What do Saturday’s trades mean for Jordan Love, Jaire Alexander vs. Lions?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have pulled linebacker Kamal Hadden from the practice squad for their big NFC North clash against the Detroit Lions.

Here’s what the trade that did and the trade that didn’t mean for Sunday.

No boost: QB Sean Clifford

Jordan Love won’t just start at quarterback on Sundaybut the Packers wouldn’t draft Sean Clifford as their third quarterback if Love aggravated his groin injury and something happened to Malik Willis.

Up: CB Kamal Hadden

The Packers will be short of players in the second division. Safety Evan Williams, whose presence allowed defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to move fellow backup Javon Bullard to replace him, will be inactive with a hamstring injury. Additionally, cornerback Jaire Alexander is questionable with a knee injury and did not practice all week.

Kamal Hadden’s promotion appears to signal that Alexander won’t be in the lineup against one of the best offenses in the NFL.

Bullard is now back at safety and has matched Xavier McKinney. Green Bay will be playing Eric Stokes, Carrington Valentine and Keisean Nixon as cornerbacks, with the only depth being Corey Ballentine (who is also questionable).

The Packers have linebackers Robert Rochell and Kamal Hadden on the practice squad. With Rochell out of position – they had to add him to the 53-man roster and make a move – the team opted for Hadden.

Hadden was selected by the Chiefs in the sixth round of this year’s draft after a standout but injury-riddled final season at Tennessee.

He was elevated to the game against the Vikings and played three times on special teams.

Hadden, who has excellent size at 6-foot-10 and 200 pounds with a 4.57 40 speed, Hadden led Tennessee with three interceptions and 11 passes defensed in 2023 despite missing the last six games with a shoulder injury.

According to PFF, 125 corners in this draft class played at least 250 coverage snaps. Due to an injury, he did not finish. If he had played enough snaps, he would have finished third in completion percentage allowed (36.4), first in passing grade allowed (7.0) and ninth in forced incompletion percentage. He didn’t allow a touchdown.

Not elevated: Sr. Omar Brown

Without Williams, the Packers will be playing with Bullard and McKinney as safeties and Kitan Oladapo and Zayne Anderson as depth.

Oladapo, who was drafted in the fifth round this year, has only played in two games and has been good in six games – including each of the last three. He played nine snaps on special teams in two games and recorded no stats.

Brown visited the Packers pre-draft after starting 37 games at Northern Iowa (2019-2021) and Nebraska (2022 and 2023). He spent training camp with the Broncos and was signed after final cuts.

“We have a lot of competition,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said this week about the secondary. “If you look at the corner room now, we have played with a lot of players and we will continue to do so. There are guys who have improved in training and had a really good week, like last week, so we will rotate those players as we see fit.

“Of course, we also moved people in the security room. Taurus played nickel, Taurus played safety. Last week, Bull had to play with both of them, which is definitely not easy for a young player.

Being able to focus on safety, which wasn’t the case last week, should help Bullard, Hafley said.

“That thing with Bull last week, you appreciate him a lot, I told Bull last week. I thought he had the best week of practice at the nickel position, and there were a few times where he changed and did different things, and I smiled and thought, “Bull, that’s really good.” You convinced me. I wanted to tell you to go back, but I noticed you did it late. It was cool because he took such a good step at that position last week.

“And what will happen then? Then he’ll have to play it safe, and he hasn’t really practiced in that position. It’s difficult for a novice. It’s like everybody wants to ask and play a rookie here, play a rookie here, put this guy here. It’s not always the easiest thing to do. That’s why I really appreciate Bull for what we asked him to do. I think he’s a really good player and he’s had a really good rookie year. I think its versatility is huge.

More Green Bay Packers news

The #Packers it’s a rare occasion when the hosts are the underdogs in Sunday’s game against the Lions.
Here are three reasons why the Packers will win anyway.https://t.co/6IYEh05mof

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 2, 2024