The Green Bay Packers may have defeated the Los Angeles Rams 24-10 on Thursday night, but there were plenty of struggles up and down the roster. Once again, the offensive line struggled as a unit, with tackles Jason Spriggs and Kyle Murphy failing to impress. Their struggles — particularly Spriggs’ — have been well-documented lately, so we’re looking at other linemen for this week’s Stock Down Report.
Here are a few players who did not help their chances of making the Packers’ roster, with some who flat-out played poorly and others who stayed stagnant while players around them impressed.
Geoff Gray and Thomas Evans
Geoff Gray had the play from hell on the final play of the third quarter. Playing left guard, Gray whiffed on a block on a run play that went for two yards, then took out his frustration by jumping on top of the pile and drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty. To make matters worse, he did not see the field until he joined the third-team offense on the field late in the third.
Thomas Evans had almost the same situation happen to him a few plays later from the right guard position, as he missed a block and jumped on the pile himself (though that time he was not called for it). He later had another whiffed block on a run that got Kalif Phillips stuffed for a loss of three.
Lenzy Pipkins
Pipkins’ performance on Thursday night was not terrible in a vacuum, but in the context of the roster bubble he failed to impress. While LaDarius Gunter had a couple of big plays early in the game — even though they were directly due to Rams’ mistakes — Pipkins struggled in the second quarter, looking a bit slow in the feet and hips and getting beaten badly on multiple plays. He also saw fellow rookie Donatello Brown make several plays, including a pass breakup in the red zone and a great interception. Pipkins now appears to be trailing behind those two players and Josh Hawkins in the race for a roster spot.
Joe Callahan
There wasn’t much to be done behind the Packer offensive line today, and Joe made sure he didn’t do it. Taysom Hill’s gain is Callahan’s loss as Hill managed to put his mobility to good use against the worst Rams, while Callahan merely checked down in his limited opportunities.
The 4th preseason game determines very little, but with Hill impressing people Callahan needed to put together some kind of performance to keep the race close. He didn’t, and now his best hope is that Hill has played well enough to not clear waivers, forcing the Packers to put him on the practice squad as the third quarterback.