Most Starters Won’t Play in Preseason Finale vs. Chiefs

Meanwhile, the Packers must get to 80 players later Tuesday. They took care of one move by reportedly trading Cole Van Lanen to Jacksonville.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Matt LaFleur wasn’t with the Green Bay Packers in 2015. On the sixth play of the second game of that preseason, Jordy Nelson suffered a torn ACL at Pittsburgh. For the Packers, who gave away the 2014 NFC Championship Game at Seattle, their chances of taking the next step and getting to the Super Bowl essentially ended on Aug. 23, 2015.

Fast forward to Aug. 23, 2022, with LaFleur announcing that most of his team’s starters will not play in Thursday night’s preseason finale at the Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s risk vs. reward. With most of their starters not playing a single snap in the preseason, maybe the Packers will lose their Week 1 game at Minnesota, just like they lost last year’s opener against the Saints. Maybe they won’t. But they’re not going to lose a difference-making player in a game that doesn’t matter in the standings.

“Knowing it’s a long season, having 17 games. Early on, we get stressed with travel, as well,” LaFleur said before Tuesday’s practice. “Just factoring in everything. It’s easy to sit back and compare how you faired in years past and whatnot. I think there are a lot of lessons that you take those experiences that hopefully having gone through that will help us avoid a similar situation. I look at our team, I think we’re in a much different place than we were a year ago, especially on the defensive side of the ball with the continuity that we have there. Offensively, hopefully we’ll have learned from our past mistakes.”

The No. 1 offensive line of Yosh Nijman, Jon Runyan, Josh Myers, Jake Hanson and Royce Newman will start against Kansas City. Rookie inside linebacker Quay Walker could start again, too. Everybody else, from Aaron Rodgers to Jaire Alexander, will get the night off after going through pregame warmups.

LaFleur knows the decision leaves him open to second-guessing. The Packers didn’t just lose to the Saints last year; they were embarrassed. It wasn’t until the second half of the Week 2 game against Detroit that the team hit its stride. Ultimately, the Packers won 13 of 15 games after the Week 1 debacle.

“I don’t have a crystal ball. It’s whatever works,” LaFleur said. “We’re confident in our process and the number of reps and how we’re working our guys to get them to where they need to be. I’ll let you guys criticize all our decisions.

Tuesday’s practice is the final one of training camp. By 3 p.m., they must cut their 83-man roster to the 80-man limit.

One of those moves was a trade of offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen to the Jaguars for an undisclosed draft pick, according to ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky.

Van Lanen ran with the starters for most of the offseason but had fallen into the second unit, rotating between left tackle, left guard and right tackle. A native of nearby Suamico, Wis., who played at Wisconsin, Van Lanen was a sixth-round pick last year. He played in only one offensive snap as a rookie, a kneeldown to run out a late-season victory over the Vikings.

Also, the Packers waived/injured S Vernon Scott and placed RB Kylin Hill on reserve/PUP. Hill will miss at least the first four games of the regular season. At safety, Shawn Davis would appear to be the No  3 though Dallin Leavitt has been doing on-the-field rehab following a shoulder injury.