No one ever wants injuries, but the injury to cornerback Eric Stokes – assuming it’s significant and most likely season-ending – will provide a unique opportunity for the Green Bay Packers over the final eight games of what is looking more and more like a lost season.
It’s time to find out if safety Darnell Savage can play down in the slot.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry thinks he can, but the Packers have been hesitant about the move due to depth at safety and the configuration of the team’s three starting-caliber cornerbacks. But with Stokes out, and Rasul Douglas likely headed to the perimeter opposite Jaire Alexander full-time, Barry and the Packers have a chance to move Savage down from safety and give him a long look in the slot, which could be his best position moving forward.
More than likely, Keisean Nixon will come onto the field as the new No. 3 corner. But maximizing Savage is probably more important to this defense than getting Nixon – who committed a huge penalty on a scoring drive last week in Detroit – on the field more. One is a first-round pick with first-round talent. The other is an undrafted free agent who is best suited to play on special teams.
Savage is certainly struggling at safety, and he has been for the better part of two years. He’s not a sound tackler and he doesn’t play fast despite his all-world athleticism. Considering the Packers picked up his fifth-year option for 2023, the team is essentially stuck with him for the next 25 or so games.
He’s certainly fast enough and fluid enough to play snaps in the slot. He excelled there at Maryland, where he was more of a hybrid safety/slot defender. And even early on in his career, within the Mike Pettine defense, he played snaps in the slot successfully. In 2020, he gave up only six catches on 125 slot snaps and had two of his interceptions from the slot.
This season, Savage has only played 42 coverage snaps from the slot. Adrian Amos actually has more.
The guess is here is that the Packers don’t trust Savage to be physical enough and tackle consistently enough against the run to play down in the box and in the slot, which is a compelling argument against the move.
Maybe the Packers are in the process of making the transition happen. On Wednesday, the team claimed former Raiders safety Johnathan Abram, who could give the defense more depth at safety and give Savage a chance to play more corner.
Savage doesn’t look like a long-term answer at the safety, which is probably going to undergo a complete rebuild this coming offseason. Why not use the final eight games to see if the former first-rounder can play in the slot, an increasingly important position? Injuries create opportunities, and now the Packers have one in the slot over the final eight games of this disappointing season.
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