Packers Have Found Gold in Second-Year Safety, Jordan Love Amazed: “He Is Unbelievable.!”
On a preseason night in Indianapolis, Green Bay didn’t just flip the game on the Colts — they came away feeling like they’d struck gold at safety. With the back end banged up by injuries, Kitan Oladapo was bumped up to work with the ones and seized his chance with disciplined deep-ball work: disguising depth, reading the QB’s eyes, then closing the window on time — exactly what the staff wants from a safety in a modern, pattern-match system in the Jeff Hafley/Spagnuolo mold. Earlier in the week, Oladapo even closed a two-minute drill with an interception on a hurried throw, reinforcing the case that he’s vaulted out of last year’s backup role to stake a claim to real snaps.
It wasn’t just one pretty play; it was the process behind it: pedal → plant → break, no wasted steps, no grabbing — the kind of repeatable skill that carries into big-nickel and quarters/match packages the Packers use to squeeze outbreakers and erase crossers on 3rd-and-medium. The absences of Xavier McKinney (calf) and Zayne Anderson (knee) inadvertently opened a wide door for Oladapo: he took a full session with the ones and is expected to keep that rhythm through joint practices and the game — classic next-man-up.
The Colts matchup was more a test of temperament than a playbook clinic — and Green Bay rallied 23–19 thanks to the reserves tightening up in the second half, with Sean Clifford punching in an 11-yard rushing TD late in the fourth. That result doesn’t tell you everything about Oladapo, but it says plenty about how sharp the defense looks when a safety touches the ball at the right time: corners play to their strengths, the pass rush buys a half-beat, and the third-down call sheet opens up.
Afterward, Jordan Love — still the locker room’s compass even when he doesn’t suit up — summed up the room’s mood with a line that was crisp and loaded with meaning:
“He is unbelievable.! You feel it in the huddle—the speed, the instincts, the calm. Plays like that aren’t flashes to me; they’re habits. If he keeps stacking days like this, he won’t just help our defense, he’ll change the way we close games.”
Why is Oladapo a sensible “fit”? Because his profile tells a story of patience: a toe injury after the 2024 Combine, most of the offseason missed, rhythm lost early in the year, then a late push with 50 snaps in Week 18. In the summer of 2025, with his body finally “at 100%,” he’s begun to show the speed + communication that DB coach Ryan Downard praised as “smart, instinctive, just needs more reps.” The foundation was there; the opportunity only just arrived.
From here, the checklist is clear:
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Alignment share Deep/Box/Slot and the timing of late spins into robber.
TTT (time-to-trigger) from pedal to break, especially on 3rd-and-5 to 3rd-and-7.
Hand discipline at the catch point (limit illegal contact/DPI).
Communication through motion/bunch, maintaining leverage when rotating in zone-match.
If those metrics hold over the next week, Oladapo’s floor is uncuttable (core special teams + sub-package closer); his ceiling is the piece that lets Green Bay call games on its terms in the red zone and in two-minute. For a team that prizes merit over résumé, that’s the kind of “gold” you don’t want to miss in August.
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