Getty Tariq Carpenter is moving to inside linebacker for the 2023 season.
Tariq Carpenter is embracing his position change with the Green Bay Packers heading into the 2023 season, but the former seventh-round pick is still trying to find his way in the inside linebacker room as offseason workouts wind down.
Carpenter announced earlier in the offseason that the Packers would be moving him from safety — where he played three games as a rookie in 2022 — to inside linebacker for the upcoming season due to his hybrid skill set as a defender. So far, though, he says he still feels “like a fish out of water” learning a new side of the defensive playbook as well as the responsibilities that come with playing at the inside linebacker spot.
“Still feeling like a fish out of water,” Carpenter said after June 6’s OTA practice, via Packers Central. “It’s on me. I’ve got to spend my time in the playbook. It’s a whole new language. Me coming from playing safety, I didn’t need to know what the D-line is doing and what gap I’ve got to fit and get the defensive linemen set and know what the back-end coverage is, as well. So, there’s a lot more to it.
“I’m not going to quit, I’m going to go out there and try to learn from my mistakes and get better.”
Packers Experimented With Tariq Carpenter in 2022
Carpenter’s career with the Packers up to this point has been in a bit of a positional flux. He was drafted in the seventh round last spring out of Georgia Tech, where he started 41 games at safety, but his size (6-foot-3, 230 pounds) and power as a run-stopper suggested he would play more of a hybrid linebacker role at the NFL level.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur even indicated a move away from safety would be in Carpenter’s future following the draft, telling Larry McCarren of Packers.com that the team would be moving him to “the inside linebacker room” for his 2022 rookie season.
Instead, though, Carpenter ended up beginning the season at safety after all, earning his keep on special teams with few defensive reps coming his way. The Packers briefly experimented with moving him to outside linebacker in December to help with their banged-up edge-rushing group, but he flipped back to safety before the end of the year and played some rotational snaps (16) in the secondary down the stretch.
Now, the plan is clear for Carpenter heading into Year 2: Learn the inside linebacker position and become a contributor for the middle of the Packers’ defense in 2023 while continuing to bring value to their special teams unit as a hard-hitting cover guy.
“Riq’s been there predominately the entire offseason, just a move we felt like could be in the best interest of him and he could be a piece,” LaFleur said of Carpenter on June 6. “Because we’ve all seen his value on [special] teams and the impact he can make. And so, it’s just another way to try to see where he best fits.”
Can Tariq Carpenter Crack ILB Rotation for 2023?
Carpenter admitted there are “a lot of mixed feelings” about changing positions so much in his first 14 months in the NFL, but he is determined to make his new role work. He told reporters he is planning to stay in Green Bay during the break between this week’s mandatory minicamp and the start of training camp in late July, eager to dive into the playbook further while keeping his coaches close and his conditioning up.
Still, Carpenter will have his work cut out for him trying to crack the inside linebacker rotation heading into the 2023 season, even if his skill set as a special teams contributor makes him a likely candidate to make the 53-man roster later this summer.
The Packers return both of last year’s starters — De’Vondre Campbell and 2022 first-rounder Quay Walker — at the position with no questions about their standing as the primary duo in the middle. They also re-signed veteran Eric Wilson, another special teams ace, to a one-year deal for the 2023 season, adding him to the depth picture alongside third-year contributor Isaiah McDuffie.
Carpenter’s versatility and special teams value might buy him some favor with the coaching staff, but depending on how many linebackers they aim to keep, he could be forced to outperform either Wilson or McDuffie in order to secure a role on defense.
