Packer Central

Saturday’s Packers Transactions: What They Mean for Sunday at Steelers

The Green Bay Packers’ suddenly shorthanded secondary was bolstered with the promotion of Innis Gaines from the practice squad.

Bill Huber

Saturday’s Packers Transactions: What They Mean for Sunday at Steelers
Saturday’s Packers Transactions: What They Mean for Sunday at Steelers /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Life happens quickly in the NFL. As first reported by Packer Central, the Green Bay Packers promoted defensive back Innis Gaines from the practice squad on Saturday to provide much-needed depth to their suddenly shorthanded secondary for Sunday at the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Packers had 52 players on their roster so didn’t need to make a corresponding move.

That was the headliner in Saturday’s transactions, and an obvious move. Here’s our annual breakdown of the move that was made and the moves that were not made.

Promoted: DB Innis Gaines

Listed as a safety by the Packers, Gaines spent all of training camp and the preseason as the primary backup in the slot. That’s where he went through drills at practice this week.

It was barely a month ago when defensive coordinator Joe Barry said the Packers had “champagne problems” at cornerback. At the time:

- Jaire Alexander was one cornerback.

- Rasul Douglas was the other cornerback.

- Keisean Nixon was holding down the slot.

- Former first-round pick Eric Stokes was close to returning from last season’s season-ending foot injury.

Headed into Sunday:

- Alexander almost certainly won’t play.

- Having been traded to Buffalo, Douglas is getting ready for Monday night’s game against Denver.

- Stokes is back on injured reserve.

Without Alexander and Douglas, the Packers figure to start seventh-round rookie Carrington Valentine and former practice-squad player Corey Ballentine as the corners. Nixon, as usual, will hold down the slot. Robert Rochell, who was signed off Carolina’s practice squad two-and-a-half weeks ago, isn’t just the next man up. He was the only man up until the promotion of Gaines.

Innis Gaines
Innis "Thump" Gaines :: Photo by Seeger Gray/USA Today Sports Images

Players can be elevated from the practice squad three times before they must be signed to the 53-man roster. The Packers used their final elevation on Gaines last week, when he played one defensive snap in the win over the Rams. The matchup? Against Cooper Kupp. The ball was not thrown his way.

“I’m trying to be a Swiss Army knife for the defense and being able to play wherever they need me: slot, safety, nickel or dime,” he said at the end of training camp.

The move with Gaines – he goes by “Thump” and not Innis – isn’t just about the defense. Ballentine was a key player on special teams with 75 snaps in his five appearances. With Ballentine set to be an every-snap player at corner, those reps in the kicking game will have to go to someone else.

Gaines’ story is remarkable. Each of his final two seasons at TCU ended with torn ACLs. Because of the injury that ended his senior season, he went undrafted and unsigned in 2020. He delivered DoorDash while rehabbing the injury. The Packers signed him to a futures contract at the end of the season.

He played in one game in 2021, seven games with one start in 2022 and three games in 2023.

Not Elevated: DT Jonathan Ford

That the Packers didn’t move up defensive tackle Jonathan Ford is a good sign for standout starter Kenny Clark, who was questionable on the final injury report.

Clark injured a shoulder during last week’s win vs. the Rams and missed the second half. That he practiced all week was a good sign that he’d be on the field at Pittsburgh. That the team didn’t elevate Ford is a good sign that Clark will be ready for something at least close to his typical workload.

This week, Clark said he was “getting better each and every day.

The Packers only have four other defensive linemen with fellow starters T.J. Slaton and Devonte Wyatt and rookie backups Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks.

Elevated by Steelers: LB Tariq Carpenter

The Steelers will be without their two leading tacklers, with safety Minkah Fitzpatrick ruled out and linebacker Cole Holcomb on injured reserve. To help fill the void at linebacker, the Steelers elevated former Packers draft pick Tariq Carpenter.

A seventh-round pick in 2022 as a safety, the Packers moved Carpenter to linebacker this offseason. He failed to make the roster, and the Packers opted to sign veteran Kristian Welch to their practice squad instead of bringing back Carpenter.

For Carpenter, this game won't be about proving the Packers wrong as much as it's about proving the Steelers right.

“I get to put on that Steeler jersey and say that I'm a Steeler,” Carpenter told reporters this week. “I just got to go out there and put everything on tape. Make sure I get to put it on again. Solidify myself.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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