injury you can get him back on the practice squad and if you need to or want to elevate him at a certain point like later down in the season that's like a perfectly viable option but Ben Sims has had a really nice preseason and he also like played last season right so um that was an easy three for me and I also have Joel Wilson on my practi squad all right o line I think is where we'll start to see some differences potentially just because I think there's a lot of different ways that the Packers could take this and we talked about this a little bit pre-show where guys playing a lot versus guys that were inactive the Packers at 38 players we're not sure if all 38 of those guys are locks for the active roster we found out of course like cornerback uh Robert relle um was dealing with a hip injury that we didn't know about potentially Andre Dillard is in the same situation where he's got an injury that he's he's dealing with but my nine I kept nine not 10 for my o line as Jenkins Myers Tom Ryan Walker and Morgan then I have Monk and Glover the two other draft picks and Dillard actually I thought kind of won the job for swing tackle and I think that they'll want to keep Caleb Jones I think they'll want to keep Kadeem telfor those are easy practice squad guys to me and easy elevations if you need to on game day but I went with nine and Travis Glover got the nod to me as the most recent draft pick okay so again we were in lockstep I so this is where if I want to keep seven wide receivers I put Caleb Jones or a Kadeem telfort on the practice squad and I only keep Walker Jenkins Myers Morgan Tom Ryan monk also Glover and Andre Dillard and then I put Caleb Jones Kadeem telfor Luke chuda Etc on the practice squad you don't need to keep an additional tackle that is if Dillard is healthy and doesn't need to go on IR because that to me changes the equation entirely because if he does then you are keeping a Caleb Jones or a Kadeem tord who both had really nice preseason and really nice camps and have been fighting like hell for one of those spots either way I think they stick around and it is really interesting the way that they've like restructured this like roster plus practice squad because while you may not make the 53 like the 16 man practice squad is basically like an extension I feel like of the roster so it's not the end of the world it's not like you're losing these players but I'm with you I have Glover we again reiterate know how go feels about making sure he keeps his draft picks um I want to also just shout out since this is a little bit post the Ravens game like how good Jacob monk looks at center right now um so that to me is also just like worth noting since we know knew going into this offseason it didn't necessarily feel like Josh Meers has his job locked up just like something that I'm going to be watching for across like the rest of the season but I think nine is fair especially like we said they have a lot of skill position players that they may want to keep so if they do do four running backs if they do decide to go with my thought process of seven wide receivers then you do one less offensive lineman it doesn't feel very packery to do that I think at the end of the day they probably keep 10 offensive linemen because that historically is like what they have done they usually roster 10 but we'll see this year it feels a little bit um like an anomaly yeah so let's shift then to the defensive side of the ball and we can start maybe with the defensive line um this to me felt the most solidified um I think if there was one question mark you could maybe argue that it's Colby wooden just because he didn't flash as much his rookie season but he added weight he made some Splash plays in the pre-season so to me the five was pretty standard Clark Wyatt Slayton wooden Brooks and I do like Jonathan Ford you know it sounds like he made some really nice plays but again he's a really strong practice squad candidate I just don't think especially when we're going to talk about some of these other positions on the defensive side of the ball I just don't necessarily think that they can afford to keep six linemen at this point I agree with you I had those five and I feel like of all the position groups it's probably the easiest one to just say five done all right so then let's shift I guess technically you could call these guys lineman now since we're talking about a 43 but old habits die hard so I'm going to talk about them as Edge rushers um but yeah I have five here and this is the one that I did change it it I I think a lot of people will be in the same boat I'm curious your thoughts here Smith Gary vaness and an igar were locks already I had I had brenon Cox Jr for most of camp and every show I said I it's going to be between Cox and and Aaron Mosby for that last spot think there's a world that they keep six but I didn't in mine because I wanted to keep six elsewhere so I took Mosby I changed it I think that you know brenon Cox kind of had the the inside track because he was again another undrafted player that made the active roster last season was with the Packers but he didn't really put up any stats you know and I think there's there's kind of a bias where he looked really good but you might be able to sneak him onto your practice squad at this point because he hasn't done as much recently or put enough on tape like we've seen from Mosby so whoever is not the the fifth rusher I think you want on your practice squad without question unless you know they land somewhere else on an active roster but that was tough for me I had at es Cox for the longest time and I I switched it to Mosby so that'll probably be the knock where I get it wrong but yeah I just he played so well and he made a play every preseason game that I had to give it to him I don't disagree with you at all and I think both Bretton Cox Jr and Aaron MOSI are back with this team in some capacity I just have a hard time with their needs in other places seeing them keeping more than four okay like I think Cox and Mosby look and watching Aaron Mosby in especially this most recent game having a strip sack and then an interception like how can you not make the case for someone like that to make the 53 and if it's five for me it's him for sure um but there are inside linebackers and the secondary where I cannot get rid of some other certain players and I find it much much harder there than here you know where the four are locks and I think also in this new system you're looking at it more as a group of 11 yeah not as two separate individual like position groups a little bit so if I'm like okay the defensive front is sorry not 11 uh math nine but 11 with with Cox and Mosby like that's too many I just can't justify it