The Packers have wide receiver Bo Melton taking snaps at cornerback, but Melton makes it clear he is not switching to defense. He instead will try to play both positions.
“It’s just something that came up,” Melton said Wednesday, via Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com. “I want to give it a shot. I’m still a wide receiver, so I’m not really transitioning to no cornerback, but if it works, it works.”
The Packers are deep at wide receiver after using a first-round pick on Matthew Golden and a third-rounder on Savion Williams. They cut cornerback Jaire Alexander this week, leaving them thin behind Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs and Carrington Valentine.
Melton played cornerback in high school and sparingly at the start of his college career at Rutgers. He plays a similar position to corner on the punt return unit, so he has experience tackling in the open field.
Melton’s time on the other side of the line confused both Packers quarterback Jordan Love and Melton’s brother, Max, a cornerback with the Cardinals.
Max saw the news on social media and called Bo, asking, “What the hell are you doing?”
The experiment might or might not work, but Melton is willing to try.
“There are very few guys who have done it in our league,” General Manager Brian Gutekunst said. “There have been a few and when a guy’s able to do that, it certainly helps your football team. Bo is everything we want in a football player out there as far as his ability as a receiver, certainly on [special] teams. If he’s able to add to his arsenal, that makes him really, really valuable to us.”
Melton, though, makes it clear he’s no Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall pick who will play both sides of the ball with the Jaguars as he did at Colorado.
“Travis is a different athlete, as everybody knows,” Melton said. “He’s a Heisman Trophy winner, won a lot of awards. I’m not going to compare myself to somebody that’s done that, but what I will say is I like to run for days.”
