A good problem has presented itself to the Green Bay Packers.
Carrington Valentine, a seventh-round cornerback, has continued to turn heads both in practice and in the team’s lone preseason clash with the Cincinnati Bengals. According to Pro Football Focus, he was targeted six times in the game, allowing just two receptions for 16 yards, breaking up two passes and making an interception.
The rookie’s rise to prominence may prompt some future shuffling in the Packers’ defensive backfield.
“I think we definitely have to look at something because he’s done a lot up to this point,” head coach Matt LaFleur said in his pre-practice presser on Wednesday, August 16. “He’s got to keep progressing. There’s still a lot of ball in front of us in terms of practices. We’ve got two more preseason games.
“We’ll just see how he progresses but up to this point, he’s worthy of getting some snaps for sure,” LaFleur said.
Valentine’s emergence complicates matters on the depth chart. Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas and Eric Stokes are the three primary starters at cornerback. However, Stokes is still navigating his way back from the foot injury that ended his 2022 campaign. He’ll be back in the lineup at some point, and when that time comes, the Packers could be tasked with shifting some pieces around.
Or, according to Douglas, it may just be one piece.
“I’m now the starting safety of the Green Bay Packers,” he said matter-of-factly at his locker after Wednesday’s practice.
Experience and Skill Set Could Make For a Seamless Transition
Of the bunch, Douglas making the move to safety would be the most sensical. He has the intelligence and the ball skills necessary to play on the back end and fortify what has become something of a void after the Packers allowed Adrian Amos to depart in unrestricted free agency this past spring.
Some of Douglas’ responsibilities would include playing closer to the line of scrimmage as the nickelback — an area he was featured in almost exclusively through the first half of last season. In eight games and leading up to Stokes’ injury against the Detroit Lions on November 6, Douglas played 189 snaps as the team’s slot corner. Losing a member of the secondary prompted defensive coordinator Joe Barry to bounce Douglas back outside to the boundary.
The Packers don’t have much to write home about at safety — at least not at the moment. They brought aboard Jonathan Owens and Tarvarious Moore this past offseason and re-signed Rudy Ford and Dallin Leavitt. Ford was featured sporadically as a starter last season and Leavitt is purely on the 53-man roster for his savvy on special teams. Throughout training camp, Darnell Savage has been locked in as one of the starters while Owens and Moore have been alternating.
They also spent a seventh-round pick on Iowa State’s Anthony Johnson Jr. However, he ran with the third-team defense last week versus the Bengals. It’s unclear what kind of role he’ll have as a rookie.
LaFleur and Co. Looking For ‘Best Five’
An embarrassment of riches at cornerback and uncertainty at safety — could this be as obvious a transition as it appears?
“Potentially,” LaFleur said, flirting with the prospect of moving Douglas. “I think just — it’s trying to find those best five, I guess. We’re going to look at everything; we’ll look at everything and try to put our best people who can make plays. If Rasul is one of those guys — I know we had Rasul at the nickel position last year quite a bit.
“He has a really high football IQ and he understands the jobs of really everybody in the back end. I think it’s kind of — we’ll see where it goes.”
If Douglas’ move to safety is on the horizon, it doesn’t appear to be imminent. He worked as one of the Packers’ boundary corners in Wednesday’s joint practice — the first of two with the visiting New England Patriots — and even dropped a pair of would-be interceptions.
“I think we left a couple of plays out there, including myself,” he said. “I don’t want that, though. I don’t really like that. I need that ball.”
#Patriots-Packers Day 1:
🏈Pats offense starts fast, fizzles, ends with bad final periods.
🏈Mac 16/25, Zappe 15/21
🏈Mac had 5 “sacks” today, Zappe 8.
🏈Packers CB Rasul Douglas dropped 2 Mac INTs.
🏈Zeke didn’t participate in team drills.
🏈Malik had 3 QB snaps, finished at WR.
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Packers Starter Hints at Possible Position Change