Fifth-round pick Kitan Oladapo had surgery on his foot to fix a stress fracture in his big toe.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Green Bay Packers fifth-round safety Kitan Oladapo was seen in a walking boot when the Packers opened up their rookie minicamp on Friday. It had not been previously reported, but Oladapo apparently suffered a stress fracture on his big toe while performing at the NFL Combine. Per the Packers’ Wes Hodkiewicz, Oladapo has already undergone surgery and is expected to be ready to return to the field by training camp.
In Indianapolis, Oladapo was able to record a 4.58-second 40-yard dash, a 36” vertical jump and a 9’9” broad jump, but chose not to run the agility drills. He didn’t run timed drills at his pro day at Oregon State during the pre-draft process, but was able to run positional drills, despite the foot injury.
It’s uncertain when Oladapo’s injury popped up at the combine, but that might be one of the reasons why his measurements were less than stellar at the event. The safety was the best run-defending safety in major college football last year, per Pro Football Focus, so his times were a bit of a surprise.
Oladapo’s injury also explains why the Packers brought him in as a pre-draft visit, too. Along with draft pick linebackers Edgerrin Cooper and Ty’Ron Hopper and free-agent signing Donovan Jennings, Oladapo was brought to Green Bay as one of the team’s allotted 30 visits during the draft process. Mind you, the Packers did this despite hiring former Oregon State interim defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach Anthony Perkins as a defensive quality control coach this offseason. You’d figure that if Green Bay had any non-medical questions about Oladapo, they’d have some good in-house intel via Perkins.
Hopefully, Oladapo, who figures to contribute this season as a special teamer and as a backup strong safety, makes a quick and clean recovery from his surgery. At the moment, the safety position seems to have a full room, as free agent signing Xavier McKinney, second-round pick Javon Bullard, fourth-round pick Evan Williams, Oladapo, 2023 seventh-round pick Anthony Johnson Jr. and special teams contributors Zayne Anderson and Benny Sapp III make up a highly-competitive room going into camp. It’s virtually certain that a few of those names will end up dropping off the 53-man roster at cutdowns, as there simply aren’t enough seats for the bodies that the Packers have in this game of musical chairs.
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