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Opportunity awaits Packers young group of defensive ends following Preston Smith trade

Paul Bretl | 11/11/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — With Preston Smith now on the Pittsburgh Steelers, opportunity now awaits several young members of the Packers’ defensive end room.

“Yeah, we’re excited to see both of those guys, see some more snaps,” said Brian 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.”

When it came to final roster cuts back in late-August, the Packers would go very heavy along the defensive front, keeping 11 players in total between the defensive end and defensive tackles positions. The trickle-down effect of going heavy at one spot is going light elsewhere, but Green Bay couldn’t risk losing either Cox or Mosby–so they kept both.

Cox, who wins with power and violent hands, has always had the ability to rush the quarterback, and that part of his game should be magnified and on display in Jeff Hafley’s defensive scheme, where the ultimate goal is for the members of the defensive front to get off the ball and into the backfield, generating TFLs and sacks–a play-style that Cox has “embraced,” as LaFleur put it over the summer.

Mosby would make several splash plays over the Packers three preseason games, including an interception and a forced fumble that was returned for a touchdown. Also a contributing factor to him making the initial 53-man roster was his versatility, able to fill a variety of roles along the defensive front that helped distinguish him.

“He’s very versatile, pretty much one of the fastest guys in the room,” said JJ Enagbare on Monday. “He can leverage naturally through his height so he’s able to get under guys and pretty much has everything that everyone else has – the speed rush, the power rush. He can do a little bit of it all, very versatile guy.”

Cox has been inactive each game during the regular season, although that is now likely to change going forward. Mosby, meanwhile, has been a core special teams contributor, ranking sixth on the team in snaps, playing steadily across four different phases.

Over the last two weeks, Mosby has also seen a few defensive snaps against Jacksonville and Detroit, which included him earning his first career NFL sack, bringing down Jared Goff on a third-down play.

“I just got in there, did my part” said Mosby of the sack. “They called my number, just like I said used my speed and then transitioned to power and it just happened to go how it was planned and got a sack.

“Just going forward believe in my speed, believe in my power, what the guys teaching me since I got into this role playing D-end.”

Although from the outside looking in, with Cox and Mosby playing either no or very few defensive snaps this season, we have no idea how they are performing in practice or what kind of strides they are making. However, as Gutekunst said, the momentum that the two established over the summer has carried over into their play on the practice field during the regular season, earning them these opportunities.

“Really invested in my speed, believing in my speed, going forward,” said Mosby on where he’s seen growth in his own game. With RG and them guys that I’ve been a part of, you gut JJ, Lukas Van Ness, those guys, just going on with them and them telling me believe in my speed. So really just believing in it going forward.

“That last preseason game, it kid of showed a little bit and then now just going forward and I had the little sack against the Detroit Lions. Really just going forward, believing in my speed, believing in my strength and let the rest be the rest.”

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.

“He’s been here all my three years here and was a big part of my success and growth as a player and partly as a man, and as a teammate,” said JJ Enagbare about Smith being traded. “Losing him is definitely hit us close to the heart, but we got guys in here in our room who are ready to take advantage of the opportunity that’s about to come up in the next few weeks and therefore after.”

With Smith no longer in the meeting rooms or on field, the Packers defensive end group doesn’t only have snaps that now have to be filled on Sundays, but there’s a leadership role that has become vacant as well.

Enagbare would mention that, as one of the veterans on the team, Smith was often the one giving pre-game or post-game speeches, and always helped bring the juice before taking the field. He was also mentor, both on and off the field, to many of the young defensive ends that ended up in Green Bay.

Filling that void will start with Rashan Gary in the defensive end room, but to some degree, it will be a collective effort, and will extend beyond this one position group.

“There’s definitely some guys like X, RG, probably a Josh Jacobs, Jordan Love,” said Enagbare about filling that leadership role. “We have numerous guys. We’re still a young team but we still got guys who have played a lot of football and pretty much led and lead well.”

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 entered 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.

Accomplishing this turnaround will now be much more dependent upon the play and contributions that the defense gets from what has quickly become a young, a somewhat inexperienced defensive end room.

“Step up. Step up,” said Rashan Gary when asked what his message was. “Plain and simple. There’s a big opportunity. Everybody prays and asks for opportunities like this, so the opportunity’s out there, let’s make the most of it and finish the season how we want to finish it.”

Packers chasing consistency in second half in order to peak at right time

Paul Bretl | 11/11/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — At 6-3, there’s been a lot that has gone right for the Packers through the first half of the season. However, the goal is to be peaking at the right time come the playoffs, and in order to do that, more consistency is going to be required during the second half of the season.

“I think just more consistency and maybe a little bit better in situational football,” said Brian Gutekunst last Tuesday. “I think to be the team that can go deep in the playoffs and to contend for championships that you have to be that kind of team. We’re working towards that and I think these guys have had really good moments but you’ve got to be consistent with that, you’ve got to be able to call upon that whenever you need it.”

Overall, the Packers rank ninth in points per game and third in yards per game. But the up-and-down performances on offense are happening fairly often this season. Going back to the team’s Week 4 matchup with Minnesota, the Packers had 10 drives, whether they resulted in a score, turnover or punt that lasted fewer than five plays. The week after, versus the Rams, six of the Packers’ 10 possessions ended in three plays or fewer.

