Safety Rudy Ford has played all but five of the Green Bay Packers’ 356 defensive snaps in the 2023 NFL season. He’s been on the field for one special-teams play.

Consider the transformation the former Auburn defensive back has undergone since entering the NFL as a sixth-round draft choice of the Arizona Cardinals in 2017: As a rookie, Ford had no defensive snaps and 169 special-teams plays.

“He’s just doing his job,” Packers safeties coach Ryan Downard said on Monday. “He’s doing it at a high level. He’s playing hard. When you turn that tape on, you see how hard he plays.”

In his first four NFL seasons, Ford was on the field for 125 defensive snaps and 806 special-teams plays.

In 2021, Ford got the opportunity to play some at slot corner for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He got into the games for 423 defensive snaps and 179 special-team plays.

When the Jaguars released Ford at the end of the preseason last year, Green Bay signed him to help on special teams. But the former New Hope High School running back ended up starting six games at safety, too.

In 2023, Ford as been at safety since the start of the season. As the Packers return from their bye with a Saturday afternoon meeting with the Denver Broncos, Ford has intercepted a pass in two straight games and ranks second on the team with 35 total tackles and 24 solo tackles.

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“I think Rudy Ford is a great example of why you have an offseason, why you have OTAs, why you have training camp,” Green Bay defensive coordinator Joe Barry said on Monday. “If you remember, we signed Rudy Ford the first week last year. You book those reps, and when you don’t have those, you’re kind of learning literally on the fly. That took Rudy almost the entire season compared to this year where he had an entire offseason. It’s his second year in the system, he gets a nine-week offseason, he gets an entire training camp, and he’s not a young player, but he’s a young player with us, just in his second year, so I think all those things factor in.

“When a guy really puts everything into it and works and grinds and studies and then goes out and makes some plays, you’re happy for him. He’s bounced around in his career, and he’s kind of looked for a landing spot to be able to show what he can do. The thing I respect the most about Rudy is the way he approaches every week and just locks in and works his butt off into the game plan.”

Downard said the extra time on task had benefited Ford.

“He came in so late last year,” Downard said. “He did a good job for us plugging him there. … But now he’s had a chance to really detail out all the jobs, all the assignments. I talk about that up here all the time — how detailed these jobs are. It’s not just: ‘Hey, go cover that guy.’ There’s eye progressions. There’s thought progressions. There’s coverage mechanisms. There’s checks. He’s got the opportunity to now finally embrace all of that. I think he’s piecing it together.

“He’s very intentional. He’s very detailed. He wants to know the ins and outs of everything.”

Green Bay is Ford’s fourth NFL team. He played 23 games with the Cardinals, 21 with the Philadelphia Eagles and 15 with the Jaguars. He has 22 games with the Packers and has started 11 of the past 13 dating back to last season.

“I’ve just been trying to focus on dominating and consistency,” Ford said. “Those are the two things I’m focused on. I set out goals to achieve, and that’s my approach. Every game, I put my all into it, and whenever they evaluate me and we have those conversations, there shouldn’t be any, ‘Oh, this and that.’ Does he do it or does he not?

“I’m just focused on: How do I get the scheme down better, and how’s my play style helping this team? I always look at areas to improve, whether they say I have a good game or I have a bad game.”

The Packers and the Broncos will square off at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver. Each team has lost its past two games. Green Bay has a 2-3 record. The Broncos are 1-5.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.