There are probably five players who are locks to make the roster. Do they go with 5, or 6 or maybe even 7? Maybe one gets traded for depth?

[list=1]

🔒Davante Adams

🔒Marquez Valdes-Scantling

🔒Allen Lazard

🔒Amari Rodgers

🔒Randall Cobb

🤷‍♂️Devin Funchess[/list]

[list]

Reggie Begelton

Chris Blair

Equanimeous St. Brown

Malik Taylor

DeAndre Thompkins

[*]Juwann Winfree[/list]

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I could see them going with the 6 you have listed.

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If they go with Funchess at 6, does that make him the ST guy and will he actually apply himself at it? No way Adams, MVS or Lazard are on the kick and punt teams. Rodgers might be the KR/PR guy. I doubt they'd use Cobb for anything but offense in order to increase his effectiveness.

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I think they go with at least 6... the 7th would have to battle all the other positions for a spot and hopefully have some ST value and the TEs have pretty good depth too, especially if the young TEs have improved. Plus normally they keep 8 or 9 OL, but when they have drafted 3 OL and kept them all, they have gone with 10 OL.

Last year Gute seemed to put a stronger emphasis on STs for the last couple of roster spots, it'll be interesting if he does again, in terms of do we keep a 5th ILB just for STs? How safe are CBs Jackson and Hollman after they were healthy scratches for not playing on STs well? Also why didn't they play on ST well? On defense Jackson is best at being physical with the ball in front of him, which should translate extremely well to STs.

There are going to be some extremely interesting position arguments and do they allow Rodgers to have his say? I think they should at least listen to his input.

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Devin Funchess said he'd play special teams.
I anticipate Randall Cobb and Amari Rodgers playing special teams.
Allen Lazard is good blocker so maybe he does too?

Only WR I don't think we'll see on special teams is Davante Adams.

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It’s hard to decide which ones to keep......but isn’t that a great problem to have? Having too many to choose from?

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It's horrible. The Packers should have used a first round pick in 2019 and 2020 on a WR to get Aaron Rodgers some help.

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The 6 listed will make the team. Taylor and Winfree are the kind of players we see every year. Fans get all excited about them and then they are released. Most don't amount to very much if they make another team. That said anyone can play on ST but most don't excel. Taylor and Winfree has the best shot at being a solid contributor on ST.

They have 5 TE that they like. (Granted Jace is suspended for the first two games so that's 4. When he comes back they will have to move someone from the offense to the PS.) OL has so many interchangable players that they can keep 8 instead of 9. The down side is injuries. They have run short of quality OL players in the past. RB 4. QB 2. When Bak comes back someone else will be released/signed to the PS so that won't change the numbers. Jace might bump Dafney. Is he still on PUP? If so they clears up the numbers issue.

My guess for WR7 is Taylor, no Winfree. No Taylor. NO Winfree. Taylor. Final answer. I think.

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Saying and doing are two different things... I'd play ST if they let me too (especially with that game check), doesn't mean they'll let me.

And yes Cobb and Rodgers have return duties, but I'm talking about outside of that. Usually WRs are used a lot less on STs outside of return duty.

2020 Packers WR # of ST snaps, out of a total of 430 ST snaps...
181 Taylor
45 Sheppard
41 St. Brown
21 Winfree
14 Austin
11 Lazard
7 Adams (I assume hands team?)
2 Begelton
0 MVS (he runs the deep routes, give him a rest, and he's not known for the best hands)

So the WRs combined for 322 STs out of a total of 430, so less than one WR per ST snap.

Now that will go up some with the returner being a WR. But RB Hill might be doing kickoffs. So my guess would be that could be around 60 more snaps. Which WRs still might average less than one WR on the field per ST snap.


In fact looking at the snap counts, STs snap count is dominated by the defense last year, mainly LBs, then Safety, then CBs.

I'm surprised the TEs didn't get in on more of the action, though they did have a number of injuries there... Dugara, Sternberger and Daffney joining the team late... and you don't want Tonyan or Lewis on them (other than Lewis as OL blocker).

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They need another speed guy in case MVS goes down. EQ or Malik Taylor.

Does Cobb really have to stay?

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