Skip to main content

DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

His final numbers weren’t overly impressive (32 snaps, 3 hurries, and 2 tackles), but Rashan Gary was involved in two of the biggest defensive plays of the game. It was his pressures on Cousins that led to both of Alexander’s big plays in the first quarter. Last year’s No. 1 pick drew praise all summer, and at least for one game, he lived up to the hype. In fact, he thoroughly outplayed starting outside linebacker Preston Smith. This also happened a few times late last season. And while the Packers are paying Smith too much money to reduce his snaps from the low 40s, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine is going to have to find ways to get Gary on the field more if he continues to play like he did on Sunday.

Tale of the Tape

Unfortunately, unless Gary gets sacks, people aren't going to give him kudos. But as Pettine said after they drafted him...he didn't have a ton of sacks but effected more plays than anyone else on the team in college. That is extremely valuable.

He definitely looked a lot leaner and more chiseled Sunday....that showed on the field.

@fightphoe93 posted:

You hear all these great things about Gary in practice, but come game time, he just seems to spend an awful lot of time engaged with whoever is blocking him and really doesn't seem to win the 1 on 1s in games that he does in practice.  He's the classic "looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" player.

That's exactly what they said at Ann Arbor in college as well.

I agree that Gutekunst has done some great things for this team, but  his drafts have not been one of them. It's still early-Steinberger, Martin and  Runyon look like the dreaded good  'value' picks--- but for Gary and Savage, it's more than stats... Gary has made a couple of plays-less by the way than interior pedestrians Lancaster and Lowry, but watching him, he is  mostly neutralized in his rushes and then chasing plays with little effect. It's comical. I've actually laughed to see this big athletic guy running full steam 10 yards behind  plays.

And where was Savage?-with Cook bursting into the backfield he should have had plenty of  tackles---especially when you see  a cover corner like Alexander coming up and making hits--Alexander was a fantastic pick......and then the next 20 selections happened. Okay Jenkins is outstanding--even with his propensity to hold.

It was especially frustrating to see the impact of not having a #2 receiver out there yesterday.

Even the absolutely loaded 1996 Green Bay Packers added Andre Rison down the stretch.

5-2 is great, better than I thought, but with this defense, you're gonna need to score points.

@Johnson posted:


It was especially frustrating to see the impact of not having a #2 receiver out there yesterday.

Even the absolutely loaded 1996 Green Bay Packers added Andre Rison down the stretch.

5-2 is great, better than I thought, but with this defense, you're gonna need to score points.

It wasn't just Rison. The Packers came up short in the NFC title game the year before and made a bunch of moves to try to improve and get over the hump for the following year. Rison, Bruce Wilkerson, Beebe, Ron Cox, Desmond Howard, and Eugene Robinson (a borderline HOF safety late in his career) were all added just prior to or during the season.

This year's Packer team came up short in the NFC title game last year and did almost jack sh!t to try to improve for this year.

https://www.packers.com/news/p...-responders-16660939

Andre Rison was the Antonio Brown of his era. A HOF level WR who got let go from other teams because he was a major head case. The Packers lost Robert Brooks in the Niners game that year and then Ron Wolf went and took the risk on Rison. Maybe they did their diligence on Antonio Brown, but the Bucs are trying to win this year and took the risk.

Even more important, Wolf and Holmgren figured out pretty quickly that Jon Michaels (their first round pick that year) was not good to win with at LT. They signed Wilkerson as an emergency backup tackle because he was a savvy veteran. Without Wilkerson, they don't win that year. Jon Michaels was a first round bust who they benched for the last game of the year even though they were 13-3. We kept running Jason Spriggs out there every year. Ron Wolf was not TT or Gutey. He quickly moved on from mistakes. Billy Turner was at least a move in this direction and so far the OL has been OK.

When George Koonce went down in 1996, they had a savvy veteran MLB in Ron Cox ready to step in and get them by. They decided that they wanted to upgrade their special teams play and got Desmond Howard (who even though he was a bust at WR for the Redskins was always a good returner).  The Packer had Erwin there, but even he doesn't really move the needle much.

The point is that Ron Wolf recognized they were close and made aggressive moves to optimize their chances to take advantage of title window. Gutey was in a similar position and decided to do almost nothing except sign a decent OL to replace a great, but often injured, Brian Bulaga and sign a MLB from Cleveland (probably because Pettine liked him from his time in Cleveland) that wasn't even as good as the guy he was replacing (Martinez).

To be fair the cap situation this year and next year is a little tight to make splash moves. They’re trying to lock down Bakh, KC, Jones, etc. and all of those moves more/less preclude making a splash. I don’t know if there’s a deal out there that makes sense, but my hunch is that there are and we just can’t figure out how to make the money work.

Has the cap been mismanaged? Hard to say. There’s not a lot of dead money and the contracts they have given out aren’t unearned. We own one of the most expensive QBs in the league, which hurts harder than it does other teams, so that’s a big factor. Will Fuller and some vet DL would make a positive impact, but ultimately having the Smiths play better, OL winning battles, getting our own guys healthy, and Pettine not getting outcoached will make a bigger impact.