Against the Houston Texans in Week 8, the Packers had six drives with fewer than six plays ran. The following week in Jacksonville, there were seven, which did include some scoring drives as well. It was then a similar story versus Detroit prior to the bye week.

One of the reasons that the Packers’ offense still ranks among the league’s best in several categories is because of the boom-or-bust nature of this unit. We see the dynamic playmaking ability this unit possesses with their ability to score quickly. However, this is a group that have also struggled to overcome setbacks on drives.

Generating explosive plays are great and often lead to points. The Packers will enter Week 11 ranking top-five in explosive plays generated this season–an element that is important to the success of any offense. With that said, that can’t be an offenses only way for moving the ball either.

This boom-or-bust approach on offense seems to be stemming from issues on early downs–particularly first down. Whether it be a missed assignment on a run play, a penalty, or an incomplete pass that’s either off-target or dropped, the Packers are putting themselves in disadvantageous situations and long down-and-distance scenarios.

The opponent gets paid to make plays too, but oftentimes, it is these self-inflicted errors that are putting the Packers behind the sticks, which then gives the defense the upper hand in those long down-and-distances. And through the first half of the season, the Packers aren’t operating at a consistent enough level to overcome those setbacks. They will enter Week 11 ranked in the bottom-third of the league in third-down success rate and have been abysmal in the red zone, ranking 30th.

“I think you have to work towards that, to play your best football at the end of the season,” added Gutekunst. “There’s times I think we’ve had teams here in the past who’ve maybe come out played really good football early and then faded at the end.

“We had a team last year that really came on strong towards the end of the season and I really liked the way Matt handled the team and the way we got better week-in and week-out and were really playing our best football at the end of the season. And that’s kind of what I expect this year. I think there guys are working, I think they work the right way, are made of the right stuff. Again, they’ve got to go do it. But I’m excited for the second half.”

Then in a category of its own are the Jordan Love interceptions. Love entered the bye week with 10 interceptions which was tied for the most in football, despite missing two games this season. As you can guess, he also ranks ninth in turnover-worthy plays as well, and the two pick-sixes are tied with Will Levis for the most in football.

Love possesses a big-time arm and has the ability to make all the throws on the field, which, along with the interceptions, we’ve seen numerous examples of this season as well. He trusts what he sees and his ability to put the ball where he needs to.

But with that said, at times, and as we saw against Detroit, he looks like someone who is trying to do too much as he and the rest of the offense try to overcome the holes that the offense has put themselves in. An example of this is that five of Love’s 10 interceptions have come when he’s been blitzed. Love’s decision-making in certain situations has to improve.

“There’s some that I’m sure he would like back and I’m sure our team would like back, as well,” said Gutekunst about Love. “Again, when you’re able to make plays like does, I think there’s a bit of a fine line where you’re feeling it out. He’s still a very young player from the amount of times he’s started. I’ve always thought it’s about 20-26 games before guys really settle into what they’re doing and I think he’s a little bit in that time right now, as well.”

There are obviously far higher expectations for this year’s Packers team compared to last, but at this point in the season, while still searching for consistency, Green Bay is light years ahead of where they were at this time during the 2023 season.

Although it’s been a bumpy ride at times, what this Packers team has shown is the ability to win in a variety of ways. They’ve won games with the defense and forcing turnovers. They’ve won games through the air with splash plays and on the ground where they lean heavily on Josh Jacobs. They’ve won with a backup quarterback. They’ve been behind, they’ve jumped out to early leads, and they’ve shown a willingness to adjust.

Being a chameleon when it comes to winning could prove to be quite valuable in those final weeks of the season and into the playoffs, when the intensity is turned up a few notches and the already small margin for error shrinks even more. When facing the best teams, they are going to try to take away what the Packers do well, forcing Green Bay to adjust and adapt on the fly, and perhaps having to find different ways to win the game.

What can send teams home early in the postseason is not knowing how to make those changes when adversity strikes, or at least not doing so effectively. At the end of the day, all that matters is the win and loss columns, but at the halfway point in the season, this is a Packers team that has been tested in different ways, and oftentimes, Green Bay has responded.

As Gutekunst said, it’s all about playing your best football at the end of the season. Certainly, there is no guarantee that will be the case for the 2024 Packers–they need to overcome these self-inflicted errors and make it happen. But I do think it’s fair to say the recipe for a second-half surge does exist between the talent and the willingness to adapt, as long as the consistency can be found.

“I really do like our depth,” Gutekunst said. “We’ve got to continue to come together as a football team and play better football at times, but we’re 6-3, I think we’re in a good spot, I’m excited about the second half of the season and to see how these guys grow together.”

Packers remain confident in depth at cornerback position

Paul Bretl | 11/7/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Can the Packers cornerback room hold up over the second half of the season and help Green Bay be that contending team that internally they believe they are?

If there was a position or two at Tuesday’s trade deadline where it made sense for the Packers to make an addition, cornerback may have been at the top of that list, along with a pass rusher. However, as is often the case, Brian Gutekunst wouldn’t make any acquisitions.

