The Green Bay Packers signed Rudy Ford because of his special-teams ability. But when Adrian Amos went down with a concussion in Green Bay’s previous game, Ford had to step in at safety against the New England Patriots.

But that presented the Packers with the dilemma of balancing Ford’s roles between his emergency call in the secondary and his bread-and-butter on special teams. Depending on Amos’ condition, Green Bay could have those decisions to make again on Sunday, when it plays the New York Giants.

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“We subbed him a little bit depending on what the series was and what phase we were in, whether we were in punt or kickoff or that sort of thing,” Packers special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said, “and I’m expecting some of the same things as we move forward. We’re conscious of how many snaps he’s playing on defense and what the drive looks like and can he go on punt return or now can we flip around and put him on punt before the defensive series.”

Ford didn’t play a defensive snap in his first three games with Green Bay, then played 44 in the 27-24 overtime victory against New England. Conversely, after being on the field for 17 special-teams plays in the previous game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ford had nine against the Packers.

An All-State running back at New Hope High School who made the transition to the secondary at Auburn, Ford split his first four NFL seasons between the Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles after entering the league as a sixth-round draft choice in 2017. Before the 2021 campaign, he had been on the field for 806 special-teams plays and 125 defensive snaps in 41 regular-season games.

After the Jacksonville signed Ford in March 2021 to a two-year, $4.2 million contract, he had 423 defensive snaps and 179 special-teams plays as he moved into the role of the Jaguars’ slot corner six games into the season. But improvements in Jacksonville’s defensive backfield made it less likely that Ford would have as prominent a role there in 2022, and the Jaguars released him on Aug. 29.

Green Bay signed Ford two days later to bolster its special teams. But against New England, Ford recorded seven tackles on defense, the second-highest total of his career. He had eight tackles in Jacksonville’s 9-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 7, when he played a career-high 66 defensive snaps.

“I think he did an outstanding job,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “Playing with great effort, first and foremost, but just doing his responsibility. Certainly, you felt his presence out there in terms of his physicality. I want to say he had seven tackles. I thought he did a really good job.”

LaFleur made that remark one week after praising Ford’s play on special teams against Tampa Bay.

“You can feel those guys getting down there, both Keisean (Nixon) and Rudy,” LaFleur said about Green Bay’s punt coverage. “They can cover up a lot of mistakes in your coverage lanes, fanning the field. They forced a lot of fair catches. Obviously, Pat (O’Donnell) had an amazing day punting the football. Just their ability to get down and win their one-on-ones or win a double-team on the outside made a huge difference in our punt unit.”

In Green Bay’s 14-12 victory over the Buccaneers, O’Donnell had a net average of 44.7 yards on seven punts. Ford stopped a return for no gain at the Tampa Bay 13-yard line, a punt was downed at the Bucs 2 and fair catches came at the Tampa Bay 11, 14 and 11.

Against New England, O’Donnell had a net average of 32.2 yards on five punts. While the Packers downed a punt at the Patriots 2 and there was a fair catch at the New England 8, Marcus Jones, a rookie from Enterprise High School and Troy, broke off punt returns of 20 and 29 yards.

Green Bay’s injury and practice participation report for this week shows Amos did not practice on Wednesday and was a limited participant on Thursday and Friday. He’s listed as questionable to play in Sunday’s game, but Amos did accompany the Packers to London.

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“(Ford) was thrust in when we unfortunately lost Adrian,” Green Bay defensive coordinator Joe Barry said. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here one week, one month or a year, you’re the next man up, and like I tell you guys all the time, we take the approach that we don’t have backups, we have starters in waiting because you never know when your opportunity’s going to happen. …

“Rudy came in and did a heck of a job for us. It was great.”

The Packers and Giants kick off at 8:30 a.m. CDT Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. NFL Network will televise the game.

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