2023 Packers roster ranking, 31-21: upside bets, expected starters, and potential stars

The Leap ranks the Green Bay Packers' 90-man roster in order of player caliber.

Today's edition of The Leap is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy, an industry leader in daily and season-long fantasy contests.

Subscribers of The Leap can join Underdog Fantasy here with our special signup link to double your initial deposit up to $100. It's a great way to play fantasy sports with real fans while also supporting the work we do here.

You can also support us by subscribing to The Leap. Doing so allows us to serve this community with the stories and reporting it deserves.

---

With the Green Bay Packers on break until training camp and the personnel essentially frozen for the foreseeable future, The Leap has decided to use this time to release its 90-man roster rankings.

Our methodology: We ordered the players based on ability relative to their respective positions rather than the value of those positions. Put another way, this exercise prioritizes the "best" players, not necessarily the "most valuable" ones. That means the starting quarterback doesn't necessarily have to top the list because of the position he plays.

Each edition of the 90-man roster ranking will include a batch of roughly 10 players. Due to voting ties, some batches will feature one more or one fewer.

Today's slate features many of the Packers' recent draft picks and bets on potential. More than a few from this set will begin the season as starters with some, if the team can develop them, on a path toward stardom.

T-30. Samori Toure

Position: wide receiver
How acquired: seventh-round draft pick (2022)

The Packers garnered considerable attention for the wideouts they drafted in 2022, and understandably so. Following the departure of All-Pro Davante Adams and deep threat Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the receiving corps required a significant injection of new talent. Those conditions made rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs nationally relevant, but the same spotlight didn't fall on the team's seventh-round pass catcher, Samori Toure.

Whereas Watson and Doubs opened the season with high expectations, Toure seemed poised for a quiet campaign. Indeed, the Nebraska product saw just 10 targets all year. But when the ball did come Toure's way as it did during a two-game stretch in the middle of the season, he demonstrated big-play ability. His 37-yard touchdown against the Buffalo Bills resulted in part from him adjusting well on the fly to an Aaron Rodgers' adlibbed scramble. That performance earned him four targets -- all deep ones -- the following week against the Detroit Lions. He responded with a 32-yard reception on fourth down during the Packers' final drive.

Toure probably doesn't offer as high a ceiling as Watson and Doubs given his age; he turned 24 a month before the 2022 NFL Draft. However, he seems well positioned to outperform his status as a late-round pick. The Packers' brass seems excited about Toure's chances of carving out more than just a niche role, perhaps as early as this season.

T-30. Justin Hollins

Position: outside linebacker
How acquired: waiver claim from Los Angeles Rams (2022)

Shortly after star pass rusher Rashan Gary's 2022 season ended with a torn ACL, the Packers put in a successful waiver claim for Justin Hollins, a 2019 fifth-round pick already cut by two teams. Accordingly, Hollins arrived in Green Bay with modest expectations, especially given the Gary-shaped void the team brought him in to help fill.

However, Hollins quickly proved he had plenty to offer. While no one confused him for an All-Pro-caliber talent, he registered a sack and two tackles for loss in his Packers debut. Hollins went on to register another 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits in 107 snaps during the final five weeks of the season. For a tertiary pass rusher on a defense in need of some juice, those figures made a difference.

Hollins doesn't enter 2023 with a defined role or even a guaranteed roster spot. Even so, the journeyman defender seems poised to handle a greater workload, especially with Gary still on the mend.

T-28. Rudy Ford

Position: safety
How acquired: street free agent (2022)

Entering 2023, safety looks like the Packers' weakest position group among those with known commodities at the top. That might have held true even if Adrian Amos returned, but this collection of safeties features only question marks in its current form. That includes Rudy Ford, considered a likely starter at this point in the offseason.

An unheralded pickup just before Week 1 in 2022, Ford went on to star on special teams and break into the No. 1 defense midway through the year due to the poor play among the other safeties. After an impressive two-interception performance in his starting debut, Ford cooled off considerably, eventually relinquishing the job back to the player he previously replaced.

However, with no superior options, the Packers seemed poised to give Ford another chance this year. Ford has his positives, but that says more about the group as a whole than anything else.

T-28. Josiah Deguara

Position: tight end
How acquired: third-round draft pick (2020)

For all the hype surrounding the two tight ends the Packers drafted in April, they have one significant player returning at the position: Josiah Deguara. While the fourth-year pro has mostly made his mark at other spots -- Deguara registered more snaps in the backfield (78) than as a true in-line tight end (77) last season, according to Pro Football Focus -- he remains an important part of the group.

While the split of Deguara's duties might not change much in 2023, his total workload and usage could. During his time with Rodgers as the starter under center, Deguara saw relatively few targets. With Jordan Love now installed as the No. 1 quarterback, Deguara should become a more heavily featured weapon, especially considering he has the most experience of any member of the receiving corps.

27. T.J. Slaton

Position: defensive lineman
How acquired: fifth-round draft pick (2021)

Initially, many considered the 2021 rookie class light on quality interior defensive linemen. None came off the board on Day 1 of the draft with only five hearing their names called on Day 2. Few enticing options remained available for the final three rounds.

In that context, the Packers' selection of Florida's T.J. Slaton seems fairly impressive. He has provided He has yet to establish himself as a full-time starter, but that appears likely to change in 2023 as he spent most of organized-team activities and mandatory minicamp lining up at nose tackle alongside Kenny Clark. Slaton doesn't need to set the world on fire to become a fixture of the defense. Rather, he just needs to adequately occupy blockers for Clark and hold his own in the run game. For a fifth-rounder, that sort of play would make Slaton a home run.