In part, the trade market was limited and never quite took shape. As Gutekunst said on Tuesday afternoon, it was “very quiet” leading up to the deadline and it remained that way the day of. The only cornerbacks who were traded were Marshon Lattimore and Tre’Davious White.

My interpretation is that with Washington sending multiple mid-round picks to New Orleans for Lattimore, along with him being 28 years old and coming with a hefty cap hit in 2025, that equation was never going to add up and result in the Packers making a move. And with Green Bay being confident in their depth at cornerback, I’m not sure that they saw White as an upgrade over the depth that they already have.

“I think a lot of the moves you saw today were reactions to injuries and things like that where you’re missing things,” said Gutekunst of the trade deadline. “But yeah, no, I really like our group. Obviously we do a lot of work prior to the season to try to make sure that we’re a deep team that can sustain an entire season and if we have injuries that we don’t have to go outside of the building to fulfil that and I feel we’ve done that and I feel really good about our football team. I like our depth.”

The Packers have been bullish about their cornerback depth since the offseason. It’s why, even though there were question marks around this unit prior to the draft, Green Bay didn’t make an addition at that position until the seventh-round, even though they had the opportunity to do so earlier. Since then, whether it be Matt LaFleur or Gutekunst, both have continued to voice their confidence in that group.

On the year, the 6.6 yards per pass attempt allowed by the Green Bay defense ranks 18th in the NFL and 23rd in pass deflections. In terms of explosive pass plays, the Packers have surrendered the seventh-most through nine games and have the sixth-highest explosive pass play rate as well.

Naturally, when Jaire Alexander is on the field, this group performs much better. Alexander has surrendered a completion rate of just 56 percent this season with two interceptions, seven pass deflections, and a passer rating when targeted of just 79.9. However, Alexander has now missed three games this season due to injury and is coming off a 2023 season in which he’s appeared in only seven games.

Opposite of Alexander is Keisean Nixon, who has supplanted both Eric Stokes and Carrington Valentine on the depth chart, despite being the team’s nickel cornerback last season. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley then moved safety Javon Bullard down to the nickel.

“Those guys have done a great job this year,” said Gutekunst of Bullard and Nixon. “Bull, for a rookie, he’s just done an excellent job when he’s put in the nickel. The ability for him to play safety and nickel and what’s put on that guy for a young player to do what he’s done is really exciting what he’s done already, where he’s about to go. So that’s been good for us.

“Again, Keisean hasn’t played a ton of outside corner for us and he was kind of put in that position and I think he’s done a really good job for us. He’s got excellent instincts, he can take the ball away. So yeah, I’m really happy with him out there as well.”

Without Alexander in the mix, the Packers then have to rely on Stokes and Valentine. When Stokes has been on the field he’s been picked on. Despite his playing time taking a significant hit as the season’s gone on, he’s second on the team in targets, only one behind Nixon. According to PFF’s metrics, Stokes is allowing a completion rate of 68 percent and has no ball production this season.

Yet even with Stokes’ seemingly obvious struggles, Valentine hasn’t been able to see the field defensively when the Packers are healthy. If we count Bullard as a cornerback, Valentine appears to be the fifth option on the depth chart right now, although the team says they remain confident in him.

“I know he can handle it,” said Hafley of Valentine. “I have total confidence in him. I know you’ll start to see more and more of him. I think he’s practicing extremely well, I think there’s great competition in that room right now and depending on who plays, what packages we decide to go with, what personnel groupings they send on the field.

“Like last week, we saw again, there’s two weeks in a row we saw a lot of big people. So there’s less DBs on the field but I’m very confident in him and I’m excited as this season progresses to see what he can do and I’m confident. He’s got great energy, he’s competitive, he’ll tackle, so I have total confidence in him.”

An improved pass rush can go a long way in helping the Packers’ secondary, providing them with less time in coverage, along with pressure disrupting the overall timing and rhythm of the play. Having Xavier McKinney on the back end has also been an important safety net for that unit as well.

Whether or not the confidence that the Packers have in their cornerback room and overall depth is misplaced remains to be seen and we won’t truly have that answer until we see how the rest of the season plays out. It’s not as if the cornerback group has been bad this season, but I think the real question is, are the Packers good enough there to be a true contender?

“I really do like our depth,” added Gutekunst. “We’ve got to continue to come together as a football team and play better football at times, but we’re 6-3, I think we’re in a good spot, I’m excited about the second half of the season and to see how these guys grow together.”

Arron Mosby, Brenton Cox in line for larger roles after Packers trade Preston Smith

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.

“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.”

Packers’ GM Brian Gutekunst on quiet NFL trade deadline: ‘It’s not a store’

Paul Bretl | 11/6/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers have Super Bowl aspirations and believe they are built to contend for a title. However, as is often the case in Green Bay, there wasn’t an acquisition made at the NFL’s trade deadline. In fact, they would technically fall in the selling category, trading away Preston Smith.

There are numerous factors that have to align when it comes to making a trade deadline deal, but the Packers decision not to acquire a player is two-fold: they like the depth that they have on the roster already and there just weren’t many opportunities for acquiring significant players.

“These things (trade talks) start four, five, six weeks before now,” said Brian Gutekunst on Tuesday, “and so as we went through it, I kind of assumed that it was going to be very quiet, and it very much was this year. I think those initial conversations, they can change, but as we monitored going through it, I think it was kind of pretty steady that it was going to be quiet. Acquiring any significant players, there wasn’t going to be a lot of opportunity to do that.”

