GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers elevated cornerback Kamal Hadden from the practice squad for their big NFC North showdown against the Detroit Lions.
Here’s what the transaction that was made and the transactions that weren’t made mean for Sunday.
Not Elevated: QB Sean Clifford
Jordan Love not only will start at quarterback on Sunday, but the Packers did not elevate Sean Clifford to serve as the third quarterback should Love aggravate the groin injury and something happen to Malik Willis.
Elevated: CB Kamal Hadden
The Packers are going to be short-handed in the secondary. Safety Evan Williams, whose presence allowed defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to move fellow safety Javon Bullard into the slot, will be inactive with a hamstring injury. Plus, cornerback Jaire Alexander is questionable with a knee injury and didn’t practice all week.
The elevation of Kamal Hadden would seem to signal that Alexander will not be in the lineup against one of the best offenses in the NFL.
With Bullard back at safety to pair with Xavier McKinney, Green Bay figures to roll with Eric Stokes, Carrington Valentine and Keisean Nixon as the corners and Corey Ballentine (who also is questionable) as the only depth.
The Packers have cornerbacks Robert Rochell and Kamal Hadden on the practice squad. With Rochell out of elevations – they’d have to add him to the 53-man roster and make a corresponding move – the team opted for Hadden.
Hadden was a sixth-round pick by the Chiefs in this year’s draft after a standout but injury-plagued final season at Tennessee.
He was elevated for the game against the Vikings and played three snaps on special teams.
Hadden, who has excellent size at 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds with 4.57 speed in the 40, Hadden led Tennessee with three interceptions and 11 passes defensed in 2023 despite missing the final six games with a shoulder injury.
According to PFF, 125 corners in this draft class played at least 250 coverage snaps. Because of the injury, he just missed the cutoff. Had he played enough snaps, he would have ranked third in completion percentage allowed (36.4), first in passer rating allowed (7.0) and ninth in forced-incompletion percentage. He did not allow a touchdown.
Not Elevated: S Omar Brown
Without Williams, the Packers will roll with Bullard and McKinney as the safeties and Kitan Oladapo and Zayne Anderson as the depth.
Oladapo, a fifth-round pick this year, has played in only two games and has been a healthy scratch in six – including each of the last three games. He’s played nine snaps on special teams in two games and not recorded any stats.
Brown had a predraft visit with the Packers after starting 37 games at Northern Iowa (2019 through 2021) and Nebraska (2022 and 2023). He spent training camp with the Broncos and was signed after final cuts.
“We’ve got a lot of competition,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said this week about the secondary. “If you look right now in the corner room, we’ve played a lot of guys and we’ll continue to do so. There’s guys that have stepped up in practice and had a really good week, just like last week, and we’ll rotate those players as we see fit.
“Obviously in the safety room, too, we’ve moved people around. Bull’s played nickel, Bull’s played safety. Last week, Bull had to play both, which is definitely not easy for a young guy.”
Being able to focus on safety, which was not the case last week, should help Bullard, Hafley said.
“The thing with Bull last week, you give him a lot of credit, I said to Bull last week, I thought he had his best week of practice at the nickel position and there was a couple of times he was disguising and doing things and I kind of smirked and I was like, ‘Bull, that’s really good. You got me on that one. I was going to tell you to get back in and I saw you do it late.’ So, it was cool because he took such a good step at that position last week.
“And then what happens? Then he’s got to go play safety and he hadn’t really practiced at that position. For a rookie, that’s hard. It’s like everybody wants to ask and play the rookie here, play the rookie here, put this guy here. It’s not always the easiest thing to do. So, I give Bull a lot of credit for what we’ve asked him to do. I think he’s a really good player and I think he’s having a really good rookie year. To have his versatility I think is huge.”
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