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Gallery: Vikings upset Packers at Lambeau
The top photos from Sunday’s Vikings’ win over the Packers at Lambeau Field.
Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The top photos from Sunday’s Vikings’ win over the Packers at Lambeau Field.
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Packers CB Josh Jackson will start again for Kevin King on Sunday against the Vikings.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Josh Jackson will make his third-straight start on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
The team ruled out starter Kevin King due to a lingering quad injury, giving Jackson – a second-round pick in 2018 – another chance to prove he’s a starting-caliber NFL player against a terrific wide receiver duo.
The Packers believing he’s growing in confidence as a young player in a new role.
“I think Josh, or Jacko, as we like to call him, is getting more comfortable. Which, naturally, brings more confidence. And when you have more confidence, you’re going to go out there and play better,” coach Matt LaFleur said Friday. “Obviously, you’re only as good as your last game in this league, and he’s going to have to put together another great performance, and that’s what we expect out of him.”
Over his last two starts, Jackson has allowed seven catches for 43 yards and a touchdown against his coverage, per Pro Football Focus. He’s also made five stops, or tackles constituting a failure for the offense.
Sunday’s matchup will give Jackson an opportunity to face either Adam Thielen or Justin Jefferson, two of the most productive and efficient receivers in the NFL to start the 2020 season.
If Jaire Alexander takes on Thielen, as he did for much of Week 1, Jackson would get a matchup with Jefferson, who is the top rookie pass-catcher and PFF’s top-rated receiver overall this season. He has 28 catches for 537 yards and three touchdowns, with three 100-yard receiving games and an average of 19.2 per catch.
The Packers held Jefferson to just two catches in the season opener. With King healthy, Jackson played just two snaps in the 43-34 win.
Now in his third season, Jackson needs all the opportunities he can get to prove he has a future in Mike Pettine’s defense.
In 2019, Jackson played just 103 defensive snaps total as King, Alexander, Tramon Williams and Chandon Sullivan dominated the playing time at cornerback. He’s been on the field for 132 snaps in the last two games alone.
It’s unclear how long King will be out. He looked ready to return last week but suffered a setback, an unfortunate thing for King – who is a contract year. But it’s a potentially good thing for Jackson, who is getting his chance to audition for a bigger role and prove he can be a starter if King departs after 2020.
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The Packers will start Chandon Sullivan as the team’s nickel cornerback in 2020.
Chandon Sullivan has likely won a starting job for the Green Bay Packers defense to start the 2020 season.
Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine all but confirmed that Sullivan, who is entering his second season with the Packers, will start as the team’s nickel cornerback, joining perimeter cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Kevin King and safeties Darnell Savage and Adrian Amos in the Packers secondary.
Pettine listed Sullivan – or Sully, for short – as a starter at nickel while commenting on his confidence in the group overall.
“For us, I feel really good about the backend, know this is a group – with Sully at the nickel and Jaire and Kevin outside and Darnell and Adrian – that’s a real solid unit,” Pettine said during a Zoom call Thursday. “Guys that are smart, they understand the game, they understand what we’re trying to do, they communicate well. We’re going to lean on them heavily over the course of this year.”
Sullivan will take over in the slot for Tramon Williams, who wasn’t re-signed after starting all 16 games last season. Signed off the street last May, Sullivan developed into a valuable fourth cornerback for Pettine last season, helping prove to the Packers that he was ready for a bigger role in 2020.
Sullivan was highly effective in coverage in 2019, and the Packers believe he’s physical enough against the run to play inside as the primary nickel, a starting job for just about any modern NFL defense.
When the Packers didn’t bring back Williams, a trusted veteran, Sullivan became the leading candidate to start in the slot. He has done nothing in camp to suggest he isn’t ready to make the big jump from rotational player to starter.
“We’re pleased with where we are,” Pettine said when asked about the secondary. “I do feel good about that group. Not just how they perform individually, but how they perform together.”
The Packers are also expecting Josh Jackson to play a lot on the backend this season. A second-round pick in 2018, Jackson’s “main focus” has been playing on the outside during camp, making him the obvious backup should anything happen to Alexander or King on the perimeter.
Pettine said Jackson has shown up at times during camp with his length but still needs more consistent technique.
“We like the way he’s trending. Just knowing what type of year this is going to be, he’s going to play some significant minutes for us,” Pettine said.
