Packers: 3 potential cut candidates following 2022 NFL Draft
As the Green Bay Packers start off rookie mini-camp this week, the team has a general idea of which players will be on the final 53-man roster for Week 1.
Obviously, they have a whole summer of workouts and training camp to decide which players on the border of the roster make it, which players go to the practice squad, and which players get cut.
Speaking of players getting cut, the Packers could be looking to dump a few players in order to either clear up cap space or simply just because it is not working out.
Here are three players that could be given the boot by Green Bay before the season:
DT Dean Lowry
Lowry is about to enter his seventh career season in Green Bay. After being drafted in the fourth round out of Northwestern in 2016, Lowry has been a serviceable player at best for Green Bay.
The Illinois native has been durable (only missed one career game). However, he is not a starter anymore.
In six seasons with the Packers, Lowry has put up just 15 career sacks. In eight career postseason games, he has just 15 total tackles.
He could stay on as a rotational piece, but after the signing of free-agent Jarran Reed and the drafting of Devonte Wyatt in the first round, Lowry appears to be heading towards the back of the depth chart.
LB Ty Summers
Summers is not the fastest sideline-to-sideline player, nor is he the most athletic. He was drafted out of TCU in the seventh round in 2019 to mostly fill the backup ILB role and play on special teams.
He has just 31 career tackles in two seasons with only four coming in 2021.
Unless special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia sees him as a must-keep, Summers’ position could very well be taken from him.
Not only does Green Bay’s selection of Georgia ILB Quay Walker push him farther back on the depth chart, but so does the drafting of Georgia Tech’s LB/S Tariq Carpenter in the seventh round.
Carpenter is quicker and more explosive than Summers. Green Bay plans to use the former hybrid safety at linebacker.
The only way Green Bay keeps Summers in 2022 is if he can still be a quality special teams player and also if he can contend with De’Vondre Campbell, Quay Walker, Krys Barnes, and Tariq Carpenter in the ILBs room.
The latter seems unlikely.
LS Steven Wirtel
The Packers’ kicking struggles were well-documented last season.
Mason Crosby missed eight kicks last season (tied for second-most in his 15-year career). Most of those misses were not his fault, however.
Some of it had to do with then-punter Corey Bojorquez being unable to get the ball down with the laces out. Some of it was poor blocking up front, which made way for blocked kicks.
But a lot of it was also the snapping of the ball.
The Packers cut long snapper Hunter Bradley last November after four years in Green Bay. Maybe Green Bay made a mistake choosing Wirtel over Bradley.
Sure, last season was his first year working with Crosby. Sure, Bojorquez was not the best holder. But if there are some struggles this summer at long snapper, the Packers might need to re-evaluate that position.