With training camp just days away for the Green Bay Packers, there are a number of players who will be living out their dream of being a professional football player. Unfortunately, for some, that dream will be short-lived.
The hardest part about being a coach in the NFL is cutdown days during training camp. Teams can carry up to 90 players on their roster during the offseason, but once the regular season rolls around, that number needs to be cut down to 53.
While not everyone will make that 53, practice squads have become another avenue for players to stick around with a team. For a team as young as the Packers are, there will be chances for guys to make an impression and stick around.
Alas, there are a few positions that will be tough to crack. That is why the first name on the list of three potential cut candidates for the Packers in 2023 training camp in the opinion of Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report is offensive lineman Sean Rhyan.
A third-round pick in 2022, Ballentine believes that Rhyan is on the hot seat after appearing in only one game as a rookie. Teams don’t usually move on so quickly from players drafted that early, but the offensive line depth in Green Bay is deep.
Nine different players played at least one snap in the trenches for the Packers and Rhyan wasn’t one of them, which paints a bleak picture of his future. All of them are back, meaning Rhyan could be at the bottom of the totem pole.
In the backfield, the Packers are going to rely heavily on Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon. At times last season, they were the only two running backs active. Green Bay will hold onto a third option, but unless a player such as Lew Nichols can make an impact on special teams, it will be tough to make the 53-man roster.
Nichols, a seventh-round pick out of Central Michigan, will be battling it out with Tyler Goodson and Patrick Taylor for the No. 3 role. Taylor contributes on special teams and Goodson is a sleeper in the eyes of some as someone who could push for No. 2 duties.
Last but not least, the last player that Ballentine believes could be a cut candidate is Edge rusher Jonathan Garvin. Garvin has done enough to stick around after being a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, but he has failed to make a true impact when his role increased.
Used primarily as a third pass-rushing option in his career, it would be easy to assume Garvin had a roster spot locked up as long as Rashan Gary was sidelined. But, with the addition of first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, his days could be numbered.
Garvin will have to outperform Justin Hollins and Kingsley Enagbare to lock down a roster spot. Gary, Preston Smith and Van Ness have three of the five spots that Ballentine is projecting to go to edge rushers, leaving two up for grabs.
