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As the Green Bay Packers training camp rolls on, the team’s roster is still in flux. With the first Packers preseason game looming against the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday, August 11, head coach Matt LaFleur and his staff have some tough decisions to make. Several players on the bubble could get cut if they don’t perform well in the next few weeks. Here are four Packers players on the roster bubble who must shine in the preseason, including running back Tyler Goodson.
RB Tyler Goodson
The running back battle in Packers training camp is probably the most hotly-contested positional battle. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon are locks, of course, but Patrick Taylor, Lew Nichols, and Tyler Goodson are all fighting for one (or possibly two) Packers’ roster spots.
Nichols, a seventh-round pick out of Central Michigan, is a perfect practice squad candidate, and that’s likely where he will end up. That leaves Taylor and Goodson fighting for the RB3 role, and that battle is a doozy.
The competition comes down to this: While Goodson is probably the better all-around running back, Taylor has been a key special teams player. The franchise stashed Goodson on the practice squad last year while Taylor played 122 special teams snaps.
To make the roster, Goodson will not only have to outplay Taylor, but he will also likely have to show some special teams skills as well. If this doesn’t happen, the Packers will cut ties with Goodson and make Taylor their guy.
QB Alex McGough
All the Packers’ eggs are in the Jordan Love basket this season, but every NFL needs a Plan B at quarterback just in case. For Green Bay, neither of their backup options is all that enticing.
As of now, the Packers QB room includes 2023 fifth-round pick Sean Clifford and 2018 seventh-round pick Alex McGough. These two make up the most inexperienced backup QB situation in the league, with neither of these players having a single start, game played, or pass in the NFL.
At the end of the Packers preseason, one of these signal-callers will hold the clipboard for Love, while the other will likely head to the practice squad. And while Clifford has the edge on becoming the backup right now, McGough could come through with a big Packers training camp and preseason performance and steal the job.
Both these young QBs will get a lot of time in the team’s preseason games, so they will be able to duke it out on the field. That said, chances are McGough doesn’t put on a real Packers uniform when the final whistle sounds on the preseason.
K Anders Carlson
The Packers made a bold (dumb?) move in the 2023 NFL Draft, taking Auburn kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round.
There is a lot to like about Carlson. He’s a big, athletic kicker at 6-foot-5, 218 pounds, and his brother, Daniel, is one of the better kickers in the league for the Las Vegas Raiders. He also isn’t afraid of the moment, going 4-of-4 vs. Alabama in 2019. However, his career success rate in college was just 71.8%, and was just 5-of-17 on kicks of 50 yards or more in his college career.
Either way, is it ever worth it to draft a non-sure-thing kicker that high when there are other positions of need and kickers available for next to nothing on the free-agent market? Maybe. But right now, Carlson isn’t helping make his brethren’s case.
Carlson hasn’t been good in camp so far. He started camp making just 12-of-20 field goals but has turned things around a bit, making 8-of-9 to kick off week two.
The rookie will go into the Packers' preseason games as the only kicker on the roster, and he will get every chance to win the job. That said, as Packers training camp rolls on, if Carlson doesn’t start to show a little more consistency, the team may bring in some competition for their young placekicker.
WR Bo Melton
As far as roster construction goes, the question on offense will be whether or not Green Bay carries five or six wide receivers. If the answer is five, then the depth chart will include Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure, Jayden Reed, and Dontayvion Wicks.
If they go with six, Seattle Seahawks 2022 seventh-round pick Bo Melton could be that player. The Packers signed Melton to their roster at the end of last season, and the team seems to like him. Unfortunately, it really is just a numbers game at this point.
However, Melton can win this numbers game by having a great preseason and contributing on special teams. If he does that, there could be a regular-season roster spot in his future (and one fewer tight end or running back on the squad).