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The Packers are giving CB Josh Jackson a chance to play primarily on the outside to start training camp in 2020.
A year after attempting to cross-train him at several different positions in the secondary, the Green Bay Packers are now giving cornerback Josh Jackson a chance to master one position to start training camp in 2020.
According to defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, the Packers are playing Jackson exclusively on the perimeter during camp.
“I think, maybe before, we asked a lot of him,” Pettine said Friday. “We were training him at multiple positions because we wanted to make sure we had some depth. So we played him some at nickel. Whereas here, he’s been exclusively outside. That’s not to say, down the road, we couldn’t cross-train him.”
The outside has always looked like the best spot for Jackson, who arrived from Iowa in 2018 with terrific length, physicality and ball skills, plus explosive leaping ability. Although his skill set could eventually transfer to safety, Jackson was likely miscast in the slot.
So far, so good. Jackson has impressed both Pettine and defensive backs coach Jerry Gray with his early performances on the outside during camp.
“He’s done a good job. He came in here with the right mentality,” Pettine said. “We have high expectations for Josh, and he’s going to be a big part of what we do this year.”
Last season, Jackson played only 103 snaps on defense, down over 600 from his rookie season (718). A second-round pick in 2018, Jackson needed to return to Green Bay and begin rebounding during camp, which is what he’s done early on.
Gray said Jackson has added some “finesse” to his coverage ability.
“He’s had some good days here in camp and I think he’s done a good job of understanding what we’re trying to get done,” Gray said. “I thought he did a really good job the last couple of days.”
Jackson could give the Packers a valuable backup on the perimeter behind Jaire Alexander and Kevin King, or even a potential starter if the Packers decide to use Alexander more in the slot.
“He’s come in so far and he’s had a good camp,” Pettine said. “When he does things right, technique-wise, he has good length, he gets hands on guys, he’s hard to get open against. The DB staff have done a real good job with him.”
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With the NBA G League season likely to be canceled soon, Rookie Wire took a look at the best players to suit up this year.
As the NBA braces for a lengthy hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the growing belief around the league is that the G League season will soon be canceled.
The G League regular season was set to conclude on March 28 and the decision to end play is likely an easy one to make given the financial burden it places on organizations. While the season will soon be canceled, all G League players will be paid through the end of the year.
The NBA itself is preparing for the possibility of returning to play in mid-to-late June as the best-case scenario after the CDC recommended on Sunday that all events with 50 or more people be canceled for two months to help slow the spread of the virus.
With the G League likely set to be canceled, Rookie Wire decided to take a look at the best players to suit up this season as there have been some spectacular performances from around the league.
Players must have appeared in at least 20 games to be considered. Stats were used from the NBA G League, Basketball-Reference and RealGM.
30. Donta Hall, Grand Rapids Drive
Hall, who finished second in double-doubles among all players with 22, emerged as a strong post player with the Drive this season. He was named to the 2019-20 Midseason All-NBA G League Team and was solid all season long in his first year as a professional.
29. Christ Koumadje, Delaware Blue Coats
The 7-foot-4 center led the G League in blocks with four per game and was seventh in rebounding. He recorded two triple-doubles this season with points, rebounds and blocks and tied the mark for most rebounds in a game by an individual player at 24.
no easy buckets against Christ Koumadje pic.twitter.com/ciCAnYKZjx
— NBA G League (@nbagleague) January 29, 2020
28. Kyle Alexander, Sioux Falls Skyforce
Alexander quickly became one of the best big men in the league this season and his play resulted in a two-way contract from the Miami Heat. He finished fifth in blocks and 14th in rebounding with the Skyforce to cap a productive first year.
27. Eric Mika, Stockton Kings
The former BYU product placed 29th in scoring among all players and second in rebounding. Mika recorded 16 double-doubles and tied the G League season-high of 24 rebounds by an individual player. He eventually earned a 10-day contract from the Kings in February but was not signed to a second one.
26. Paul Watson, Raptors 905
Watson was named to the 2019-20 Midseason All-NBA G League Team and continued his strong play for the rest of the season. Watson scored in double figures in each of his 30 games played in the G League and eventually earned a two-way contract from the Toronto Raptors.
The first draft class from GM Brian Gutekunst is facing an important crossroads this offseason.
