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Packers are gonna need to find a vet or two. Behind KC, TJ Slaton, and Wyatt, the Packers have two second year players in Chris Slayton and Jonathan Ford. Not ideal.  Would hate to rely on those five and a draft pick or two, even a first rounder (not a sure thing).

Say what you will about Lowry, but he was dependable and decent. He had flaws, but he was much better than a journeyman player.

For about 4 years now, I think the Packers have intended to draft/acquire DTs and/or NTs that could reduce Clark's snap counts, but injury and other circumstances haven't allowed that, and his counts remain excessive.
This has an added importance now with the 17 game schedule.

2016 (Rookie year) 333 snaps 32% of defensive snaps.
2017 684 65% (most among DL) + 69 ST snaps.
2018 720 68% (most among DL) + 66 ST snaps.
2019 869 83+% (by far the most among DL).
2020 (Groin injury) 595 58% (barely 2nd most, behind Lowry by 7 snaps).
2021 782 72+% (most among DL)
2022 807 78% (most among DL) + 80 ST snaps.

That need still exists, and the team needs to do what it can to finally fill it.

MLF is wrong, but that depends on which Barry shows up this year. Will it be the one from the first three games and the five-game stretch or the one from the putrid nine games? Barry has to decide which way he's going to call the game: reactive or proactive. When he called it proactively, his players had more success; reactively, he failed his players. We have some excellent athletes on D, don't make them play reactively.

Found on the internet:

And this has been the issue for the last two seasons. Barry won't or even worse, CAN'T seem to adapt to the game that's happening on the field at the moment. It's all fine and well to have a game plan going in. But when the opposing offense runs up and down the field, CBs are still WAY off on 3rd and 7, and teams seem to convert those 3rd downs with little resistance, you HAVE to adjust. This is where Barry has failed...BIG TME!

IMO the Packers have quite a bit of talent on this team. I'm very anxious to watch the offense this year, BUT they still need weapons. The Defense SHOULD be able to keep the team in most games. If they can't, or it's more of the same ole, same ole, the MLF may have a hard time saving himself at seasons end. Another year like that, watching a defense play like THAT, then EVERYBODY has to go. Especially after the Mo Drayton disaster.

Bluechip scouting with some intel on the Packers defense in the " Penny" front and some potential picks that fit that front

https://www.bluechipscouting.c...-fitting-penny-front

Scheme Fitting: Penny Front/ Cover 9

The Philadelphia Eagles are doing it. The LA Chargers are doing it

The Green Bay Packers are doing it. The LA Rams did it.

The Chicago Bears did it. The Miami Dolphins will be doing it next season.

What is a Penny Front ?

" By label you can consider a Penny front a 3-3-5 personnel package. There are 3 defensive linemen, 3 Linebackers and 5 defensive backs. On the field this personnel package is deployed as a 5-1 front. That would be 5 defenders on the line of scrimmage with 1 stacked Linebacker behind them.

The defensive linemen will be lined up in either a 303 or 404 line. The term 303 refers to the technique that the linemen line up in, so 303 would be a 3 Tech next to a 0 Tech (or NT) next to another 3 Tech, 404 is the same only the technique is 4i which is a defensive lineman lined up on the inside shoulder of the Offensive Tackle.

On the outside of the linemen are your outside linebackers. They are lined up in either a wide 5 or wide 9 technique. A wide 5 is the rusher lined up on the outside shoulder of the OT, a wide 9 is outside of the TE if he’s on the end of the line. The outside linebackers are rushing from a 2 point stance (standing up), but also will have coverage duties. The third linebacker is stacked behind the line of scrimmage. In the secondary there are typically 2 deep safeties behind that 5-1 front.

The concept of this defense is to limit big plays over the top while still being able to defend the run with a lighter box up front"

Lots more in the article

(Snip from article) "The concept of this defense is to limit big plays over the top while still being able to defend the run with a lighter box up front. ... Against the pass the defense has one on one matchups across the line creating the pass rush and 2 deep safeties to prevent anything over the top. The idea is to force the offense into making quick, precise decisions over and over again and slowly work their way down the field. An approach not many offenses are capable of."

I would argue that even if Barry is using the Penny: a) we didn't defend well against the run; b) it didn't create much of a pass rush; c) it seemed a lot of offenses were able to precisely work their way down the field pretty easily against us time after time. Either Barry is using the Penny when we don't have the guys to run it or he has no clue how/when to run it or maybe it doesn't work against good teams. 

More on Fangio / Staley defense from The Athletic - and some of this is part of Joe Barry's defense as well



“I don’t think people understand — the quarterback in a lot of play-actions is blind for about a second,” said Cody Alexander, a former Baylor defensive assistant and author of the “Match Quarters” literary series in which he studies and translates the modernization of college and NFL defenses.

“If you have a predetermined pre-snap mental model of what the field looks like, and you kind of have a perception of where safeties are, where they’re moving — but it’s two-high, and the next moment I turn around and I’ve got weak rotation or I turn around and it’s strong rotation or the safety is now completely moved — now I have to re-set my mental model,” Alexander said.

“And with the way the front structure and pressure is built, your processing has to be so much faster.”

Because a safety doesn’t have to necessarily account for a gap when a defensive front successfully plays gap-and-a-half... he can continue to play downfield instead of over-committing into the box and opening the opportunity for the ball to be placed behind him.

And that marries into the best way for a defensive back to counter the play-action, in Alexander’s mind — which is to play from depth, as Fangio’s safeties traditionally have (and now Staley’s, too).

“(It’s saying), ‘We’re going to leverage play-action against you,” Alexander said.

“But then also, (it’s saying), we’re going to change the picture post-snap so that what you see when you take that ball, when you turn your back to us and then turn back around, you’re going to have to figure it all back out.

And I think those two things, in particular, are what is so genius about the system. It changes the picture post-snap, but also it leverages the defense so it’s not going to just get abused by play-action.”

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