10 Days Until Training Camp: 10 Most Important Packers

The Green Bay Packers' first practice of training camp is set for July 26. Led by Jordan Love, here are the 10 most important players.

Jordan Love and Christian Watson celebrate their touchdown at Philadelphia (Photo by Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports Images)

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When the Green Bay Packers trot onto the practice field for their first practice of training camp in 10 days, it will be with a roster with enough high-caliber players to contend for an NFC North championship but enough question marks to finish with double-digits losses.

Here are the Packers’ 10 most important players for the 2023 NFL season. This is not a list of the best players. Rather, this combines production, potential, salary and depth of the position.

10. LB De’Vondre Campbell

When Campbell returned from a midseason knee injury, the defense took flight and carried the team to the brink of the playoffs. The Packers allowed 20 or fewer points each of those final five games. The best tackler in the business in 2021, Campbell struggled (relatively speaking) in 2022 but missed just one down the stretch.

A legit three-down linebacker, Campbell will be playing Year 2 of a five-year, $50 million contract. His cap number will go from $5.53 million in 2023 to $14.41 million in 2024.

9. LG Elgton Jenkins

Coming off a torn ACL, Jenkins struggled in his move to right tackle last season. When the Packers scrapped that experiment and moved him back to left guard, Jenkins rounded into his usual form. During the final seven games of the season, he allowed just one pressure. As a former offensive line coach, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich must be salivating over the thought of running behind a left side of Jenkins and David Bakhtiari, especially in key situations.

This will be Year 2 of a $68 million contract extension that will get a lot more expensive from a cap perspective next year.

8. S Darnell Savage

Darnell Savage (Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Savage is coming off a dismal fourth season. Among all safeties since being drafted in the first round in 2019, Savage ranks eighth in passes defensed and 12th in interceptions. That’s good, but he didn’t make many plays on the ball last year and his tackling was typically bad.

Savage will be playing under the fifth-year option of $7.9 million – a number entirely too high based on last year’s performance. This will be a huge season for Savage, who will be playing for his next contract, and the team, who desperately needs him to anchor the position after letting Adrian Amos sign with the Jets.

7. DT Kenny Clark

Playing under a $70 million contract extension that he inked in 2020, Clark ranks 11th among defensive linemen with an average salary of $17.5 million. He didn’t consistently play to that level in 2022, though. He had one tackle for every 16.8 snaps, worst among Green Bay’s defensive linemen. At one point, he went six games without a single quarterback hit.

Last year, he was flanked by the veteran tandem of Jarran Reed and Dean Lowry. This year, he’ll be joined by the young, unproven duo of Devonte Wyatt and T.J. Slaton and Day 3 draft picks Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks. Unless a couple of those guys show up, Clark is going to be double- and triple-teamed on every play.

6. RB Aaron Jones

Jones is one of the great running backs in the NFL. He’s an explosive playmaker as a runner and receiver and a team leader who took a pay cut to stay with the team. He is a face of the franchise type of player.

With the youngest passing game in the NFL, it stands to reason that Jones and sidekick AJ Dillon will be asked to carry a bigger chunk of the offense. He’ll have to cut back on the dropped passes (six) and fumbles (five). Even with the revamped contract, Jones’ cap number of almost $8.2 million is eighth-highest among running backs.

5. WR Christian Watson

From Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson to Randall Cobb and Davante Adams, the Packers have hit a series of home runs with their second-round receivers. Could Watson be the next? During the second half of last season, when he scored eight touchdowns, Watson showed the potential to be one of the top game-breaking receivers in the NFL. He’s just too big and too fast to hold down for too long.

Big plays win games. He might not lead the team in receptions but a season of 60 receptions for 1,000 yards and a dozen touchdowns could get the Packers into the playoffs.

4. CB Jaire Alexander

The NFL is a pass-first league. Just like offenses need quality quarterback play to win games, defenses need quality cornerbacks to stop those quarterbacks. Alexander is one of the best in the business, as he proved emphatically with his shutdown performance against indomitable Vikings star Justin Jefferson in Week 17.