Gutekunst has said since he began his tenure as Packers’ general manager that he wants to be in on every conversation. But it takes two to tango, as they say. The Packers may have interest in someone, but that doesn’t mean the organization is willing to part with that player.

Gutekunst has also discussed previously the importance of having a set price, in terms of what he is willing to give up, and not deviating from that, essentially taking any emotion or the feeling of ‘I have to add to this position group’ out of the equation. And for an organization that prioritizes drafting and developing, and has done particularly well in that area the last few years, parting with significant draft capital is likely rarely to be a preferred method for doing business.

“It’s not a store you can go in and pick and choose,” said Gutekunst of the trade deadline. “Those guys have got to be available and there just wasn’t a ton available this year. We always look at a lot of things, have some conversations, talk to people, but not a lot materialized this year.”

If there were two positions that Green Bay could have potentially added to, it was pass rusher and cornerback. The Packers’ inability to generate steady pressure with a four-man rush has been an issue this season, while the cornerback position without Jaire Alexander on the field becomes a much bigger question mark.

However, a lack of overall options on the trade market, coupled with what Gutekunst believes is a deep roster, reduced the number of opportunities to make an addition. The only cornerback traded on Tuesday other than Marshon Lattimore was Tre’Davious White, and it’s certainly possible that the Packers didn’t feel he was an upgrade over Eric Stokes and Carrington Valentine, not to mention that the team likes what they’ve gotten from Keisean Nixon and Javon Bullard.

“Those guys have done a great job this year,” said Gutekunst of Javon Bullard and Keisean Nixon. “Bull, for a rookie, he’s just done an excellent job when he’s put in the nickel. The ability for him to play safety and nickel and what’s put on that guy for a young player to do what he’s done is really exciting what he’s done already, where he’s about to go. So that’s been good for us.

Also in play, I believe, is organizational philosophy. In part, the Packers traded Rasul Douglas last season to get a better look at Valentine and provide Stokes with a more clear path to playing time. This year, a similar move was made by trading Preston Smith, which now gives Arron Mosby and Brenton Cox more opportunities. Again, circling back to White, as an example, acquiring a veteran player would likely reduce the number of opportunities for developing players.

As we’ve heard both Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur mention countless times, the best way for a young player to grow is with in-game reps.

“Yeah, we’re excited to see both of those guys, see some more snaps,” said Gutekunst of Cox and Mosby. “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.”

Now, having said all of that, whether or not the pass rush improves over the second half of the season or the cornerback room finds more consistency with its depth remains to be seen. But from a process standpoint at this trade deadline, whether Gutekunst is proven right or wrong, the Packers’ belief in their roster and how they develop players, along with there not being many players available, led to another mostly-quiet trade deadline for Green Bay.

“I do,” said Gutekunst when asked if the current roster is built to contend. “I think a lot of the moves you saw today were reactions to injuries and things like that where you’re missing things. But yeah, no, I really like our group. Obviously we do a lot of work prior to the season to try to make sure that we’re a deep team that can sustain an entire season and if we have injuries that we don’t have to go outside of the building to fulfil that and I feel we’ve done that and I feel really good about our football team. I like our depth.”

Packers trade away DE Preston Smith prior to deadline

Paul Bretl | 11/5/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The trade deadline has come and gone for the Packers and no, they didn’t make an acquisition, however, they didn’t stand pat either.

About 90 minutes before the trade deadline hit, it was reported that the team was trading defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In return, Green Bay received a 2025 seventh-round pick.

“I just want to say thanks to Preston Smith,” said Brian Gutekunst on Tuesday afternoon. “2019, we signed four guys and didn’t really know how that was going to shake out. For him to be here still 5 ½ years later and produce like he’s produced, he’s done a lot of good things for us. I’m really appreciative. He played a lot of good football for us and won a lot of games. I wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

In the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, it was reported by Ian Rapoport that with numerous teams in search of pass rush help, Smith was someone that organizations were reaching out to the Packers about.

Smith joined the Packers during the 2019 offseason as one of four significant free agent additions, along with Za’Darius Smith, Adrian Amos, and Billy Turner. Now in his sixth season with the team, Smith had been extremely durable, missing only one game during that span, in addition to totaling 41.5 sacks in his first five seasons, and being a leader and mentor within the locker room.

“Man, any guy in this locker room will tell you Preston is Preston,” said Rashan Gary during offseason programs. “Preston is the heartbeat, man. He’s going on 10 years. I’ve been with him my whole six years. Everybody feeds off him. When Preston talks, everybody be quiet and listen because when 10 years talk, he’s coming from experience and understanding. That’s what P brings, man, just a leader through in and through outs.”

However, despite all of that, this move doesn’t come as a complete shock either–and not only because there were reports of other teams being interested in him.

Operating as a 3-4 edge rusher for much of his career, the shift to Jeff Hafley’s 4-3 hand in the dirt defensive scheme came as a change for Smith. Although we don’t definitively know what role–if any–that played in his on-field production this season. Smith’s numbers have taken a tumble.

