Now that the dust has settled a little bit, let’s get into our full review of the Green Bay Packers’ preseason opener against the New York Jets. We’ll talk about the offense, defense and special teams — important in the context of roster construction — and tell you who is living up to the hype, who fell short and which adjustments you need to make on your depth chart at home.
Offense
We broke down who got snaps with the first-team offense on Saturday already. If you want the tl;dr: The players who got on the field were basically the ones who you thought were going to.
The first-team offensive line consisted of Jordan Morgan, Aaron Banks, Elgton Jenkins, Sean Rhyan and Zach Tom (from left to right), with preferred left tackle Rasheed Walker out due to an injury. After the two drives that Jordan Love played, the second-team unit was made up of Morgan, Donovan Jennings, Rhyan, Jacob Monk and Anthony Belton (left to right). This is yet another sign that 2024 undrafted free agent Donovan Jennings is in line to be the Packers’ ninth offensive lineman this season,
following Travis Glover’s season-ending injury.
2nd round rookie Anthony Belton (RT 71) with a pancake on the 39-yard touchdown
pic.twitter.com/I6YjFw1qCi
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 11, 2025
For the most part, the roster-relevant offensive linemen looked good on Saturday. Morgan looked like he handled length and strength much better than he did on Family Night, when defensive end Lukas Van Ness was able to run through him. Belton also looked more natural at tackle, with his best play being a pancake on a 39-yard rushing touchdown.
The big exception up front was Monk, who is a backup guard-center. Monk not only gave up a sack, but he was also flagged for holding in pass protection at both guard and center. A 10-yard carry was also brought back because of Monk’s holding.
His job isn’t really at risk, because the Packers have limited players who can play center on the roster, but he certainly didn’t play well on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll see better from him later this summer.
With Josh Jacobs taking all of one snap and both Emanuel Wilson and MarShawn Lloyd injured, the primary running back for the top unit was blocking back and special teams ace Chris Brooks. Behind Brooks, Israel Abanikanda got a lot of work and looked okay, turning six carries into 19 yards on the ground. The negative on Abanikanda is that he dropped a wide-open screen.
Amar Johnson went undrafted as a RB in the 2025 draft class. He scored a 8.80
#RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 253 out of 2106 RB from 1987 to 2025.
UDFA
#Packershttps://t.co/vNQl7Hlpd2 pic.twitter.com/91PIpfdPwK
— RAS.football (@MathBomb)
April 27, 2025
The biggest bright spot for the offense was when undrafted rookie Amar Johnson of South Dakota State started to get work, though. He had a 15- and 39-yard carry on the same scoring drive. Some of his other explosive plays were taken off the board for holding, too, including a 12-yard swing screen (because of a receiver) and a 10-yard run (because of Monk).
If Johnson continues to perform well, maybe the Packers are comfortable just rostering three backs on their 53-man roster (likely Jacobs, Lloyd and Brooks) with him as their emergency player off their practice squad. Considering that Johnson was signed to Green Bay for just a
$15,000 signing bonus and no other guarantees, he’s not likely to get poached by someone else’s active roster at cutdowns.
All of Jordan Love's dropbacks against the New York Jets in preseason Week 1
pic.twitter.com/BY678L11TG
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 10, 2025
Receiver was a mess, mostly because of drops. With Christian Watson,
Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks and Savion Williams all out with injuries, the first-team offense played a lot of Matthew Golden, Romeo Doubs (who arguably had two drops, at least one) and Malik Heath (who had a wide-open drop). On the second-team unit, Heath and Mecole Hardman (who also had a bad drop) received the vast majority of the work. Second-string quarterback Willis also took a sack on an RPO where one of Heath or Hardman (same side of the field) ran the wrong route. The next man up, if you’re looking at a possible practice squad player, was Julian Hicks.
We’ll talk about the third phase contributions from the receiver unit in the special teams portion of this article.
Tight end was exactly what we expected. When healthy, the Packers want to play both Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave together. John FitzPatrick is the team’s third tight end, because of his blocking ability and special teams ability, while Ben Sims is fourth on the depth chart. Sims is very much on the roster bubble, in part because he’s really only a “starter” on Green Bay’s kickoff return unit. It’s hard to keep a deep roster spot when that’s the only contribution you bring to special teams, even on a team that plays starters in the kicking game as much as the Packers.
For what it’s worth, Green Bay’s reserve tight ends Messiah Swinson (6’7”, 259 pounds) and Johnny Lumpkin (6’5”, 264 pounds) are both in the mold of blocking tight ends. That should help the team on the kickoff unit if they only want to keep three tight ends on the 53-man roster. It’s easy to use one of the two callups you get per week on players like that, if your depth chart is ever in a pinch.
Defense
So, the Packers’ defense was pretty good on Saturday. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s the truth.