Alexander is coming off a season in which he intercepted a career-high five passes. He and his sidekick, Rasul Douglas, led the league with four fourth-quarter interceptions. He is one of the team’s emotional heartbeats and an underrated tackler. Alexander’s $21 million average remains the highest for a cornerback in NFL history.

3. LT David Bakhtiari

Left tackle is one of the most important positions in the game. Headed into training camps, 21 of the 32 projected starters were selected in the first round. That’s only two fewer than quarterback. Nothing gives a quarterback greater comfort than dropping back in the pocket with the security that he’s not going to get drilled from behind. That’s the luxury Bakhtiari, who didn’t allow a sack in his 11 games last season, provides.

Is he past that devasting knee injury? A five-time All-Pro, can he rejoin Trent Williams as the gold standard of the position? His $23 million average salary is third-highest among all offensive linemen.

2. OLB Rashan Gary

Rashan Gary sacks Kirk Cousins (Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Only a torn ACL could get in the way of Gary’s rise to greatness. After a breakout 9.5 sacks in 2021, Gary emerged as an early Defensive Player of the Year candidate when he had five sacks in the first four games to help the team to a 3-1 start. He wound up with six sacks in nine games before the injury.

There was just no replacing his impact. The Packers wound up 27th with 34 sacks, their fewest since 2011. Gary had 38 total pressures in nine games, according to PFF, not far behind Preston Smith’s 17-game total of 42. Gary’s 38 pressures came in 204 pass-rushing snaps. Kingsley Enagbare and Justin Hollins combined for 34 pressures in 338 pass-rushing snaps.

A contract extension that could be in excess of $100 million is on the way.

1. QB Jordan Love

The quarterback will always be No. 1 on this list, even if Love has a limited resume and is being paid pennies on the dollar compared to some of his peers – Aaron Rodgers, obviously, among them.

If you don’t have a quarterback, you simply have no chance to be a real championship contender. If the Packers hadn’t liked what they saw behind the scenes and at Philadelphia, they might have hung onto Rodgers for another season. If the Packers had really liked what they saw, they might have given him a bigger financial commitment. His cap number of $4.41 million ranks 31st among quarterbacks.

This will be the biggest season of Love’s career and a defining one for the franchise. Midway through his first season as the starter in 2008, Rodgers inked a six-year contract extension. Will Love similarly prove himself to be legit starter to lock up his future? Or will the Packers be drafting his successor in the first round in 2024?

Countdown to Packers Training Camp

Our #Packers training camp countdown is down to 11 days. The team will need a lot better from two of its best players. https://t.co/CDgyq4cD17

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 15, 2023

11 days until training camp: 11 drops too many

12 days until training camp: What history says about replacing No. 12

13 days until training camp: Replacing Mason Crosby

14 days until training camp: Previewing the 14 opponents

15 days until training camp: Aaron Jones, touchdown machine

16 days until training camp: Two months until Week 1 at Bears

16 days until the first practice of #Packers training camp.

Two months until we learn whether Aaron Rodgers handed Jordan Love his office key at Soldier Field.https://t.co/EgzAbQULFW

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 10, 2023

17 days until training camp: 17 is the unmagical number

18 days until training camp: LaFleur’s magic touches?

19 days until training camp: 19 1,000-yard challenges

20 days until training camp: 20 reasons for optimism

21 days until training camp: 21 Packers rookie tight ends

22 days until training camp: Fourth of July fireworks

23 days until training camp: No. 23, Jaire Alexander

24 days until training camp: From No. 1 to No. 24 in red zone

25 days until training camp: From No. 1 to No. 25 in tackling

26 days until training camp: The key to the defense is No. 26

27 days until training camp: 27 sources of inspiration

28 days until training camp: At least they’re consistent

29 days: Keisean Nixon’s surprise stardom

30 days until training camp: 30th in key defensive stat

31 days until training camp: A killer No. 31 ranking

32 days until training camp: 32nd-ranked receivers

33 days until training camp: No. 33, Aaron Jones, is a great player

34 days until training camp: Plus-34 in turnovers