Through nine games, he is responsible for generating just 10 pressures and ranks 143rd in pressure rate among players with at least 100 pass rush snaps, according to TruMedia. The writing also seemed to be on the wall in recent weeks, with Smith’s playing time decreasing. After averaging nearly 40 snaps per game over the first five games, Smith was playing on average just 27 snaps per game over the last four, including a season-low of 21 against Detroit—and as Gutekunst mentioned, that trend of decreased playing time was only going to continue.

“I think it’s no different than last year,” said Gutekunst of the trade referencing the Rasul Douglas trade from 2023. “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.

This is a move for the Packers that will provide some salary cap relief as well. Instead of releasing Smith in the offseason, the team restructured his contract, which helped lower his 2024 cap hit, but inflated his salary impact in future seasons.

But now, with Smith in Pittsburgh, who will take on his contract as is, the Packers will create $2.023 million in 2024. In 2025, Green Bay has now freed up $7.62 million, along with a hefty $18.21 million in 2026.

Now the big question is how the Packers make up for Smith’s absence. Realistically, it’s going to take a group effort, with more on the plates of Lukas Van Ness and JJ Enagbare, along with the team relying on Arron Mosby–who saw some third down snaps against Detroit–and Brenton Cox as well.

“We’re excited to see both of those guys, see some more snaps,” said Gutekunst. “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.”

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, they’ll now have to do that without Smith and relying heavily on several young players.

Bye week blues: Self-inflicted errors give Packers plenty to think about

Paul Bretl| 11/5/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis.– Coming off a disappointing loss against the Detroit Lions, the Packers will enter their bye week at 6-3 on the year, but they’ll have to sit with their most recent mistake-filled performance for the next two weeks before they return to the field.

“I think for us, the only thing that is hard is to go on a bye after a loss, because this loss will sit with you for a long time,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday. “We’ve got a lot to think about, I would say, over the next 13 days before we play again, or until we get really into the Chicago Bears. But it is what it is. I think there’s, like I said earlier, there’s a lot of things that we all have to collectively work on, on an individual basis in order to get us to be a better football team.”

Penalties, dropped passes, a back-breaking interception and some missed tackles on defense all contributed to the sloppy performance that we saw from the Packers on Sunday. But the truly alarming part of it all was that it’s not as if this was a one-off performance.

To varying degrees, self-inflicted mistakes have been the norm this season for the Packers, but they’ve often been able to overcome them with splash plays on both sides of the ball or simply because they are playing an inferior opponent. However, against a team of Detroit’s caliber, those errors are a recipe for disaster.

“I think we’ve been, we’ve had good moments of playing good complimentary football and then we’ve had some not so great moments,” said LaFleur. “And I think some of the mistakes maybe that we’ve made the last four games that we’ve won showed up yesterday against a good football team that, it’s hard to overcome those in those moments.

“So, they played, Detroit played a clean game. When you look at it, they played a clean game, didn’t make any critical mistakes where we were, had a handful of critical mistakes that really came back to bite us.”

As LaFleur said, there have been good moments. While it can be easy to fixate on the problems–particularly when the wounds are still fresh–this is a team that is still 6-3 on the year, has been one of the best at generating explosive plays on offense and among the best at forcing takeaways on defense.

However, for a Packers team with Super Bowl aspirations, they aren’t where they need to be in that regard either. Those miscues, specifically the penalties, have been a major contributor to the inconsistent play that we’ve seen from the offensive side of the ball this season.

Through nine games, this is a very boom-or-bust Green Bay offense, able to score as quickly as anyone, but it’s a group that also struggles to sustain drives with the aforementioned penalties or dropped passes or off-target throws or whatever it may be, putting the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, which for any unit can be difficult to overcome on a regular basis.

When it comes to the question, ‘how do the Packers find more consistency?’ we know the answer is fewer penalties and overall better execution to limit mistakes. But the calculus, or the solution to get to that answer, is what eludes this team. Everything just described has been an issue for much of the season, but it hasn’t improved.

“I think it’s just trying to do too much,” said Sean Rhyan after Sunday’s loss. “We were talking about you can’t make big plays, you just gotta do your job. I think it kind of happened today, just trying to do too much. I think we just gotta, when we are out there, relax a little bit, know that we’re good enough to take on whoever and execute.”

Unlike in the last two seasons where the Packers’ bye has come either very late in the season or early on, this year’s is right in the middle. While it will provide LaFleur, the coaching staff, and players the opportunity to take a step back and reflect on what has been up to this point in the season, the self-scouting component that is synonymous with the bye week from the outside is a bit “overblown,” says LaFleur. Week-to-week in-season, the Packers are always on top of that process.

However, without having to gameplan for a specific opponent this week, the additional time does provide the coaches and players with the opportunity to be hyper-intentional about one area that they can improve upon. The key to making that a worthwhile endeavor is making sure that the work done this week in that regard is then applied next week when the team is back together and on the practice field.

“I think it’s just, one of the things our staff is doing with each individual today (Monday) is, there’s got to be a focus on one thing that we can all improve upon because all of us can improve in some area,” LaFleur said. “So, that’s the focus today and I wanted our guys to know that leaving the building today so that when they come back on Monday, not only can they work on it over, on their own for the next six days, or whatever. But when we get back and have practice next Monday, that there’s got to be an intentionality behind that.”

No team wants to enter the bye week on a loss, but to state the obvious, at the halfway point of this season compared to last, the Packers are in a much different spot. Although the opportunities for improvement this season aren’t nearly as stark as what they were in 2023, this is a team that did have a pretty spectacular turnaround a year ago, and from a process standpoint, at least, the coaches can draw on those experiences to help the 2024 Packers find a second-half spark.

“I think that’s kind of one of the things we’re going to talk about as a staff,” added LaFleur, “is just some of the things we did the back half of the season to allow us to develop and continue to get better. And I think a lot of it just started with our approach to practice, how much competition we had in practice. I thought it made practices have more energy and I thought it reflected in our play quite frankly.”

Packers QB Jordan Love walking a ‘fine line’ between big plays and interceptions

Paul Bretl | 11/4/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — In a game that was filled with self-inflicted mistakes for this Packers team, none were bigger than the Jordan Love interception turned pick-six before halftime. Although there was still a half of football to be played, against a team of Detroit’s caliber who held a 17-3 lead and began the third quarter with the ball, climbing out of that hole was a massive undertaking for Green Bay.

On the previous drive, the Lions kicked a field goal to take a 10-3 lead. On the last few plays of that possession, the Packers used two of their timeouts to stop the clock, signaling that they wanted to have the opportunity to score before half.

Getting the ball back with 58 seconds remaining in the half, Love completed an eight-yard completion to Romeo Doubs. With the clock running and 32 seconds remaining, Love dropped back and, as he felt pressure, rolled to his right and, in doing so, twisted his body back towards the middle of the field to dump the ball off to Josh Jacobs. However, Lions’ safety Kerby Joseph–who Love did not see–was there waiting for the ball and returned it for a touchdown.

“On the interception,” said Love after the game, “I was moving out of the pocket, obviously Josh was blocking, protection, and I saw him trying to get out and was trying to dump it down. It was a check-down to him, and the ball did not go where I wanted it to. They made a good play on it.”

Along with penalties and dropped passes, interceptions thrown by Love have been a persistent issue for the Packers’ offense this season. Love is currently tied for the league-lead in interceptions with 10 this season, even though he missed two games due to an injury. To make matters worse, two of those interceptions have been returned for touchdowns, which is tied with Tennessee’s Will Levis for the most in football.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” said Love of throwing another interception. “Putting the ball in jeopardy way too many times and definitely something I have to clean up. I’ve talked about it week after week, so something I’ve just gotta learn from these mistakes and clean it up, but definitely something that I’m gonna make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better.”

As I’ve discussed recently, both before and after the game, the Packers offense has struggled to find consistency this season. It’s been a very boom-or-bust offense this season, with the talent and ability to put up points quickly, but this is also a unit that has put themselves behind the sticks regularly, again, whether that be due to penalties, dropped passes, or off-target throws.

The negative trickle-down effect of facing second and third-and-long situations often is that the offense then becomes too pass-heavy, and to a degree, there is some predictability with that. At the end of the day, there are only so many routes that can be ran in those situations.

“It just comes down to staying true with my reads,” added Love, “and if plays do go off schedule, just that fine line of being smart with the ball and not putting it in harm’s way and balance trying to make a play vs. throwing it away and living to fight another day, so I think it just comes down to staying true with my reads, like I said, making great decisions and doing a better job of just being stingy with the ball.”

In terms of games played, Love is still a relatively inexperienced player in the NFL and is working through trying to strike that balance between when to take what’s available, or sometimes just throw the ball away, and when to push the ball and be more aggressive. The answer to that question is, of course, ever-changing, depending on the situation at hand and how the defense reacts to the play call.

There’s an obvious balance that Love needs to find and is still very much searching for. A key element to what makes Love the quarterback that he is is his arm talent, so what the Packers don’t want to do is put the governor on his ability to utilize that strength. It’s not as if things have been all bad for the offense–Green Bay ranks top 10 in points per game and entered Week 9 ranked first in explosive plays generated.

If the matchup or coverage dictates that he should take a shot, he’s going to do that. Now, the mechanics and accuracy or the calculus that led to him making the decision can all be critiqued and are areas that certainly have to improve. It goes without saying, but given the situation–backed up in their own territory and with little time on the clock–Love should have never attempted that pass to Jacobs.

However, when you have a top-flight passer, you expect him to make top-flight throws, and that’s what Love is attempting to do. The process needs to be cleaned up, but I wouldn’t expect to see Love all of a sudden not pushing the ball downfield. It’s what he does really well, and with the receivers the Packers have, it’s how they can exploit opponents.

“It just comes down to playing the position at a high level, sticking to my training, sticking to the reads, like I said and just being great with those fundamentals and obviously the big plays will happen,” Love said. “Not trying to force things, but like I said, just getting back to staying true with my reads and being real disciplined and making great decisions with the ball.”

The Packers will enter the bye week at 6-3 on the season. The mistakes have run rampant throughout the first half of the season, and to some degree, that’s what this team is right now–mistake-prone. There is still time to change that narrative with eight games remaining in the season.

Due to their big play ability on offense and the defense’s propensity for forcing takeaways, the Packers have more often than not been able to overcome those miscues. However, when facing teams like Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Detroit, against those caliber of opponents, those self-inflicted errors can often be too much to overcome. If the Packers want to reach their ultimate goal, the penalties have to be cleaned up and Love has to take better care of the football.

“I think that’s a fine line,” said Matt LaFleur of Love’s play. “It’s a hard thing to really, … you always teach in the rhythm of the play. When it goes off-schedule, you’ve just got to be smart. You’ve got to be smart with the football in a one-possession game. I know he’s doing everything in his power to make the play, but sometimes, again, I gotta go back and look at it before I can give you a good answer on that.”

Too many miscues doom mistake-prone Packers vs. Lions

Paul Bretl | 11/3/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — To varying degrees, the play we saw on the field from the Packers in Sunday’s loss to Detroit is one that we’ve seen on a few occasions this season.

It was another game where self-inflicted mistakes played a major factor in how this game unfolded. However, unlike in previous games in recent weeks against Los Angeles, Houston, and Jacksonville, the miscues were far too much to overcome against a team of the Lions’ caliber.

“It’s disappointing when you have a big game like this against one of the best teams in the league and you don’t feel like there was just too many mistakes,” said Matt LaFleur after the game. “You can’t overcome those against a good football team. That’s exactly what Detroit is.”

It’s hard enough to win in the NFL as it is. In part, the Packers were able to overcome their mistakes in those previous performances because of splash plays, whether it be quick scores or turnovers, that helped mitigate the impact of their own blunders–although in two of those games, it still required a last-second field goal to secure the victory.

However, over the course of an NFL season, operating that way regularly–which the Packers have–is a tough way to live, especially against a well-oiled machine like Detroit.

“We’ve just got to be able to grow form it, learn from it and not make those mistakes again, because it’s definitely been a trend up until now,” said Christian Watson. “Pre-snap penalties and penalties in general, we’ve just got to find a way to eliminate those.”

Penalties have been an issue for Green Bay for much of the season. On the opening kickoff, which would have set the Packers up with good field position, Keisean Nixon was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty, and from there, the penalties would snowball and continue throughout the game.

In total, Green Bay was penalized 10 times for 67 yards. In comparison, the Lions were penalized just five times. Several of these penalties occurred pre-snap on the offensive side of the football, which put Green Bay behind the sticks and at a disadvantage against an already stout Lions defense.

“I think you can definitely lump those in the focus category, where we’ve got to be better,” said LaFleur of the false starts. “Some of those are totally unnecessary. We’re going on a double cadence, and that’s an advantage for an offense. I never want us not to do that. I think that’s an important part of it. That is your one advantage on offense is that you control when the ball’s snapped. That’s a great advantage when you’re at home, when there’s not as much crowd noise. We’ve just got to dial in and be better focused.”

While the pre-snap penalties are an annoyance and hinderance, on the other side of the ball were two particularly hurtful penalties. With the Lions facing fourth-and-goal from the five-yard line to begin the second quarter, everyone in the press box seemed to know that they were trying to draw the Packers’ offsides–and it worked. TJ Slaton was flagged for a neutral zone infraction, putting the Lions at the 2.5 yard line. They then scored on the next play.

Then on the Lions’ opening possession of the third quarter, and already with a 17-3 lead, a third-down holding penalty on Keisean Nixon extended what ended up becoming a touchdown drive.

To make matters worse, in addition to the penalties, on a rainy and windy evening in Green Bay, the Packers receivers dropped what I counted as six passes, including a few that came on third downs, along with two botched snaps.

“Obviously, catching footballs in the rain is not ideal for a receiver, but it’s not an excuse for us all,” said Romeo Doubs at his locker. “But again, we will let this be a learning experience and get right watching the film, adjusting to whatever weather we have coming up through the rest of this month and the course of this year. Yeah, man, we’ll just learn from it.”

The back-breaker was a Jordan Love interception at the end of the second quarter on an ill-advised throw. Under pressure and rolling to his right, Love tried to dump the ball off to Josh Jacobs back across his body, but the pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Love entered the game tied for the league lead in interceptions.

“It’s definitely disappointing,” said Love of the turnovers. “Putting the ball in jeopardy way too many times and definitely something I have to clean up. I’ve talked about it week after week, so something I’ve just gotta learn from these mistakes and clean it up, but definitely something that I’m gonna make a big focus on going forward, of just finding ways to take care of the ball better.”

The Green Bay offense has struggled to find consistency for much of the season, resembling a very boom-or-bust unit. They can score as quick as any team in the league and entered Week 9 as the best at generating explosive plays. But they also have a lot of short possessions or have routinely shown the inability to overcome setbacks, which then results in a stalled drive.

As high as the potential is for this offense, the lack of series-to-series, or even down-to-down consistency makes moving the ball with regularity a tall task. Oftentimes, and to varying degrees, the culprit for these issues are the aforementioned self-inflicted errors, whether it be penalties, dropped passes, turnovers, or off-target throws.

The trickle-down effect is the offense facing long down-and-distance situations, which puts them in obvious passing downs. From a coverage standpoint, the secondary has the advantage. In short, there are only so many routes that can be ran on 3rd-and-10, and the pass rush is then able to pin its ears back. Play-calling-wise, it becomes a real challenge to get into a flow, and the gameplan can become pass-heavy very quickly.

Even for the best offenses, having to overcome those situations often is a massive undertaking that has resulted in the up-and-down play we see on Sundays.

“I think it’s just trying to do too much,” said Sean Rhyan of the penalties. “We were talking about you can’t make big plays, you just gotta do your job. I think it kind of happened today, just trying to do too much. I think we just gotta, when we are out there, relax a little bit, know that we’re good enough to take on whoever and execute.”

The Green Bay defense would run into an incredibly efficient offense. Although it’s not as if the league’s highest-scoring offense dominated the game, they were effective going about their business. Behind arguably the top offensive line unit in the NFL, the Lions have a strong run game that routinely puts them in second-and-short distances. At that point, they have the entire playbook open to them, able to run the ball or pass, which forces the defense to spread out and defend the entire field.

From there, the Lions can run the ball behind that stout offensive line or run a series of slants and crossers into a spread-out defense, where Jared Goff can pick opponents apart. Penalties, or a lack of complementary football as we saw on Sunday, where the Lions can play with a lead, only magnify their ability to operate in this capacity and further stress defenses.

This wasn’t a one-off performance for the Packers. Nine weeks into the season and now heading into their bye week, a mistake-prone team is who they are. The good news is that there is still half a season left to change that narrative–I mean, look at what this group did in 2023. But as of now, this is who they are.

“I think we got things we gotta correct,” Xavier McKinney said. “I think as players we just keep making the same mistakes and we gotta figure it out. I can’t keep saying it, we just gotta figure it out. We gotta do it and we gotta stop having all these mistakes because we play other good teams we can’t afford those type of mistakes. We can’t afford penalties. We can’t afford having turnovers and not getting turnovers. It’s just a lot of things that’s built up and we just gotta make corrections.”

Packers offense must find that elusive consistency against high-scoring Lions

Paul Bretl | 11/2/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers have found ways to win these last two weeks on walk-off field goals, but in part, they’ve found themselves in those situations is due to the inconsistent performance on the offensive side of the football.

A repeat performance this week against the high-powered Detroit Lions offense may prove to be too much to overcome.

“Anytime you’ve got a good offense on the other side, you know you’re going to need to put up points,” said Jordan Love on Wednesday. “Definitely just help the defense out. I’ve got faith in them they’re going to be able to get those stops. But definitely the goal on offense is to put up as many points as you can, because we know they can score in a hurry.”

Against the Houston Texans in Week 8, the Packers had six drives with fewer than six plays ran. The following week in Jacksonville, there were seven, which did include some scoring drives as well.

While overall, the Packers still rank sixth in points per game and fifth in yards per game, the up and down performances on offense aren’t new to the team this season either. Going back to the team’s Week 4 matchup with Minnesota, the Packers had 10 drives, whether they resulted in a score, turnover or punt that lasted fewer than five plays. The week after, versus the Rams, six of the Packers’ 10 possessions ended in three plays or fewer.

“I mean there are so many things,” Love said of the offense’s ups and downs. “You could break down every play of the game and find one little thing that we can improve on, so like you said, the consistency, I think, is definitely the most frustrating part. It’s part of the game, though. There’s highs. There’s lows.

“It’s definitely not ever gonna be perfect, but I think when we know there’s mistakes and mental errors that we’re having on our own end that it’s stuff that we can clean up, that’s the frustrating part, so just keep finding that consistency, keep trying to get better, improve on it, but I don’t think we’ve played our best performance yet, so we’re definitely still trying to hunt for that.”

Generating explosive plays are great and often lead to points. The Packers will enter Week 9 having created the most explosive plays this season–an element that will be important in Sunday’s game against a Lions’ offense that leads the NFL in scoring. With that said, that can’t be an offenses only way for moving the ball either.

This boom-or-bust approach on offense seems to be stemming from issues on early downs–particularly first down. Whether it be a run play that doesn’t go anywhere, a penalty, or an incomplete pass that’s either off-target or dropped, the Packers are putting themselves in disadvantageous long down-and-distance situations.

The opponent gets paid to make plays too, but oftentimes, it is these self inflicted errors that are putting the Packers behind the sticks, which then gives the defense the upper hand in those long down-and-distances. And through the first half of the season, the Packers aren’t operating at a consistent enough level to overcome those setbacks.

“We need to start taking accountability for what’s going on with our offense early in the half,” said Tucker Kraft after the Jacksonville game. “That’s just not us. Like we need to figure out what it is we need to do to be more successful early on and we’ve got to start holding each other more accountable.

“There’s nothing broken with our offense,” Kraft added, “I want to say that on the record. We can just do better.”

Finding that consistency this week certainly won’t be easy against a Detroit defense that is aggressive and will challenge the Packers’ offense throughout the game, ready to pounce on any sort of miscue. But it will be a must in a game where scoring 28-plus points may be a necessity when it comes to winning.

“When they load the box and play you in tight man coverage like they’ve shown to do, there’s nowhere to run,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich of the Lions’ defense. “You’d better have an answer for that. They do a really good job. Just all in all, I think it’s just a really physical defense that plays very aggressive, downhill. They do a great job of punching at the football and rallying to the football. To me, that usually is the mark of a really good defense.”