Weekend Open Thread

Drop all your on- or off-topic thoughts down in the comments below this weekend.

Here’s what I’m thinking about:

I found it interesting that cornerback Eric Stokes was placed on the PUP list. Maybe I should have been, but I believed Sports Illustrated’s Bill Huber’s reporting that Stokes wouldn’t miss any of training camp. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case since Stokes was placed on the PUP list on Friday and the first day of training camp practice begins on Wednesday.

If Stokes is out of the lineup, the Green Bay Packers secondary will be reshuffled a bit. When Stokes, Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas were all healthy, Douglas played the slot, but Douglas also replaced Stokes as an outside cornerback when Stokes went down with his ankle injury. That leaves Keisean Nixon as the team’s slot cornerback option, which is fine, but it’s worth noting here that Nixon only played one game of 13 or more special teams snaps during his three-week stretch as a “starter” in Weeks 12-14 last year. For perspective, Nixon played at least than many special teams snaps in 10 of the 11 2022 games before he was heavily featured on the defensive side of the ball.

The other thing that Stokes’ delayed return might impact is the camp battle at safety. Last year, Douglas got a few snaps at the safety position during summer camp and the team is thinner at the position in 2023 than they were back in 2022. In a world where the team is fully-healthy, maybe Alexander, Stokes and Nixon play corner, which would allow Douglas to move to the talent-needy safety position. At least for now, that idea is on the back burner.