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When the Green Bay Packers’ first depth chart came out last August, Kevin King was no better than CB5, sitting on the third-string line for the Packers. By the second half of Week 2, he was starting.
To be sure, injuries contributed to King’s rise, but so did the struggles of Damarious Randall. Injuries happen in the NFL. They should be expected. The only constant with any roster is that it’s never constant whether that is because someone gets injured, or plays poorly, another player breaks out.
LaDarius Gunter had been ahead of King on the depth chart and all of a sudden he wasn’t even on the roster. And that’s just at one position.
So when the first depth chart comes out, as it did on Monday, it’s not worth making much of it. Jaire Alexander’s presence on the second team ahead of some veteran players should be noted, since Mike McCarthy generally favors veteran players early in camp. Jake Kumerow’s star turn in camp reflects his spot on the depth chart, but his chances of beating out three draft picks aren’t significantly better today than they were two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, McCarthy wasn’t even ready to decide on a No. 2 quarterback until after practice. That’s how close these battles are and how much still has to be decided. Both McCarthy and Brian Gutekunst emphasized the need to wait and see. Green Bay hasn’t even played a preseason game.
Gutekunst also spoke about the difficulty in evaluating young players in particular because so much of the process at this point involves simply getting them ready to show their ability. They have to get up to speed and that usually requires time. Expecting these rookies to be up to speed by now would be a fool’s errand. There’s far too much left to be decided, too many position battles to be waged, to care much about the depth chart in early August.
Here’s how you make best use of these things: look at the first line under “Quarterback.” If it says “Aaron Rodgers,” stop reading and go get a beer. It’s August. R-E-L-A-X.