Green Bay Third-Round Curse Watch: Week 2

In case you missed it, I decided to give myself the amazing and extremely fulfilling job of examining the Green Bay Packers’ cursed third-round draft picks every week. Week 1 in Chicago was a doozy, with each of the third rounders (TE Josiah Deguara, TE Tucker Kraft, OL Sean Rhyan) seeing little to no meaningful action, and the verdict was a big, fat, witchy curse. Let’s examine each of these players and their contributions to Week 2’s loss in Atlanta.

Josiah Deguara

I expected the game in Atlanta to be the Luke Musgrave show, and I was wrong. It wasn’t a tight end show at all, but it was definitely at least a tight end...advertisement. Josiah Deguara had a much more commanding presence this week, playing 38% of offensive snaps and 74% of special teams snaps (up from 32% and 50% last week, respectively). He caught 2 passes for 5 yards, including a first down. He also made a play-saving block which led to the Dontayvion Wicks touchdown in the third quarter. Overall, this was an extremely encouraging game to see from Deguara, and I will chalk this up as a win against the wretched curse.

Tucker Kraft

Tucker Kraft had almost zero presence this week, playing just two offensive snaps and seven special teams snaps. It seems like the team really doesn’t think he’s ready, and barring an injury to the TE room, I don’t see them expanding his role in the offense.

Sean Rhyan

For the second straight week, Rhyan did not play. The injury to LG Elgton Jenkins certainly complicates things, and I think we’re going to start to see Rhyan added to the rotation of linemen for the next few weeks. He played both left and right guard for a portion of preseason, as well as center. With Josh Meyers’ struggles this week, might we see the Packers try that experiment again? Rhyan is definitely a name to watch while Elgton Jenkins and possibly David Bakhtiari continue to recover from their injuries.

Week Two Verdict: Cursed, but only a little. A wee curse, if you will.

While we once again didn’t see much from the third rounders, it seems like this week opened the door for future contributions from at least two of them. Moving into Week 3, we’ll see the 1-1 Packers face off against the 2-0 Saints, in what will be Green Bay’s home opener. The Saints’ defense has accumulated 7 sacks, 3 interceptions, and a forced fumble and recovery. They have also allowed a total of 7 catches for 69 yards against TEs this season.