Earlier this morning, we looked at our projection of the Green Bay Packers' depth chart on offense; now we turn to the other side of the ball and look at the defense and specialists. For this exercise, we tried to look at full first-team, second-team, and third-team units as much as possible. While this was a little difficult in the secondary, that was at least the approach we took. Keep in mind also that the defensive line and defensive backs are likely to be heavily affected by the extensive use of nickel and dime sub packages employed by the Packers.
Here's how we see the defense and special teams breaking down.
Defense
Position | Starters | Second Unit | Third String | Reserves |
LE (5T) | Letroy Guion | Dean Lowry | B.J. McBryde | Tyler Kuder |
NT | Kenny Clark | Mike Pennel | Brian Price | |
RE (3T) | Mike Daniels | Christian Ringo | Demetris Anderson | |
LOLB | Julius Peppers | Datone Jones | Jayrone Elliott | Reggie Gilbert |
LILB | Jake Ryan | Blake Martinez | Joe Thomas | Manoa Pikula |
MLB | Sam Barrington | Carl Bradford | Beniquez Brown | |
ROLB | Clay Matthews | Nick Perry | Kyler Fackrell | Lerentee McCray |
LCB | Damarious Randall | Quinten Rollins | Demetri Goodson | Makinton Dorleant |
RCB | Sam Shields | LaDarius Gunter | Robertson Daniel | Randall Jette |
Slot CB | Quinten Rollins | Micah Hyde | Josh Hawkins | |
SS | Morgan Burnett | Chris Banjo | Marwin Evans | |
FS | Ha Ha Clinton-Dix | Micah Hyde | Jermaine Whitehead |
Special Teams
Position | Starters | Second Team | Third String | Reserves |
K | Mason Crosby | |||
P | Tim Masthay | Peter Mortell | ||
LS | Rick Lovato | Don Barclay | T.J. Lang | |
H | Tim Masthay | Peter Mortell | ||
KR | Jeff Janis | Ty Montgomery | Micah Hyde | Trevor Davis, Jared Abbrederis |
PR | Micah Hyde | Randall Cobb | Jared Abbrederis | Ty Montgomery, Trevor Davis, Davante Adams |