26. Jayden Reed

Position: wide receiver
How acquired: second-round draft pick (2023)

The Packers surprised many with the selection of Michigan State wide receiver Jayden Reed in the second round earlier this year. While Reed fell more or less in the expected range, his stature (a hair under 5-foot-11, 187 pounds) placed him below the personnel department's usual thresholds for the position.

But for whatever Reed lacks in size, he can make up in refinement and versatility. Few wideouts in this rookie class offer Reed's level of route-running, and his potential to take over as the Packers' punt returner means he can impact the team in Year 1 regardless of what he delivers on offense. Given that Green Bay gave him plenty of run with the starters during the offseason program, Reed should have a chance to see plenty of work as the top slot receiver.

T-23. Darnell Savage

Position: safety
How acquired: first-round draft pick (2019)

Remember that safety that the aforementioned Ford replaced in the starting lineup due to poor performance? That was Darnell Savage, a former Packers first-round pick who has started 46 games over his first three NFL seasons. Though Savage has flashed high-level talent at various points in his career, he never managed to deliver those results with any real consistency, forcing the team to account for his mistakes too often. If not for the fifth-year option that Green Bay exercised over a year ago, Savage likely wouldn't have returned for 2023.

Savage has reached a crossroads in his career. Either his talent manifests as consistent, quality play or he joins the litany of disappointing safeties the Packers have burned through since Nick Collins' career-ending injury over a decade ago.

T-23. Josh Myers

Position: center
How acquired: second-round draft pick (2021)

In a vacuum, Josh Myers has looked fine during his first two seasons as the Packers' starting center. However, the team surely had higher expectations after investing a second-round pick in him. That doesn't even account for the fact that the player selected one spot later, Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey, performed like an All-Pro as a rookie and earned that status officially the following year. Because of Myers' comparatively pedestrian track record to date, Green Bay's coaching staff has openly said other linemen, Zach Tom in particular, will compete for his job.

Despite that, Myers seemed to take all the meaningful reps at center during the Packers' offseason program while Tom primarily competed at right tackle with Yosh Nijman. Myers will probably start at the pivot again this season, but the team needs more from him at this stage of his career.

T-23. Luke Musgrave

Position: tight end
How acquired: second-round draft pick (2023)

Other than the Packers' new starting quarterback, no member of the offense drew as much attention as rookie tight end Luke Musgrave. The Oregon State product offers an uncommon athleticism-size combination for the position. Green Bay hasn't seen such a potent combination since Jermichael Finley prior to his 2010 knee injury, and Musgrave's potential clearly didn't go unnoticed by head coach Matt LaFleur.

"He is different," LaFleur remarked of Musgrave during OTAs, adding, "He's a really, really intelligent player. I think every time he goes out there, if he makes a mistake -- he definitely hasn't made many of the same mistakes twice because he's super into it. Very intentional, deliberate about his work. Invested. And he continues to show progress every day. And certainly, he does have an elite trait, that he can flat fly. And he's a big, long target. We're really excited about him and the progress he's made up to this point, and we've got to continue to push him."

Barring an unforeseeable development, Musgrave appears well positioned to serve as the Packers' No. 1 tight end to start the season. That, among other factors, earned him the top spot in The Leap's ranking of the Packers' draft class by potential for Year 1 impact.

22. Quay Walker

Position: inside linebacker
How acquired: first-round draft pick (2022)

From the moment the Packers tabbed Quay Walker as the No. 22 overall pick in last year's draft, the pick seemed peculiar. The team had rarely invested such a significant resource in an off-ball linebacker and, given the other players available, Walker seemed like a massive outlier.

Walker's rookie season underscored both the degree of risk his selection represented and the reason Green Bay took the plunge anyway. He finished second on the team in missed tackles (13), making him a major liability in run defense. Walker also received multiple ejections, raising concerns about his on-field poise.

At the same time, few players at his position offer his combination of size (6-foot-4, 241 pounds) and athleticism (9.63 Relative Athletic Score). Those traits manifested positively when in the pass rush (1.5 sacks and, per PFF, 12 total pressures) and pass coverage (five pass breakups, one touchdown allowed in 46 targets, 13th best defensive passer rating among off-ball linebackers who played as many or more snaps in coverage).

How does all of that net out? With another mix of questions and excitement regarding Walker's long-term outlook.

21. Kingsley Enagbare

Position: outside linebacker
How acquired: fifth-round draft pick (2022)

Even before Kingsley Enagbare saw his role expanded in the wake of Gary's ACL tear, the excitement around the fifth-round rookie pass rusher has begun to build. Enagbare registered a sack in each of the two games preceding Gary's injury, building off an impressive training camp and offseason that suggested a higher upside than the typical late-round pick. And once he entered the starting lineup in Week 10, Enagbare dialed up the pressure, delivering 19 total pressures from that point forward by PFF's accounting.

The full-season numbers paint an even grander picture. Enagbare finished 2022 ranked fifth on the team in total pressures despite playing more than 100 fewer pass-rush snaps than everyone ahead of him save for Gary. To put that production and efficiency further into context, Enagbare finished No. 1 in pass-rush win rate among rookies with at least 200 such snaps, placing him ahead of first-round selections like Aidan Hutchinson, George Karlaftis, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Travon Walker.

With Gary likely unavailable at the start of the regular season, many expect much of the burden to fall on the Packers' 2023 first-round pick, Lukas Van Ness. But Enagbare will factor into the equation as well and, given what he demonstrated last year, might well provide the larger boost.

-- Jason B. Hirschhorn is an award-winning sports journalist and Pro Football Writers of America member. Follow him on social media: @by_JBH on Twitter / @by_jbh on Instagram / @JBH@mastodon.social on Mastodon / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads