Paul Bretl 2/25/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis — As GM Brian Gutekunst said after the season, the time to compete for championships is now for the Packers. There’s obviously a lot that goes into accomplishing that, but a key part of the equation will be a much more consistent pass rush from the four-man front.
“That’s gotta get better if we’re going to accomplish our goals that we want to accomplish this season,” said Gutekunst at the NFL combine.
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The Packers pass rush during the 2024 season was very all-or-nothing. On paper, the Packers’ defense as a whole finished top 10 in sacks and they were in the middle of the pack in terms of pressure rate. But when it comes to the play of the defensive front specifically, those figures don’t tell the whole story.
This was a Packers front that put together some big performances against lesser opponents, but against the top teams in the NFC, the pass rush went quiet. In Green Bay’s final three games of the season against Detroit, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, the trio of Jared Goff, Sam Darnold, and Jalen Hurts were pressured on a combined 30.6% of their dropbacks.
For some context around that figure, over the course of the NFL season, Dallas’ Dak Prescott was pressured on 30.9% of his dropbacks, which compared to the rest of the NFL, ranked 34th out of 43 eligible quarterbacks, according to PFF.
So instead, a more accurate portrayal of the Packers’ pass rush success–or lack thereof–from the four-man front is ESPN’s pass rush win rate metric, which measures how often a defender beats their blocker within 2.5 seconds. As a defensive front, Green Bay ranked 26th.
“I think the biggest thing and we talked a little about it earlier is just the fact we need to affect the quarterback with four,” Gutekunst said. “How we do that kind of remains to be seen. We had good moments last year, but it just needs to be more consistent. It needs to be able to control the game when we need to control the game and finish games off.”
Also contributing to the Packers’ sack and pressure numbers were the blitzes and simulated pressures orchestrated by defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley in order to provide his defensive front with some help. The trickle-down effect of Hafley having to dial up more designed pressures is that, as Matt LaFleur said after the season, we didn’t truly see the Hafley scheme in full effect this past season.
“I envisioned rushing four and playing three deep/four under a heck of a lot more and we ended up doing a lot of simulated blitzes and different pressures and playing a bunch of cover-2,” said LaFleur. “But I think, again, you always evolve throughout the course of the season, through the offseason, but that was the foundation, I would say, of the defense. But I thought our guys did a great job of adjusting. I thought we were playing some pretty good football at the end.”
As we saw in the Super Bowl matchup between Philadelphia and Kansas City, a dominant defensive front can take over and control a game, even against an elite quarterback. A quick push throws off the timing and rhythm of the play, forces the quarterback off his spot, and muddies up the pocket.
However, when there isn’t steady pressure or push from the defensive front, the opposite happens, and it’s the defense that is at a major disadvantage, specifically the secondary. Particularly against top-tier opponents, asking the defensive backs to have to routinely defend for three or four seconds is a very tall task and is a big reason why the aforementioned quarterbacks above would put a string together some high-production outings against Green Bay.
The good news for the Packers is that this year’s defensive line class, both at tackle and end, is absolutely loaded with talent. One of the best in the draft business, Daniel Jeremiah, recently released version 2.0 of his top 50 big board, and included were 14 defensive linemen.
In Year 1 under Hafley, the Packers’ defense did make strides, even if the pass rush sputtered. However, as we look ahead to what’s next for the defense, ultimately, the ceiling for this unit–how good they can be–is going to be determined by how much the pass rush can improve this offseason.
“Again, I’m excited about the guys we have in the room,” added Gutekunst. “We’ll see if we add to it.”
With the NFL combine here and Gutekunst speaking later this morning, let’s take a look at one draft-specific question for each of the Packers position groups on offense.
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— Paul Bretl (@Paul_Bretl) February 25, 2025