Packers have quirky plan for a rookie, and defensive system roots explain the decision

The Green Bay Packers drafted three safeties in April. But when talks about the position happened throughout training camp, it almost always only involved Javon Bullard and Evan Williams. Fifth-round pick Kitan Oladapo became the forgotten man in town, but that's about to change.

Oladapo started training camp on the non-football injury list because he hurt his toe in the on-field drills during the NFL Combine. That caused him to miss training camp practice time and to play exclusively on special teams against the Cleveland Browns in the first preseason game.

In week 2 against the Denver Broncos , his role was already bigger. And you can see flashes of what the new Packers defensive coaching staff intends to utilize the rookie.

The performance in Denver included 19 snaps at free safety and five in the slot, but also eight snaps closer to the line of scrimmage, as a strong safety/off-ball linebacker hybrid or as a blitzer.

He finished the game with an average 54.0 PFF grade, mostly because his tackling grade (29.0) was bad.

"As we can move him around more, the walk throughs are going to become vital because these guys, you teach them what you can but until you go out and do it and walk through it, that's to me where the real learning takes place," Packers defensive backs coach Ryan Downard said during camp. "You can sit in a classroom and learn something, but until you either have to teach it back or you take them out there physically let them walk through it, that's I think where the growth takes place.'

Oladapo is finally on the field now, so it's time to learn faster.

Who Oladapo is

Interchangeability and versatility were two stressing points for the Packers when they decided to rebuild the safety room. While Bullard and Williams are more traditional safeties who can also play in the slot, Oladapo is also versatile, but he is a different type.

At Oregon State, he was mostly a strong safety — 292 box snaps in 2023. He also played 278 snaps in the slot and 174 deep. Do you remember linebacker Joe Thomas, who played for the Packers between 2014 and 2017 as a dime linebacker? That's not necessarily a player-for-player comparison, but roles can be similar.

The main idea for the Packers is that they will play single high, only one deep safety, but they will still be able to execute pass coverage. This is not a new concept, and looking at Jeff Hafley's schematic roots , you can easily understand that Kam Chancellor had a similar role for the Legion of Boom with the Seattle Seahawks. Earl Thomas was the deep safety, while Chancellor would go inside the box to stop the run and still allow Pete Carroll's unit to be strong against the pass in an era of football where it's impossible not to prioritize that.

Last season, his last in college, Oladapo had 438 coverage snaps (84.4 PFF grade) and 315 run defense snaps (91.3), showing he can be on the field on a three-down basis. He forced an elite incompletion rate (19.4%) and allowed a 61.3 passer rating when targeted by opposing quarterbacks.

The Packers tend to be careful with how (and how much) they use rookies early on, especially considering Oladapo missed a part of his first camp. But a reasonable expectation for him is to be a role player, and you might see the idea behind it fairly soon.

Related: Xavier McKinney gives the Packers flexibility to develop young safeties