This week’s news that Eric Stokes isn’t coming off the PUP list any time soon prompted this question from a listener in the Blue 58 Discord server:

Provided Rasul Douglas stays on the outside: Can Keisean Nixon take the nickel job from Stokes and what do you think happens to Stokes if he does?

My sense right now is that it looks pretty tough for Eric Stokes to have any kind of role in the Packers’ secondary as presently constructed. In fact, if he miraculously became fully healthy at this exact moment, I think he’d probably be no higher than the fourth cornerback on the depth chart and might be competing with Carrington Valentine for reps, just given the fact that Stokes has been essentially out of football for almost a year.

And that’s really for one simple reason: the Packers have no reason to move Jaire Alexander and no intention of moving Rasul Douglas, and Eric Stokes has essentially no utility as a slot corner, meaning there’s nowhere for him to play.

First, the obvious point: Jaire Alexander is an elite outside cornerback. Though he could play in the slot if he wanted to, why bother? He’s great on the outside. Leave him there.

Next, even though Rasul Douglas probably could help the Packers a lot at safety, the Packers don’t seem keen on that at the moment. Eric Stokes isn’t taking reps from Douglas, so that’s a non-starter.

As far as the slot, it’s basically true to say that Eric Stokes has never played in the slot. Between the nine games he played in 2022, his entire rookie season, and his entire college career, Eric Stokes has played a grand total of 88 snaps as a slot corner. For comparison’s sake, Keisean Nixon logged 88 snap slots between Weeks 12 and 13 last year alone. Getting him on the field in the slot just doesn’t seem super likely.

What happens to Eric Stokes?

So, what do the Packers do with their 2021 first-round pick? I see three options

• Eric Stokes doesn’t play very much

• Eric Stokes cross-trains and learns to play in the slot

• Rasul Douglas moves…somewhere…and Eric Stokes fills his spot

First, it’s very possible, and I’d even say likely at this point, that we’re not going to see very much of Eric Stokes this year. If he’s on the PUP list heading into the regular season, he’ll be on the shelf for the first four weeks of the season, minimum. Looking at the Packers’ schedule, it seems reasonable to assume that if he needs a couple of weeks to ramp up after coming off the PUP list, which would push his 2023 debut until after the Packers’ Week 6 bye at the very earliest.

Everything we’ve heard about his injury seems to indicate that’s an aggressive timeline, so it’s probably best to assume we won’t see Stokes until midseason or later.

Second, it’s certainly possible that Eric Stokes could learn to become a slot corner. This strikes me as the least realistic option, first because he’s essentially starting from scratch with the position, and second because he’s just not very well-suited to playing in the slot. Stokes is a long, fast corner with poor short-area quickness. He’d be working against his physical tools playing there.

Finally, it’s possible that the Packers could move Rasul Douglas to one of two spots in an effort to improve the overall strength of their secondary and pave the way to get Stokes onto the field. I like this option best because it fits with the Packers’ overall mantra of getting the best players on the field, regardless of position.

If you haven’t noticed, the Packers have a brewing problem at safety. Darnell Savage is expensive in ways not commensurate with his talent, and he has nobody to play next to him. Many have tried, but nobody has claimed the spot and made it their own. Douglas seems to be the Packers' only untested option, and moving him there would give the Packers a chance to work Stokes back into the lineup.

In any case, it looks like getting Stokes onto the field in 2023 is going to require some maneuvering or patience or both. I know this is just how the game breaks, but it’s still quite a turn for a player who just a year ago looked like he was getting ready to take a huge step forward in his career.