We already covered how the Jets scored on Green Bay’s first-team unit (a couple of brain farts is the short of this), but the second-team defense didn’t give up a touchdown until there were only six minutes left in the third quarter. That play? A long screen called into a blitz, just a bad break from a play-calling perspective.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “That can’t be true. New York was up big all game,” remember that the offense gave up a sack-fumble touchdown and the special teams muffed a punt early in this game. On that muffed punt inside the 10-yard line, Green Bay’s defense still held the Jets to a field goal.
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about injuries. Starters Quay Walker (LB, ankle), Nate Hobbs (CB, knee) and Xavier McKinney (S, calf) were all out in this one from prior issues. In their place stepped in linebacker Isaiah McDuffie (Isaiah Simmons played on three-linebacker sets), cornerback Carrington Valentine and safety Zayne Anderson (who played safety when Javon Bullard got kicked into the slot). Anderson, unfortunately, went down on the defense’s opening drive and was later replaced by Kitan Oladapo.
The Packers ran a bunch of odd looks against the Jets. They played a 3-4 defense out of their 4-3 personnel often when they lined up in base. The screenshot above is the first example of this, where defensive end Lukas Van Ness was reduced to inside of the left tackle, essentially playing defensive tackle, and linebacker Isaiah Simmons dropped down to the line of scrimmage on the edge like a 3-4 outside linebacker.
The results were mixed. Van Ness did a good job of playing the interior, but others — notably rookie Barryn Sorrell — got washed and made it hard for linebackers to scrape over top of them in the run game. Sometimes, Sorrell would get double-teamed, pushed off the line of scrimmage and it would essentially cut off the backside linebacker from making a play he would typically make. Sorrell had a solid night on the edge, getting close to registering a sack on a play where he slipped at the end (got to love Lambeau’s surface when it’s wet) and then hit a quarterback on a third down later that drive. At 256 pounds, though, he’s not suited to play on the inside. If they reduce a non-Van Ness end in this look in the regular season, it’ll probably be a mistake.
Overall, it’s hard not to be excited about this defensive line. On the starter level, nose tackle Kenny Clark’s get-off looks a lot better this season. Maybe his down year in 2024 was because of the toe injury that he dealt with from Week 1 on and had to get surgery on immediately after the season. From the video, both on Family Night and versus the Jets, Clark looks much quicker off the ball this year.
Colby Wooden (listed in the 270s) playing nose tackle and backdooring a reach block
pic.twitter.com/ewthyNUAM1
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 11, 2025
Good slant from Brenton Cox
pic.twitter.com/hnz2QA9Jdl
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 11, 2025
Textbook surf technique from Cox on a read option pull
pic.twitter.com/EAp49H7Hqg
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 11, 2025
Right now, the veterans are keeping the rookies at bay up front. They’re also playing better than them. Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden got in with the first-team defense and were starters on the second team over Georgia defensive tackles Will Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse. They both made more plays than the former Bulldog tackles, who mostly got to face reserve offensive linemen. For what it’s worth, Stackhouse got few looks, even with the third- and fourth-team defenses, outside of obvious rushing downs. In total, 18 of Stackhouse’s 26 snaps against the Jets came against the run.
Kingsley Enagbare and Brenton Cox Jr., who also both made plays on defense, got the nod over Sorrell. That’s really the only roster-relevant news when it comes to the depth chart.
At cornerback, Bo Melton got the nod with the second-team unit. Every time the team has the opportunity, Melton is next up behind Keisean Nixon, Hobbs and Valentine at outside cornerback. At this point, you can pretty much count him as a roster lock. The play above shows Melton choking out a receiver trying to block him in a short-yardage situation, which was sandwiched in between two plays where he made tackles. He looks the part of a cornerback. Watching his film, you wouldn’t assume that he’s a recently converted receiver. This isn’t a Kabion Ento situation.
The Packers are still slow-playing Corey Ballentine’s return to the defensive side of the ball, so it’s hard to tell where he stands in the pecking order. Ballentine and Kalen King both got looks as backup slot defenders for most of the night. It’s also worth mentioning that Kamal Hadden, who some believed had the edge over all the non-Nixon, Hobb and Valentine cornerbacks before his injury, also missed action in this one. It’s still an open competition for who the fourth, fifth and maybe sixth cornerbacks are on the depth chart, but just make sure Melton is on the team when you’re making your mock roster.
A pleasant surprise is that 2024 third-round Ty’Ron Hopper seems to be taking the next step as a defender. He was used almost exclusively as a special teamer during the last regular season, after a rough preseason on defense. In my opinion, he played better on defense than either Isaiah Simmons or Kristian Welch.
Welch, Enagbare, Wooden and Stackhouse coming together for the stuff on 4th and 1. Best play from the defense in Week 1
pic.twitter.com/T28tCInPO3
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 11, 2025
The best play of the night defensively was when the Packers stuffed running back Braelon Allen on a fourth-and-one run. It took the effort of four defenders, Welch, Enagbare, Wooden and Stackhouse, to make it happen, but they all played like their hair was on fire for this rep. Again, the second-team defense was really good in this game!
