GREEN BAY — No one knows how good Christian Kirksey will be in the middle of the Green Bay Packers’ defense, but the new inside linebacker has already made one smart decision:

He’s going to wear No. 58 — not No. 50.

Not that there’s anything wrong with No. 50, per se. A.J. Hawk, the franchise’s all-time leader in tackles, wore it for nine seasons after being the team’s 2006 first-round draft pick, won a Super Bowl wearing it and recorded 1,118 tackles in it.

And Blake Martinez, a 2016 fourth-round pick, wore it the past four years before signing a three-year, $30 million deal with the New York Giants as a free agent. Before leaving, he played in two NFC Championship Games wearing it and registered 570 tackles in it, leading the team in that category each of the past three seasons.

But as both Hawk and Martinez racked up tackles, they also at times rankled members of the team’s passionate fan base for not being bigger impact players than they were. Some of that criticism was fair, of course, considering that in their 13 combined seasons in Green Bay, they had a total of 12 interceptions, six forced fumbles and 30 sacks between them. (For the record, undrafted rookie free agent Tipa Galeai, who was college teammates at Utah State with first-round draft pick Jordan Love, was issued No. 50.)

Now, after letting Martinez walk in free agency, the Packers are hoping Kirksey can fill the void in the middle of the field — and deliver more field-tilting plays — at the discounted rate his two-year, $13 million deal provides.

Signed on March 12 after being released by the Cleveland Browns, the 27-year-old Kirksey played two seasons for now-Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine in Cleveland in 2014 and 2015, setting the stage for the two most productive seasons of his career — 2016, when he posted 148 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, and 2017, when he had 138 tackles, 3.5 sacks, six tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.

But injuries derailed him the past two years, as he played just seven games in 2018 because of shoulder, ankle and hamstring injuries and played only two games last year after suffering a torn pectoral tendon that required surgery.

“We’re very excited about the signing. Just going through the medical part of it and talking to our people, they didn’t think it was anything that was long term,” Pettine said of Kirksey’s recent injuries. “He’s never been a guy that’s been injury prone, so obviously that’s a concern when you see the amount of time that he’s missed (the past two years).

“But overall, I just think it was a great signing for us for a lot of reasons. We’re not just bringing a really good player into the room. This is a guy who has great leadership ability. He already has a head start on learning the system with him being drafted, obviously when I was in Cleveland. Certainly it’s a risk when you look at it, but certainly it was a risk that we were more than willing to take.”

The way the Packers see it, they needed a different type of player at the position, and they believe the 6-foot-2, 235-pound Kirksey can deliver what Martinez did not, even though Kirksey’s non-tackle numbers (two career interceptions, four forced fumbles, 11.5 sacks in 73 career games) aren’t any better than Martinez’s numbers (three interceptions, two forced fumbles, 10 sacks in 61 games).

But, the Packers believe he’ll fit better with outside edge rushers Za’Darius and Preston Smith, and Pettine himself believes that the San Francisco 49ers’ run-it-down-their-throats approach in the Packers’ NFC Championship Game loss is not a harbinger of things to come on defense. Rather, Pettine still thinks most teams will attack the Packers through the air, where they believe Kirksey will fare better than Martinez.

For his part, Kirksey just wants to regain his pre-injury form during what he admits is a prove-it deal.

“I want to get back to playing great football,” Kirksey said. “I think that signing this two-year deal and re-establishing myself and getting my name back out there and letting people know Christian Kirksey is back, Christian Kirksey is a great linebacker in this league. That’s what I’m shooting for.”

Here’s a closer look at the linebackers as the Packers prepare for training camp, which is scheduled to begin with the full team reporting on Tuesday:

Depth chart

55 Za’Darius Smith: 6-foot-4, 272 pounds, age 27, sixth year from Kentucky.

58 Christian Kirksey: 6-2, 235, 27, seventh year at Iowa.

42 Oren Burks: 6-3, 233, 25, third year at Vanderbilt.

91 Preston Smith: 6-5, 265, 27, sixth year at Mississippi State.

52 Rashan Gary: 6-5, 277, 22, second year from Michigan.

47 Tim Williams: 6-3, 244, 26, fourth year from Alabama.

44 Ty Summers: 6-1, 241, 24, second year from TCU.

56 Randy Ramsey: 6-3, 238, 23, first year from Arkansas.

57 Greg Roberts: 6-5, 258, 24, second year from Baylor.

40 Curtis Bolton: 6-0, 228, 24, second year from Oklahoma.

54 Kamal Martin: 6-3, 240, 22, rookie from Minnesota.

53 Jonathan Garvin: 6-4, 257, 20, rookie from Miami (Fla.).

51 Krys Barnes: 6-2, 229, 22, rookie from UCLA.

50 Tipa Galeai: 6-5, 229, 23, rookie from Utah State.

45 Delontae Scott: 6-5, 246, 23, rookie from SMU.

Burning question

What do Smiths do for an encore?

It’s hard to imagine a team getting a better bang for their free agent buck than what the Packers got from Za’Darius and Preston Smith, who combined for 29.5 sacks, 86 quarterback hits and 108 quarterback pressures last season, including the playoffs. They were also transformative personalities in the locker room, and now they must replicate their debuts with impressive Year 2s. That said, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine would also like to reduce their snap counts, as the two Smiths played a whopping 83.7% of the defensive snaps.

“I do think there were times where Preston and Z probably played maybe a little too much,” Pettine said. “We do want to take some off their plate.”

On the rise

Rashan Gary

When a team uses the 12th overall pick on a player, the expectation is for him to deliver immediate dividends. That wasn’t necessary with Gary, a 21-year-old rookie who had two high-priced free agents who were added at his position more than a month before the draft. That allowed the Packers coaches to take it slow with Gary, who was shifting from being primarily a hand-in-the-dirt down lineman at Michigan to a stand-up outside linebacker.

Now, though, with Gary having played 244 defensive snaps last season, during which he posted 30 tackles (14 solo), two sacks, three tackles for a loss, a fumble recovery, seven QB hits and 19 QB pressures, the hope is that he’ll make big strides and be part of Pettine’s plan to reduce the load placed on the Smiths.

“We’re looking forward to Rashan making a big jump,” Pettine said. “It’s a shame that he didn’t have this in-person offseason. I think that would have helped him. The feedback that we got from him, the people that he’s been with, he’s having a really good offseason given the circumstances. (But) he needs to take a big jump. When you go back and look at last year’s tape, he did some really good things with us in the time he was in there. I do see Rashan taking a significantly increased role.”