um so I had ended up putting both Cox and mby on my practice squad nice okay I like that we're starting to disagree a little bit because I think it gets it gets boring right when there's no uh no questions but let's shift then to inside linebacker I I kept six I'm gonna be honest I have had six since probably the first preseason game and it's Walker Cooper McDuffy Wilson Hopper and Welch and I think Welch is in the same category where he has just played so well and then you have the caveat of Cooper potentially not being ready to start the season and if he is we haven't seen him take actual game reps in the preseason because he's been injured so you're looking at you know maybe it's like Walker McDuffy and Hopper as your base in your 4-3 to start the season and you've got Wilson and Welch as like really good special teamers who come in in certain sub packages and I know there's been you know a lot of discussion about is it Wilson or Welch you know for that fifth spot I think in this new defense under Jeff affle that prioritizing six inside linebackers that are versatile and can do different things that's where I'm giving my extra Defender is actually not in the secondary or the dline it's inside those middle backers so that's why I didn't keep an extra Del linan is because I 100% agree with you I have six inside linebackers like a Christian Welch has had too good of a camp like of all the players who have been on the cus and there have been many right we've talked about them Grant deos we just talked about two Edge rushers like Christian Welch has consistently made plays across the entirety of the offseason and preseason games to the point where you and I have said in any other year he would absolutely be making this roster they just happen to be really deep at inside linebacker and now in this new scheme I think it's super important he's also going to play special teams like 100% he has carved out his role on the 53 in my opinion um potentially also like you said as inside linebacker five right now if Hopper is not going to like play necessarily just yet and if Cooper is still hurt to start the season he just continues to climb up the depth chart so I also have six I have all six on on the on the roster which I think is a hot take a little bit from us yeah I mean I this is this is where I think because I to be honest I have not kept track of how many players that you've currently rostered I I only know how many I have left because I put in parenthesis next to the positions but this is where I'll be curious where we kind of split the corners and the safeties because my Logic for keeping six inside linebackers was that you have enough crossover in the rest of your secondary that you've got guys that can do both we talked about Javon Bullard and Evan Williams as being guys who can be your big nickel who can play dime so in other Seasons where we may have seen Six Corners I'm only keeping five and there was a part of me that really only wanted to keep four and it would have been Alexander Nixon Valentine and Stokes but I think kayin King is just enough of a project then maybe that's why he comes back on the practice squad I gave him the bump to stay on the active roster he's my fifth corner but I really really thought about only keeping four corners and going six at safety instead okay I have six corners okay um and it it's just the the typical I have Robert relle on the practice squad and Alexander Stokes Nick and Valentine King Valentine on the roster just basically the roster from last season uh plus king um and I agree with you I think in terms of what he's shown his draft status like being a draft pick as well as um I think the projection of where he could go it's important that he's on the roster um we've said it over the course of this season like I think he could get actual meaningful playing time given the rotation in the quarterback room and the way Jeff hle is going to use them um to me it's important having a full second secondary depending on injury we saw it last season after I mean we saw it last season right all of a sudden you're starting a game with Valentine and Valentine on the boundary don't want we certainly obviously don't want that to happen this year but this is where I think they protect themselves and Robert relle again we don't know how serious potentially his injury is at the moment um if that's like an IR situation or if they cut keep whatever but I think he's a practice squad candidate um and they do SI the the classic six this is like one of those that it's the simple answer is the right answer I was really surprised going back and looking at the initial 53 from last season that they only kept four and it felt you know to your point like that's when things got really dicey yeah so obviously you can't predict injury but this is this is the part that I think there's there's some question it feels like it should be easy at safety it feels like there's mckenny Johnson Jr Bullard Williams and oladapo are five but I struggled with this because obviously I was a big oladapo like person in the draft and he you know has not had the Full Slate of training camp to be able to you know put as much on tape as like a Bullard and a Williams I have him on my 53 I have him getting that last safety spot especially starting out as like a special teamer and then maybe getting defensive snaps late in the season but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he's a practice squad candidate and Zayn Anderson sneaks in there I prioritized Welch over Anderson because of their their special teams and I think the depth that inside linebacker is is more needed right now given that you've got four safeties who can start and inside linebackers are are kind of banged up but yeah that almost tough for me it hurt my heart a little bit to think about him not making the 53 but I almost put Anderson in there over Olo just because he hasn't been able to play as much yeah he could be a good practice sad candidate you know no one's gonna go and grab him I have Z Anderson on my practice squad but also we know how important he is to special teams so interchangeable in my mind I agree um I have five as well mckenny Bullard Williams Anthony Johnson Jr who certainly has made the case to to make this team and oladapo but I didn't feel great as well about oladapo just given that we haven't really seen much like this choice is simply because he was a draft pick yeah and I mean I think that's where the practice squad gets really fluid too and unfortunately I think there's a world where some of these guys are signed you know like there could be a world where Robert relle is the 53 instead of kin King and then relle moves immediately to ir and then so I think we're going to see