Last edited by Grave Digger

The only contract that Gute has handed out that I disagreed with from the get go was Lowry.   Just an absolute head scratcher.   As far as Free Agents, I can't disagree with anyone he brought in.  It's disappointing to see Amos and P. Smith regress, but we all loved those signings.   He hit home runs with Z and Lewis in my opinion.  Overall, I think he has done well in that regard, a solid B grade.   

The draft is an entirely different story.  Not just his selections, but his approach.  How do you spend like a wild man in Free Agency in one year to get your D to a level that you have a shot at the title and then in the drafts use all your high round capital on  project players?    If we had used the Gary and Love picks on guys who could actually contribute today, we might be favorites for the title today.   

Deebo Samual in this offense instead of Tyler freaking Irving would be huge.   We could field this shit defense and still outscore anyone if we had a player like him with Adams and Lazard on the outside.

To be fair the cap situation this year and next year is a little tight to make splash moves. They’re trying to lock down Bakh, KC, Jones, etc. and all of those moves more/less preclude making a splash. I don’t know if there’s a deal out there that makes sense, but my hunch is that there are and we just can’t figure out how to make the money work.

Has the cap been mismanaged? Hard to say. There’s not a lot of dead money and the contracts they have given out aren’t unearned. We own one of the most expensive QBs in the league, which hurts harder than it does other teams, so that’s a big factor. Will Fuller and some vet DL would make a positive impact, but ultimately having the Smiths play better, OL winning battles, getting our own guys healthy, and Pettine not getting outcoached will make a bigger impact.

I agree with you on the cap situation. But at some point, you have to make a decision to go for it.  What's frustrating is the Packers have the positions that have the highest impact filled with All-Pro-level players: QB, RB, WR#1, LT, edge rusher, and CB#1. Those are literally the highest-paid positions in the league and we are in a position where 2 of them are on rookie contracts (Jones and Alexander). 

For 10 years (with the exception of adding the two Smiths and Amos last year), we've always had a strategy of trying to make sure we are at least an 8-10 win team two years from now. At some point, you have to try to win now instead of always trying to make sure you have a chance to win later.  The problem now is that unless Jordan Love turns out to be a superstar QB, their window is almost closed. If Love is as good as they thought, the window is open for a while.

I highly doubt Love is going to be anywhere near Rodgers as a QB. That would be almost impossible.  Rodgers was statistically one of the best QBs in recent college football history.  In Rodgers' last year at Cal, the Bears were 10-1 in the regular season. Their one loss was to the number 1 team in the country on the road by a score of 23-17. Rodgers was 29 for 34 in that game for 267 yards, 1 TD, and 0 interceptions. He drove them down to the 9 for what would have been a winning TD, but got sacked on second down to force them back. Rodgers was a winner, it was just a question of whether his mechanics and arm strength would transfer to the NFL. We essentially mortgaged our future for a guy who threw 17 interceptions in a second-tier league last year for a team that was barely bowl eligible. It looks like we will stay away from any moves that would compromise our ability to put a good team around Jordan Love in 2022. He better be the third coming (after Favre and Rodgers) for that decision to be even remotely defensible. When they drafted Rodgers, Favre had threatened to retire already and they still drafted other contributors (including Nick Collins) the rest of that draft. The decisions this past off-season are mind-boggling.

I agree with you on the cap situation. But at some point, you have to make a decision to go for it.  What's frustrating is the Packers have the positions that have the highest impact filled with All-Pro-level players: QB, RB, WR#1, LT, edge rusher, and CB#1. Those are literally the highest-paid positions in the league and we are in a position where 2 of them are on rookie contracts (Jones and Alexander).



The talent is there yeah and the offense is reflective of that. All I'm saying is I'm not sure the money works out whether or not they have the testicular fortitude to make a splash move. Moving your team into cap hell just to win a SB sooner is exactly why the Broncos and other teams recently have been a shambles. Sure it's great to wheel and deal, but at some point the chickens come home to roost and you have to shed talented young players just to stay afloat...or you've surrendered too much draft capital to stay competitive. I'm not saying that's what anyone is suggesting, but there are so many factors that go into trades that I'm giving Gute the benefit of the doubt that the stars just didn't align to make it work.

Gute is also a Ted disciple. Yes, he has shown that he's far more willing to dip into FA but he's also playing the TT handbook in that he has kept a strangle hold on his draft picks with a couple of exceptions of trading up a time or 2.

And considering the results, I'd sooner see him give up a 2nd or a 3rd for a proven #2 WR or a starting, solid  ILB then continue to draft Josh Jacksons, Oren Burks, Montravious Adams in the same rounds and waiting around 3 or more years for them to develop.

Bottom line, Rodgers doesn't have that kind of time. Nor does GB in having a HOF QB playing at this level.

@packerboi posted:

And considering the results, I'd sooner see him give up a 2nd or a 3rd for a proven #2 WR or a starting, solid  ILB then continue to draft Josh Jacksons, Oren Burks, Montravious Adams in the same rounds and waiting around 3 or more years for them to develop.

Jackson and Adams were TT picks but I think what you're really saying here is that it's time for GB to find another GM.

Last edited by michiganjoe

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×