Packers Enter Bye Week Down a Pair of Defensive Starters

Their Week 6 bye appears to have come at an opportune time for the Green Bay Packers, who lost a pair of defensive starters in their 17-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football.

The Packers, who were already bruised and battered on the defensive side of the ball, run the risk of being without starting safety Darnell Savage and starting middle linebacker Quay Walker. Both players exited the game in the second quarter — Walker finished the night playing just 17 defensive snaps while Savage was able to return later in the game. It didn’t last long, however, as he’d eventually be ruled out by the team.

Walker sustained a knee injury while Savage hurt his calf attempting to undercut a Jimmy Garoppolo completion to wideout Jakobi Meyers, whose 75-yard performance outshined that of his running mate, Davante Adams.

Head coach Matt LaFleur indicated on October 10 that both players had avoided long-term injuries.

“We’ll kind of let that play out,” he said. “We’re hopeful we could potentially get them back for Denver, but obviously, that’s two weeks away.”

Jonathan Owens, Isaiah McDuffie Fill In for Packers’ Injured Starters

The Packers won’t be back on the field until October 22, when they clash with the 1-4 Denver Broncos. If Savage is still sidelined, the Packers will presumably start Jonathan Owens opposite Rudy Ford. Owens played a season-high 31 defensive snaps on Monday night — that’s more than he had through the Packers’ first four games combined.

Walker, meanwhile, would be replaced by Isaiah McDuffie, who is typically the team’s third-string middle linebacker. De’Vondre Campbell has missed the Packers’ last two games with an ankle injury, leaving McDuffie, Eric Wilson and Kristian Welch as the only healthy middle linebackers on the roster at the moment.

Both position groups have been inflicted by misfortune. At safety, Ford was questionable to play against the Raiders with an oblique injury — it didn’t appear to impact him too much after he secured his second interception in as many games.

These aren’t foreign waters for the Packers’ secondary this season. Jaire Alexander missed the September 28 loss to the Detroit Lions with a back injury and, like Ford, was questionable to play against the Raiders. They’re still without Eric Stokes, who opened the regular season on the physically-unable-to-perform list due to a Lisfranc injury and torn meniscus in his knee that prematurely ended his 2022 campaign. He practiced for the first time on October 3, opening the 21-day window for the Packers to activate him to the 53-man roster.

Matt LaFleur: ‘I Want to See a Sense of Urgency’

Even with the midgame shuffling on defense, the Packers held up well against last year’s rushing champion, Josh Jacobs. The Raiders’ tailback rushed 20 times for 69 yards and a touchdown, including the nine attempts for 24 yards in the first half that averaged just 2.7 yards per carry. It was an unforeseen development given the Packers’ porous run defense through the first month of the season. Even after limiting Jacobs, they’re still near the bottom of the league in rushing yards allowed.

Entering the bye week, the 2-3 Packers haven’t exactly provided much incentive to believe that they’ll emerge from the break with a new lease on their season. Under first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love, the 12 games remaining on the team’s slate will likely be a rollercoaster — a sporadic journey with high highs and low lows. That doesn’t mean they’ll roll over and forfeit, though — LaFleur and Company are going to once again conduct some self-scouting with the extended gap between games.

“I just want to see a sense of urgency, a competitive spirit and just really dial in and truly taking it one day at a time and focus on what lies ahead,” he said of what he wants to see from his team coming out of the bye. “That’s improvement. I think that always starts with us as coaches, making sure we have that same sense of urgency as well.”