The first draft class crafted by Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst will always be buoyed by cornerback Jaire Alexander, his first draft pick, and the process that got him there. Gutekunst shrewdly navigated the draft board, securing a first-round pick in 2019 (which turned into Darnell Savage) while still finding a way to land Alexander, a terrific young cornerback and a core member of the Packers’ roster.
But the rest of Gutekunst’s 2018 draft class is entering the 2020 offseason with a fork in the road rapidly approaching. While Alexander has been everything the Packers thought he’d be and more, the rest of the class is either gone, trending in the wrong direction or in danger of being gone by the end of the summer.
The most obvious swing and miss was receiver J’Mon Moore, the fourth-round pick who barely got through his second training camp before getting cut. He was in over his head from the start, never gained confidence as a professional player and quickly fizzled out of the Packers’ plans. He was out of football for most of 2019.
Moore will soon have company in the bust pile if second-round pick Josh Jackson and third-round pick Oren Burks don’t reverse the current course of their flatlining NFL careers.
Jackson, the 45th overall pick, started 10 games as a rookie after injuries destroyed the secondary. In 2019, he arrived at training camp injured, got passed up on the depth chart over the course of the summer and then managed to get on the field for only 103 defensive snaps in 18 games. The Packers see his best position as in the slot, but defensive coordinator Mike Pettine trusted Chandon Sullivan – an undrafted free agent signed in May – as the No. 4 cornerback and the No. 2 option in the slot behind Tramon Williams.
Jackson was a healthy scratch twice. He also played more than 25 percent of the defense’s snaps just twice.
When on the field, Jackson was hugely disappointing. He gave up six completions on seven targets into his coverage for 63 yards, one touchdown and a passer rating of 143.7, and he missed one tackle over just seven tackle attempts.
Jackson’s ball skills and playmaking instincts from college haven’t covered up his athletic limitations in the NFL. His deep and long speed are overwhelmed on the perimeter, and he’s not quick enough in short areas to handle the two-way coverage responsibilities in the slot.
The Packers ended up deep at cornerback but an alarming lack of trust emerged in Jackson’s coverage ability from the coaches. Second-round picks don’t often get beat out by undrafted free agents signed off the street, but Sullivan was the better player and the Packers clearly trusted him more in all situations. Of the 14 games Jackson was active, nine finished with him playing five or fewer defensive snaps. He was inactive for the home playoff game against the Seahawks and didn’t play a single snap on defense in San Francisco.
Of all the players who played in the Packers secondary in 2019, Jackson finished with the third-lowest overall grade and third-lowest coverage grade at Pro Football Focus.
It’s possible the Packers will have to entertain moving Jackson to safety full time in an effort to negate his speed concerns and potentially elevate his positive attributes, but he might not have the physicality or consistent tackling ability needed for the job. Positionally, he sure looks stuck in no man’s land.
Forty-three picks later in the 2018 draft, the Packers traded up to get Burks, the athletic linebacker from Vanderbilt. He played sparingly as a rookie and was arguably more disappointing than Jackson in 2019, although a preseason pectoral injury didn’t help his cause.
Credit Burks for fighting through it and providing real value on special teams. He’s had some terrible injury luck to start his career, beginning with a shoulder injury suffered during his first preseason and continuing with the partially torn pec he suffered in the first preseason game of last summer.
Like Jackson, the Packers just haven’t trusted Burks enough to put him on the field. Unlike Jackson, it has nothing to do with positional depth. The Packers were desperate for help at inside linebacker last season and Burks still managed only 57 snaps, a wholly insignificant number for a player that should have been capable of providing much of what the Packers needed – such as range and coverage ability – at the position.
Burks has ideal size and can run like the wind, and he has an extensive coverage background as a former collegiate safety. But after a three-game stretch in which Burks played 30 snaps from scrimmage (Weeks 5-7), he played just 27 snaps on defense the rest of the regular season and was on the field for just 12 snaps during the postseason. There was no one above him on the depth chart keeping him off the field. The Packers just feel comfortable with him being out there.
Defensive coaches talked a lot during the offseason about fixing Burks’ eyes. They wanted him seeing things faster and more clearly. Athleticism in the NFL can be negated in a hurry if vision is blurred and processing power is low.
