8 Position battles to watch out for heading into NFL training camps
In the NFL there is constant competition for pretty much every position. Front offices try to find replacements for aging players or those, who will soon demand contracts they can’t afford. That creates an environment, where every man is working as hard as they can to earn a starting spot.
Only competition gets the best out of football players and it is vital for a team’s success. I picked out the eight positional battles that will be most interesting to watch through training camps and beyond. So here they are:
#1 Packers’ Z receiver – Geronimo Allison, Trevor Davis, Michael Clark, DeAngelo Yancey, J’Mon Moore and Equanimeous St. Brown
None of these guys possess the football acumen of a Jordy Nelson, but there’s some talent.With the lack of eagerness to sign Jordy Nelson back, the Packers leave a huge hole at one of their receiver spots.
While Davante Adams has developed into one of the top X receivers, Randall Cobb is a key piece in the slot for Green Bay and they signed Jimmy Graham as a move tight-end and goal-line monster, I think the Z receiver spot is wide open at this point. The Packers like to move their guys around the formation, but primarily this is the position they don’t really have any proven veteran on their roster for. The following are the candidates to take over.
Geronimo Allison saw the most playing time, at about a third of their offensive snaps. While he displays some shake to his routes, I see too much wasted movement and a frustration against athletically gifted DBs, who can sit on his routes. However, he puts in the effort as a blocker and looks more dynamic with the ball in his hands.
Trevor Davis was a fifth-round pick out of California back in 2016 and I actually liked his tape quite a bit. He shows a strong swipe of the cornerbacks’ hands and has shown some creativity to win on secondary routes, which should match well with Aaron Rodgers’ scrambling ability.
I’m also a big fan of his stutter-and-go, which Rodgers would hit at a much higher rate than Bretty Hundley did in 2017, and he has an extra gear to win on deep balls. He only surpassed 20 percent of the offensive snaps three times last season, but he averaged 12 yards per punt return. I didn’t even really think about last year’s undrafted Michael Clark, but I saw him make some pretty big catches on tape. There is nothing that really stands out about him physically, but he is a dependable pass-catcher.
And then there are the two rookie receivers, who could get into that competition – J’Mon Moore and Equanimeous St. Brown. Moore has that long, lanky build and he can really go up and snatch the ball out of the air. In his last two years with Missouri, he recorded consecutive seasons with 1000+ yards, while averaging 16.5 yards per catching and scoring 19 touchdowns during that stretch.
He tracks the deep ball pretty well and looks like a wild horse on catch-and-run plays, Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear to have the most natural hands and he carries the ball too loosely at this point. EQ, on the other hand, is one of the most impressive specimens in the entire draft.
He saw a massive drop-off in his production from 2016 to '17 because of the switch at quarterback and a more run-centric approach to the Notre Dame offense. However, his hands are excellent and he has the speed to cross the field like a gazelle. He also high-points the ball exceptionally well. The question marks with him are his ability to defeat press-coverage and how competitive he actually is.