The Minnesota Vikings wide receiver is cleared to play in Week 17; the Green Bay Packers defense will be tested.
The Green Bay Packers defense has not had a good week. Following a Week 16 loss of thirty points to the NFL’s worst offense—the Carolina Panthers—the team declared that Eric Stokes would be placed on injured reserve for the third time this season and that two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander would be suspended. Put another way, the Packers won’t start their two best cornerbacks against the Minnesota Vikings.
Naturally, the Packers have experienced this before this season. Alexander has participated in six games, compared to just three for Stokes. Despite both players being clearly not fully healthy, neither of them performed well when they were on the field against Carolina last week.
The Packers will start rookie Carrington Valentine and journeyman Corey Ballentine as their outside defensive backs in the absence of their two best cornerbacks. With victories over the Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions, and Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay is 3-2 to begin the season.
Nevertheless, this Week 17 encounter will present them with the toughest test of the entire season. Similar to the Packers, the Vikings are 7-8 and must prevail tonight in order toThe Vikings announced earlier this week that Jaren Hall, a fifth-round pick in 2023, will start at quarterback in place of Josh Dobbs or Nick Mullens. Despite only having 101 career passing yards, the elusive Hall might offer the best matchup against the subpar run defense of the Packers.
The Vikings still have wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who is possibly the best pass catcher in the NFL at the moment, even though their quarterback is a rookie. It will be difficult for Valentine and Ballentine (or, given Joe Barry’s background, Preston Smith) to cover him.
The Packers’ season opener against the Vikings was lost due to Ezoic Jefferson’s injury, but rookie wide receiver Jordan Addison torched the Green Bay defense with seven receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown. The vibrant newcomer has been. It is obviously not ideal to start two backup cornerbacks against the best wide receivers in the Vikings. But the Packers defense needs to capitalize on Hall’s lack of NFL experience. The success of the team will depend on applying pressure to him while—and this is crucial—preventing him from rushing to make quick gains.
With Valentine and Ballentine starting at cornerback in that game as well, the Packers defense held Tommy DeVito to just 158 yards passing in their loss to the New York Giants. But they also gave him a 71-yard rush and let the Giants run for more than 200 yards overall. This is just not possible when facing the Vikings.
