The 2024 season is almost upon us. The Green Bay Packers, in head coach Matt LaFleur’s sixth season at the helm, will hold their first training camp practice on Monday, July 22, at 10:30 a.m., with Family Night taking place on Saturday, August 3, at 7:30 p.m. The last training camp practice open to the public, a joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens, will take place on Thursday, August 22, at 10:30 a.m. The quarterbacks, rookies, and injured players report on Wednesday, July 17, and the rest of the team reports on Sunday, July 21. Below is a non-exhaustive look at the battles that should persist throughout training camp. 

CB2 
Cornerback Jaire Alexander will, of course, assume the CB1 position, but who will grab the other boundary cornerback position – Eric Stokes or Carrington Valentine? Valentine, the second-year player, was thrust into action a season ago, due to an injury to Alexander and the trade of Rasul Douglas, and the seventh-round draft pick more than held his own. He appeared in all 17 games, with 12 starts, and registered nine pass deflections and 44 combined tackles, while allowing a completion percentage of 57.6% when targeted. 

“I think it's been outstanding,” LaFleur said last month of Valentine’s offseason. “That's a guy that stands out, quite frankly in my mind. We challenged him to put on weight after the regular season. He came back and definitely looks bigger and is bigger.”

Stokes, meanwhile, who had an outstanding rookie season, has not stayed healthy over the last season and a half, leading the Packers to decline his fifth-year option. However, he visited the Badger Athletic Performance over the offseason to find a solution for his persistent injuries. There, it was “determined Stokes' surgically repaired foot wasn't as strong as it needed to be, putting pressure on his hamstring and calf,” according to the team website. 

As a result of the extra work Stokes has put in, LaFleur has been impressed with Stokes’ physique as the former first-round pick enters his fourth year in the league. 

“I think he's as good as I've ever seen him, both mentally and on the field,” LaFleur said. “He looks fully healthy. He's doing a great job of challenging our wide receivers. … He's had a chance to really develop his body. He looks in great shape. I think the play says the same.”

OFFENSIVE LINE
The Packers cross-train their offensive linemen at every position, so it all boils down to finding the best five offensive linemen. The offensive line for Week 1 will likely look like this: Rasheed Walker at left tackle, Elgton Jenkins at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Sean Rhyan at right guard, and Zach Tom at right tackle. 
 
The team signed Andre Dillard during the offseason, but he will likely be a swing tackle. Thus, the biggest question for the group is whether Jordan Morgan, the franchise’s 2024 first round selection, will crack the starting lineup eventually, either to replace Rhyan at guard or Walker at left tackle.  
 
SAFETY
Xavier McKinney inked a four-year deal worth $68 million and will man the free safety position. He will undoubtedly be a difference-maker for the secondary and defense as a whole. However, who will eventually win the strong safety position battle? The Packers heavily targeted safeties in this year’s NFL draft by selecting Javon Bullard in the second round, Evan Williams in the fourth round, and Kitan Oladapo in the fifth round. 

All three draftees bring versatility and a unique skill set, but I believe Bullard will see the most time opposite McKinney in 2024. In fact, NFL.com’s Chad Reuter projects that Bullard will find himself on the All-Rookie Team by season’s end. 

“Bullard can make plays on the ball and secure open-field tackles whether he’s lined up deep or inside the box, which makes him a great complement to free-agent addition Xavier McKinney,” Reuter wrote. “Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will have the flexibility to play single-high or two-deep coverage. Bullard showed a proclivity for making big plays in big games during his Georgia career. If he does the same thing this fall, it should lead to a successful Packers campaign and a spot for him on the All-Rookie Team.”
 
QB2
General manager Brian Gutekunst drafted a quarterback in each of the last two drafts, selecting Sean Clifford in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and Michael Pratt in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft. That has set the stage for a battle to be Jordan Love’s backup. 

Pratt, Tulane’s all-time leader in career passing yards and touchdowns, threw for over 9,600 yards and 90 touchdowns during his collegiate year and has impressed LaFleur thus far. “I think he's a guy that he definitely is a tough, fearless thrower, and that to me is a prerequisite with the position. You gotta be able to stand in there and throw in muddy pockets, throw in the face of pressure, and I think he exhibited that. I think he's a winner, so we were excited. We were kind of shocked that he was still there in the seventh,” LaFleur said earlier in the offseason, according to ESPN's Rob Demovsky. 

Meanwhile, Clifford is the incumbent and won the QB2 job last season after an impressive training camp and preseason. “He's a game-time, gamer. Kind of a little bit of Matt Flynn in him,” quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said in May. 

2020, the year Love was drafted, was the only time since LaFleur took over that the team has carried three quarterbacks on the initial 53-man roster.
 
KICKER
As former team Vice President Andrew Brandt consistently says on Twitter (“X,” to be technical), “Kickers are like lawyers; never truly appreciated until you need a good one.” 

The Packers went through an up-and-down campaign a season ago with rookie Anders Carlson, one that ended with him missing a 41-yard field goal in the Divisional Round that would have given the Packers a seven-point lead with roughly six minutes left. Carlson converted 50 percent of his kicks from 40-plus yards out (7/13 during the regular season), including 4 of 9 between 40 and 49 yards, and he closed the season with a missed kick (either field goal or extra point) in five straight contests and 10 of the last 12. He was also dead last among qualified kickers in XP% during the regular season, making 87.2 percent of his extra points, as well as 24th among qualified kickers in FG% at 81.8%, according to Pro Football Reference. 

Those paltry figures forced Gutekunst to bring in Greg Joseph for competition. Joseph spent the last three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and converted 80% of his field goal attempts in 2023. 

“I think he’s done a nice job,” LaFleur said of Carlson’s response to the addition of Joseph, according to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “I think all those guys, there’s been highs and lows for all of them. I think it’s a very tight battle. You don’t really know until you start getting more into those high-pressure, game-like situations. It was cool to have a little bit more of that today being a two-minute situation and see how those guys responded.”