5 Green Bay Packers Players Who Should See Their Roles Expand in 2015

The benefit of being a draft-and-develop team like the Green Bay Packers is in any given year rookies or players who had small roles the year before can be called on to step into the spotlight and produce for the team. 

Many of the Packers' eventual starters came from inauspicious beginnings, such as undrafted free agent Tramon Williams and seventh-round draft selection Donald Driver.

Often, players move into a starting role due to injury, like left tackle David Bakhtiari did, and perform so well that they earn the position the following season. 

These five players all had promise at the start of the 2014 season, but injuries or competition at their position on the depth chart limited their snaps and their potential to start. In 2015, however, all of these Packers could see their roles grow, from making more of an impact when they do take the field to becoming full-time starters. 

Casey Hayward, CB

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Casey Hayward started one game in 2014 and was the Packers' primary nickel corner. In fact, Hayward was the highest-graded slot cornerback in the league in 2014, per Pro Football Focus. 

Of Hayward's 470 total snaps last season, he played 225 in the slot, per Pro Football Focus, allowing only 88 yards after the catch on 16 receptions with three interceptions.

But Hayward could be spending little to no time in the slot in 2015 if Dom Capers slots him into the starting outside corner role opposite Sam Shields. Though the Packers will likely draft a cornerback to compete with Hayward for the job, Hayward has proved he can make an impact. 

He looked the part of a starting cornerback after his impressive rookie season in which he had 53 combined tackles, six interceptions and 21 passes defended. But a hamstring injury limited him to just three games in 2013.

Hayward is only 5'11", 192 pounds, and he could be outmatched physically by a candidate the Packers bring into camp. But what he lacks in size he makes up in the ability to make plays on the ball. If he can prove he's solid in coverage, he could see 16 starts in 2015. 

"I've got confidence that if we need to expand his role that he'll step in, and he's always responded in the past when we've asked him to do more," Capers said in October, per Paul Imig of Fox Sports Wisconsin. "So I think he's very capable of doing that."

Sam Barrington, ILB

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Inside linebacker Sam Barrington played in 14 games and started seven in 2014 and, with good health, could be starting a full 16 games in 2015 as the Packers' starting middle linebacker.

A seventh-round draft selection in 2013, Barrington played a total of one snap his rookie season, in Week 7 against the Cleveland Browns, per Pro Football Focus.

Despite that inauspicious start to his career, Barrington found himself receiving more and more snaps through the 2014 season as Green Bay's coaching staff grew increasingly disappointed with what A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones were putting on the field. 

Exactly one year after his first NFL snap in 2013, Barrington started his first game in Week 7 of the 2014 season and the following one as well. His snaps dropped back down to an average of 13.7 in Weeks 10-12, per Pro Football Focus, as the Packers began to use Clay Matthews inside. 

But Barrington started again in Week 13 against the New England Patriots and would start every game after that through the postseason. On the year, Barrington had 53 combined tackles, a sack and a pass defensed. He graded out 34th out of 60 inside linebackers with 25 percent or more of snaps, per Pro Football Focus, which wasn't exceptional but was better than Hawk and Jones. 

As the Packers look to the draft to find an inside linebacker to compete for a starting job, Barrington has a good chance of earning the other one in training camp.

"I like the step Sam Barrington made," head coach Mike McCarthy said at the combine in February. "I thought he made a huge step, and that's what you look for."

Josh Boyd, DL

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Josh Boyd played in 15 games in 2014 and started four, with him needing to prove that he could be just as effective as a run defender as a pass-rusher.

Though he took some snaps from Datone Jones in 2013, Boyd was used mostly in pass-rushing situations, and as the two have continued to battle one another for starts, Boyd has tried to show that he can be a complete defensive lineman. 

It's worked: Though Boyd doesn't play near the level of Mike Daniels, he's proved to be solid against the run as well as in rushing, whereas Jones' role has been more in pass-rushing situations only. That could mean more snaps in 2015 as the Packers look to fortify the run defense. 

Boyd had 21 combined tackles in 2014, including three for loss, and a pass defensed over 421 snaps, per Pro Football Focus. 

Jared Abbrederis, WR

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Considering that Jared Abbrederis didn't play a snap in an NFL game last season after tearing his ACL in training camp, it's a given that his role will expand in 2015. 

However, his inclusion on this list isn't a cop-out; expect Abbrederis to have a significant role not only on Green Bay's offense, but on special teams as well.

It's almost a given that Davante Adams will take the No. 3 receiver position behind Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, which will leave Abbrederis and Jeff Janis to compete to be the fourth receiver used in four-wide sets. It's possible both get snaps at the same time if the Packers run any five-wide sets this season, which they utilized in 2010.

But even when Abbrederis isn't on the field on offense, he could take on a very important role on punt returns. In his career at Wisconsin, Abbrederis returned 55 punts for 587 yards and a score, per Sports-Reference.com. 

He averaged 10.7 yards per return, which was better than 75 percent of NFL returners in 2014.

Richard Rodgers, TE

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Third-round 2014 draft selection Richard Rodgers played 491 snaps last season, per Pro Football Focus—nearly 200 fewer than Andrew Quarless. 

As Rodgers improves as a blocker, expect him to have more snaps than Quarless in 2015 and, depending on whether the Packers add a high-impact tight end in the draft, potentially the most snaps at the position on the team next season. 

Rodgers had a slow start to the 2014 season, but after the halfway point, he totaled 114 yards over 13 receptions for two touchdowns as the No. 2 tight end.

Through Week 8, Rodgers was the sixth-worst tight end in the league in run blocking and the 19th-worst in pass blocking among the 63 tight ends, per Pro Football Focus. In Weeks 10 to 17, however, he improved to 48th among tight ends in run blocking and 20th in pass blocking. 

Aaron Rodgers spoke highly of Richard Rodgers' development last season. "He's got incredible hands; I dare say the best hands on the team," Aaron Rodgers said, per Robert Zizzo of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "He went through a stretch in training camp where he didn't drop a pass. Yeah, he's an exceptional player with great potential for us."