His sample size was small but Burks’ 2019 snaps reveal an unsure player trying – and failing – to figure it out on the fly. For such a tremendous athlete, he was awkward in space. Burks looked like a player handcuffed by all the tabs open in his mental browser. Thinking too much leads to mistakes, and Burks made plenty of them in just 57 snaps.
Blake Martinez played just about every snap in 2019, but it was telling that Burks, a third-round pick, couldn’t get on the field over B.J. Goodson, a veteran thumper thrown to the scrap heap by the middling New York Giants. It was just as telling that Pettine picked playing small safeties at inside linebacker over Burks in all his passing down subpackages. It was a sacrifice he had to make because Burks wasn’t ready to play.
He might already be in last chance territory. Martinez and Goodson are both free agents and unlikely to return. There is a full scale rebuild upcoming at linebacker. Burks will either take advantage of the opportunity or risk losing his job, especially if Gutekunst brings in young, capable reinforcements during free agency or the draft.
Jackson and Burks, two top-100 picks, desperately need to put together a strong spring and summer and carve out roles for the 2020 season. If they don’t, exits are soon to follow, and the bust labels will be rightfully applied.
The rest of the 2018 draft class is nothing if not underwhelming.
Moore is gone. Fifth-round pick Cole Madison has missed the better part of his first two seasons, the first due to personal reasons and the second due to a torn ACL that will rob him of much of an important offseason. Fifth-round pick JK Scott has endured wild swings of inconsistency, probably making the Packers uneasy about his future. Fifth-round pick Marquez Valdes-Scantling fell off the face of the earth over the final three months of the 2019 season and can no longer be trusted in a significant role. Sixth-round pick Equanimeous St. Brown missed the entire 2019 season with an ankle injury and has an uncertain future. Seventh-round pick James Looney played in just three games and is now switching to tight end. Seventh-round pick Hunter Bradley improved as a second-year long snapper. Seventh-round pick Kendall Donnerson is no longer with the Packers.
Two years can change a lot. Gutekunst’s first draft class was universally praised, both on a local and national level. It was impossible not to see the potential of the class, especially within the first three picks on defense and the three receiver prospects, and the addition of a first-round pick in 2019 only sweetened the entire deal.
Alexander is good if not great, but the complete lack of substance or impact from both Jackson and Burks and the burgeoning disappointment in most of the Day 3 picks has Gutekunst’s first draft class pointing in the wrong direction – and suddenly staring at a fork in the road – to start the 2020 offseason.
The Green Bay Packers have been dealing with a flu outbreak that could affect the team ahead of their game against the Seattle Seahawks.
#Packers CB Josh Jackson (illness) has been added to the injury report & is QUESTIONABLE for #SEAvsGB 📝 https://t.co/hewmARUa6S
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 11, 2020
The Green Bay Packers are apparently dealing with a flu outbreak in their locker room that could impact their play against the Seattle Seahawks in their divisional-round playoff matchup Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field.
Packers cornerback Josh Jackson was added to the list of questionable Green Bay players after Saturday’s practice. Six Packers were noted on Friday’s final injury report with an illness.
Late in the regular season, Seattle was also hit with the flu bug, which quickly spread throughout the locker room.
The Seahawks have also suffered their share of absences in the form of injuries, but this recent development in Green Bay may make the challenge of facing the Packers at Lambeau Field a little easier for Seattle, especially if players like Jackson are ultimately ruled out on gameday.
The inactives list for Sunday’s divisional-round matchup will be released 90 minutes prior to kickoff, which is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. PT.
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Jackson is now listed as questionable for Sunday’s NFC Divisional Round playoff game against the Seahawks.
#Packers CB Josh Jackson (illness) has been added to the injury report & is QUESTIONABLE for #SEAvsGB 📝 https://t.co/hewmARUa6S
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) January 11, 2020
The Green Bay Packers added cornerback Josh Jackson to the injury report on Saturday. He’s now listed as questionable to play Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Round.
Jackson, like several others last week and this week, is now fighting an illness. He joins defensive lineman Tyler Lancaster, fullback Danny Vitale and running back Dexter Williams among those listed as questionable with an illness.
The Packers also listed defensive lineman Kenny Clark as questionable with a back injury.
Jackson, a second-round pick in 2018, played in 14 games but produced just six tackles over 103 defensive snaps. Now, the fifth cornerback on the depth chart, Jackson’s biggest contribution has been on special teams. He has played over 50 percent of the special teams snaps during 10 different games.
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