Green Bay Packers football is finally here. Well, kind of. They begin their preseason with a date against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There will be no Aaron Rodgers tonight. According to ESPN's Brooke Pryor, Rodgers is in street clothes, providing "confirmation he isn't playing."
It's a different story for the Packers. Jordan Love will play at least some part in tonight's game.
Packers' starters will play against Steelers, including Jordan Love
The Packers have announced that only 16 players will not feature in tonight's game:
- DE Micah Parsons
- RB Josh Jacobs
- S Javon Bullard
- CB Domani Jackson
- CB Carrington Valentine
- RB Chris Brooks
- CB Kamal Hadden
- LS Matt Orzech
- OL Zach Bako-Bewele
- DE Dani Dennis-Sutton
- G Aaron Banks
- TE Tucker Kraft
- TE Luke Musgrave
- DT Devonte Wyatt
- DT Jordon Riley
- DT Javon Hargrave
Everyone else is active.
Head coach Matt LaFleur has spoken about how preseason can help teams perform better earlier in the regular season and avoid injuries once real football begins. That's why we will likely see several starters on the field tonight.
"My experiences here is that when we've played in the preseason, we've been better earlier in the season. And we open up with a division opponent on the road, that's a tough task in itself. We've got to keep that in mind," LaFleur said this week. "Plus, there's a lot of data out there that will tell you if your guys get X amount of snaps in the preseason, I think it's over three times less likely that they get injured in the regular season."
Time will tell how many snaps they get against the Steelers.
The Packers will hope to answer several pressing questions, including whether the pass rush can generate pressure without Micah Parsons, how Trey Smack looks in his first NFL game, and whether any player on the roster bubble can make an impact.
That last point is particularly important. Teams hold back many of the secrets in the playbook and roll with a basic game plan in preseason games. It's a different story for kickers, though. There's just a little more pressure than when kicking in practice, so this will be a good early test for Smack.
The outcome of tonight's game doesn't matter. What's more important is coming out of the game as healthy as possible, getting some valuable live reps under the team's belt, and hopefully seeing some standout performances from players who feature heavily in the contest.
There will be no Rodgers tonight, though.
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