Special Teams
For the most part, the Packers didn’t deploy the players they actually would use in a regular-season game on special teams versus the Jets. Some of that has to do with the fact that Green Bay didn’t have a kickoff until deeper into the second quarter, etc., but Keisean Nixon never got a kick return (which opened the game for the Packers) and some notable second-stringers (like Bo Melton) were held out from participating at positions they usually start.
LB Kristian Welch and TE Ben Sims giving a guy a dirt nap on kickoff return
pic.twitter.com/oCVoY87A8D
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 10, 2025
Jets double vise, basically take out the gunners. Makes the non-gunners cover the punt.
LB Kristian Welch covers like 55 yards for the tackle
pic.twitter.com/P8j52YKt7A
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq)
August 10, 2025
As far as I see it, though, the big winner on special teams was linebacker Kristian Welch, who was cut at the roster deadline by the Packers last year and ended up playing regular-season games for both the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens. The Jets played a lot of double-vise on Green Bay’s gunners, which forced the tackles and guards on the punt team to run down and make hits. By my count, Welch made three tackles on the punt team and also recorded a pancake on the opening kickoff. Pro Football Focus also graded him, by far,
as the top player in the kicking game for the Packers against the Jets. Unfortunately for Welch, though, his defensive play, where he looked a little tight for an NFL athlete, didn’t match his special teams performance.
Other players who made some nice special teams tackles, either in the open field or after defeating a block, were undrafted rookie linebacker Jamon Johnson, who is likely a practice squad candidate, and safety Kitan Oladapo, who sort of floated as a top backup on special teams last year. Maybe Oladapo wins a starting special teams job in 2025. Johnson’s defensive play was up and down.
The protection and coverage units generally looked good, which has been the case for most of Rich Bisaccia’s time as the squad’s special teams coordinator. Bisaccia and his coaches usually do a solid job of teaching players to do unconventional techniques for their positions, like teaching defensive linemen and linebackers to pass set on the punt team or run block on the kickoff unit.
Mecole Hardman muffs the punt…couldn't happen to a better guy.
pic.twitter.com/au2IK21hKT
— Glenn Naughton (@JNRadio_Glenn)
August 10, 2025
One position I really want to highlight here is wide receiver, where Mecole Hardman, who is battling with Malik Heath for the sixth receiver job, had two punt returns for zero yards and didn’t get a kickoff return rep. Hardman fielded one ball way backed up and then muffed another one that he tried to field off a bounce. Neither player did well on offense, either, but it is worth noting that Heath has been receiving reps over Hardman with the first-team offense and was a starter on the kickoff return unit last year.
If Hardman can’t outright win the punt return job, it’s hard to imagine that the Packers will be keeping him on their Week 1 roster, as that comes with his one-year deal fully guaranteeing as a vested veteran. Remember, Christian Watson will be coming back from his ACL recovery eventually, so that wide receiver six turns into a wide receiver seven when he returns. When Watson comes back, they might just choose to cut whoever makes this team in Week 1. If that’s Hardman, he’ll be due his full season-long salary. That’s not the case with Heath, who contributes on special teams as a non-returner.
As far as I can tell, defensive end Brenton Cox Jr. only got two snaps on core-four special teams (one on kick return and one on kickoff), despite most players of his roster status getting looks in the kicking game. Bisaccia likes to play defensive ends on special teams a lot, but Cox has been a major exception. It’s quite possible they don’t trust him out there. Even with backup units in, Cox didn’t get first-look opportunities with the kickoff or kick return teams. For perspective, defensive end Arron Mosby, who made the 53-man roster last year, started at three of the core-four special teams units versus the Jets and played a total of 13 snaps with those teams. Last year, Mosby started on all four of the Packers’ main special teams units.
Can Cox make this team if he’s a defense-only backup, especially after the team just drafted two mid-round picks (Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver) at his position? That’s a real conversation to be had. Sorrell got first-look opportunities on all of the Packers’ core-four units on Saturday, while Oliver still hasn’t practiced with the team in training camp due to a hamstring injury. Unlike Cox (39th), Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare and Mosby were among the seven most-played special teamers on the roster in 2024.
Here’s what I’ll leave you off on: Wide receiver Cornelius Johnson almost blocked a punt! Johnson played on the punt rush for this rep,
which is usually reserved for defensive ends and linebackers. He almost got home here, on the punt that was eventually muffed by Hardman. Offensively, he got some looks with the second team but was mostly a third-teamer. Who knows how the Packers figured out that he could rush off the edge, but he made the most of his one opportunity doing so. Aside from him, Green Bay played defensive end Barryn Sorrell, defensive end Deslin Alexandre, linebacker Kristian Welch, linebacker Jamon Johnson and linebacker Aaron Mosby for 14 of the team’s combined 15 punt rush snaps. Sorrell was subbed out for Johnson’s chance on the edge.
