Paul Bretl | 11/6/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After making the decision to trade away Preston Smith prior to Tuesday’s deadline, the Packers are turning over the back end of the defensive end rotation to Arron Mosby and Brenton Cox.
“Yeah, we’re excited to see both of those guys, see some more snaps,” said Gutekunst of Mosby and Cox. “I think certainly they’ve earned it. I thought they did a really nice job in training camp, and they’ve continued that through practice, and I think Mosby’s done a really nice job on teams for us. Brenton’s just really, I think he’s eager, and we’re eager to see him.”
Smith had struggled through the first nine games of the season, generating just 10 pressures and ranking 143rd in pressure rate out of defensive linemen with at least 100 pass rush snaps. As a result, his playing time was being reduced, going from averaging 40 snaps per contest in the first five games to just 27 over the last four, including a season-low of 21 against Detroit, and as Gutekunst said, that trend was going to continue.
Neither Mosby or Cox are bringing much experience to the table on the defensive side of the ball. Mosby was an undrafted rookie in 2022 and has played nine career defensive snaps, five of which came on Sunday versus Detroit, where he would record his first NFL sack. Cox, meanwhile, has played just five defensive snaps.
However, not unlike what the Packers did during last year’s trade deadline, where they traded away Rasul Douglas, leading to more playing time for Carrington Valentine, Green Bay is trying to recreate, to a degree, the success that they had at the cornerback position a season ago, by betting on the developmental growth and potential of Mosby and Cox to provide the pass rush with a boost.
“I think it’s no different than last year,” said Gutekunst, referencing the Douglas trade. “There’s some players we want to see. I think that the trend of how the snaps were going was only going to continue that way.
“I think again, it wasn’t something that we set out to do. It wasn’t something that we called a bunch of teams saying ‘hey are you interested in Preston Smith’ because we know his value. But when the opportunity came and we got the phone call, we just thought it made sense for us for what we’re trying to do.”
Overall, the Packers haven’t gotten enough consistent production out of their pass rush this season. According to ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric, which measures how often the Packers’ pass rushers win their matchup within 2.5 seconds, Green Bay will enter their bye week ranked 29th. The success that they have found in getting after the quarterback has often come from manufactured pressures designed by Hafley.
When it comes to the Packers’ defense as a whole reaching its ceiling this season, an improved four-man pass rush over the second half of the season will be a must. The name of the game is getting after the quarterback, and when done consistently, there is a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the defense with the timing and rhythm of the play being disrupted, which can then lead to mistakes.
“I think they’ve done a nice job so far,” said Gutekunst of the pass rush, “and I think those guys have got to continue to kind of work within the scheme and what we’re doing. This is the first year in this defense, so there’s always some kinks to work out. I expect a lot of those guys in the second half of the season. I think they’ll continue to improve, and I think allowing these two guys (Cox and Mosby) to get on the field a little bit and maybe some snaps to go to some other guys, too, I think will help us.”
Of course, it’s not as if Mosby and Cox will be tasked with shouldering the entire workload when it comes to turning the Packers’ pass rush performance around. It’s going to be a group effort.
Lukas Van Ness and JJ Enagbare will both see more opportunities as Green Bay fills the 20-25 snaps per game that are now available without Smith. And when it comes to the pass production, from the top with Rashan Gary, to the bottom of the defensive end rotation, the Packers need more from this group over the final eight games of the season.
“I think from that entire group, we need more from those guys as we move forward into the second half of the season and I think we’ll get that,” Gutekunst said of the defensive front. “I think as the last few games have trended, Lukas’ snaps have kinda already gone up to where he’s kinda gonna be probably and J.J. and then those guys, so I like that group. I like the way they work. They gotta continue to keep pushing and I think the addition of some of these guys getting some more snaps will help that.”