like a lot of jostling in the first couple hours of the official release but we'll see um we should probably talk about special teams yes probably have to do that yes um I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that we have Daniel ween and Matt orich as our punter and Long Snapper since they released the other Long Snapper yes um let's talk about kicker I truly didn't want to keep either of them and I wanted to go into this with 52 knowing of course that you can't fill it and not have a kicker um even initially but I I I decided to keep Carlson I did we know that Alex hail is their International player pathway uh program player so he is going to be that 17th player on the practice squad obviously has not been given the opportunity to win that job yet so he's like your emergency kicker I guess if if everything goes to hell but I thought once Carl hit the 55 y that the job was his and then he missed a 32 y right after so I know it's I think they'll I and okay I guess that's where this conversation goes do you think they stick with one of the two or do you think they're actively searching for a better option knowing how loyal they are to their draft picks I think both I think they're going to have to roster one of them but I don't think the search is done um and to our earlier Point like who knows if a trade happens who knows if an additional signing happens we just saw a cade York trade right um I gave the not to Carlson as well it was so painful watching him miss that 32 I was just like you've been perfect finally someone is pulling ahead 32 Chip Shot missed it wide it's just it's so so painful um because Greg Joseph also has had like a decent camp but that's the problem is that they both just been decent yes um I honestly between you and me nothing's between you and me we're sending this out to the world um between you and me I don't really have any like deep analysis on why I went with Carlson over Greg Joseph it's really just a gut feeling he's their draft pick um I think likely they probably just want to give him another year of development and another shot with the team that's kind of just where I'm at with it um but I think they will continue to bring in competition over the course of the season if things do not get better yeah I mean I think you make a really good point there's a world where Andress Carlson is the kicker on the active roster but maybe you've got Alex hail and then you've got I don't know Greg Joseph as one of your 16 on the practice squad or whoever is out there right because I think what they're hoping for is what we saw from Daniel Carlson with the Raiders cut from Vikings struggles mightily goes to the Raiders and sees Rich bachia has a career Rejuvenation and now is one of the better kickers in the league it takes time we talked about Crosby and how it took like five seasons for him to Eclipse that like 85% threshold or whatever we would deem as like respectable for ex or for field goals so I think that you make a really strong point that Carlson maybe is the guy on the active roster but I think throughout the entirety of the season and if they need to like I think that the challenge here is that you never want it to be well okay Alex hail is going to be our practice squad elevation this week so we can have a live kicking competition in the middle of a game like you never want those situations to occur but I think we're going to see a lot of practice um or a lot of kicking competitions in Camp leading up to games I agree with you I I think it would be really it would do the team a disservice if they just chose a kicker after this and they're like we're good there's no way that that's what they're saying in the building no especially knowing how close they are you know to to being where this team wants to be you can feel it in the building the energy the offense the defense got to be able to contribute in that special teams phase for this team to to truly have a shot at getting to you know the end goal of the Super Bowl so any final roster thoughts here before we wrap this thing up because in about 48 hours we'll be really close to finding out who the active 53 actually are you know this is our best guess don't knock us when we're wrong because we will be um I think I always go back to like this is a really tough part of the offseason it's my least favorite part of the offseason I hate watching guys get cut um everyone is like these are the Elite of the elite and everyone's worthy of a spot and it's just unfortunate that you get 69 spots and that's that's just that the Packers are in a I feel really really good about where this team is the depth is so strong and the fact that we're talking about how they could keep six Edge rushers and six inside linebackers and seven cornerbacks and seven wide receivers I mean this is where you want to be this is they're exactly where I as a fan and just like as a watcher of NFL football thinking this team is like poised to make some kind of important deep push this is where I would want this team to be at this point in the season um and now we have less than two weeks until week one yeah I mean really well said I was going to say the same thing where it there's nothing worse than making your your 53 going oh shoot I got three I need at least five like the dep that they have where you're trimming hairs when it comes to like keeping six inside linebackers keeping five inside linebackers that you feel really strongly about is a good thing being able to potentially keep six like that just shows and we've talked about it the better these players are playing on like defense like Christian mulch probably not going to play defense for the Packers if he makes the roster but when you have guys like Eric Wilson and Christian Welch that you or you know oladapo if makes the 53 that you trust to be core special teamers that just takes a load off of everybody else because then they don't have to do as much of the heavy lifting so we'll see we'll see what happens these are our you know our 53 roster predictions feel free to leave them in the comments let us know on Twitter what you're thinking you can find the show on Twitter at pwss podcast Perry at Perry Goldstein me at Maggie J Looney remember if you're listening to the audio format you can find us on Apple podcast Spotify become a supporter if you so choose we really appreciate it if you're here on YouTube remember to like And subscribe to the channel as we appreciate that so much as well we'll be back later in the week to talk about the 53 and any changes any movement that we see from this initial roster and then before you know it we'll be talking about week one in Brazil so thank you as always for listening the season is almost here go Paco go P go