The road to get to 53 on the final roster is not for the faint of heart.
The Green Bay Packers made a couple of surprise decisions. However, in the case of Isaiah Simmons and Mecole Hardman, the Packers made the obvious (and correct) decision.
Green Bay brought Simmons in as a Swiss Army knife and wanted to turn him into a productive player by simplifying things for him. Instead of having Simmons bounce around position to position, the goal was to maximize his strengths at inside linebacker.
It never came together. The former first-round pick looked lost in coverage, and the game seemed to be moving way too fast for him to process.
Green Bay had the right idea: Get Simmons to focus on one position and excel at it. However, it ultimately didn’t work out. Instead of dragging it out any further, the Packers released him on cut-down day.
For what it’s worth, Simmons looked fine on special teams, and it looked like a way that he could sneak onto the roster. Green Bay wisely didn’t take that bait.
The Packers did right by Simmons in trying to put him in a spot where he could flourish and be a good fit for Jeff Hafley’s defense, while not having to worry about playing multiple positions. Here’s Hafley in July:
What we’ve tried to do with him is put him at one position. He’s learning how to play linebacker. He’s going through individual drills at linebacker. From a fundamental and technique standpoint, he’s focusing on doing one thing. For him, it’s getting better every day. It’s his physicality, it’s him understanding the defense, it’s him setting edges, it’s him playing in coverage. How quickly he can pick everything up, and how quickly he can get everything down, will determine how much we can do with him.
Still, Green Bay recognized that it was too risky to continue trying to pull those strings in the regular season when it wasn’t working. As became evident in his previous stops in Arizona and New York, athleticism and talent oozes from Simmons. It’s why so many fans were giddy when the Packers added him in free agency. But ultimately he didn’t fare better in Green Bay than he did elsewhere.
Then there’s Hardman. If not for two woeful special teams blunders as a punt returner in the first preseason game, Hardman may have made the roster. Instead, the Packers released him on Tuesday and signed him to the practice squad on Wednesday.
It’s a fascinating development. Typically, someone in Hardman’s spot — a six-year veteran who’s 27 years old — might not be overeager to accept a spot on a practice squad. However, the veteran wide receiver has done just that.
It’s worth keeping that in mind, but we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Ultimately, Hardman didn’t do enough to warrant a roster spot. If anything, he immediately hurt his chances with the two hiccups while serving as Green Bay’s punt returner against the New York Jets.
Malik Heath received the sixth spot at wide receiver instead. You can make a case that Heath didn’t do anything to really grab hold of that spot. Still, unlike Hardman, he didn’t damage his chances much, either.
With Hardman out of the picture, there’s a void left at punt returner for the Packers. That role alone served as the best way for the speedster to wiggle his way onto the initial 53-man roster.
Now Hardman will be on the practice squad, but his chances of being a game-day activation early on are pretty high. Green Bay has a long list of wide receivers dealing with injuries. On top of that, Hardman can serve as a placeholder at punt returner while the Packers figure that out on the fly. You may not trust Hardman as the punt returner after his preseason, but you probably trust him more than anyone else at this stage. He has plenty of experience, having returned 89 punts and 45 kickoffs in his career.
If it helps cushion the blow, Hardman was clearly aware of his mistakes in the exhibition against the Jets.
That’s what it all boils down to, making the right decisions and right choices out there on the field. Whether it’s letting the punt drop, making a fair catch, don’t catch inside the five, don’t try to pick it up after the ball bounces a second time, things I already know. The competitive nature in yourself, you want to make a play, want to make things happen, but in the end, you’ve got to make smart decisions and the best decisions for the team.
Hardman landing on the practice squad isn’t something to ignore. He’ll likely have a chance to crack the gameday roster against the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders in the first two weeks, and then it’ll be a to-be-determined situation after that.
Bringing in veterans with experience doesn’t always yield the desired results. Everyone knew, or at least they should’ve, that it was just as likely Simmons and Hardman wouldn’t make the team as it was that they would. Green Bay decided to take its medicine at the appropriate time, releasing them immediately before releasing the final roster.