Green Bay Packers: Fans vote Amos to have biggest impact

The Green Bay Packers made four splash free agent signings this offseason and in a poll, fans voted Adrian Amos to have the biggest impact of the group.

Unexpectedly, the Green Bay Packers have missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season and as a result, we have seen a number of changes in Green Bay.

For the most part, the coaching staff has been revamped and uncharacteristically, the Green Bay Packers were quite active in free agency, as they would add Adrian Amos, Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, and Billy Turner.

All are going to play a major role in 2019, but out of curiosity I wanted to see who fans thought would make the biggest impact out of the new free agent signings and here were the results.

Prior to seeing the final results, my guess would have been that Amos or Za’Darius would have won and for the record, my own personal vote was for Amos, but either player makes a ton of sense.

It’s been since the days of Nick Collins that the Green Bay Packers have struggled to find consistent play from the safety position, but Amos can give them that reliable player that they so desperately need.

Like most Brian Gutekunst signings or draft picks, Amos is a very good athlete and has improved every year that he’s been in the league. He’s versatile which defensive coordinator Mike Pettine will love to have at his disposal as he can play in the box or drop back into coverage.

Last season Amos took the most coverage snaps of any safety in the NFL and finished with the eighth best rating at his position according to Pro Football Focus.

You will rarely find Amos out of position on the field and he will finally give the Green Bay Packers a reliable player on the back-end of the defense. The Packers will likely feel his impact almost immediately.

Moving on the Za’Darius Smith who finished in a close second in the poll, he is expected to give the Green Bay Packers that consistent pressure from the EDGE position that has been lacking in recent seasons.

Pro Football Focus credited Smith with 10 sacks and 61 total pressures last season. And along with playing EDGE, he can kick inside as well. Big Z should give this Packers’ defense a boost in 2019.

The part in all of this that I didn’t expect was the results for Billy Turner. Not so much that he was last, as the offensive lineman is not a “sexy” position, but more so because of how few votes overall that he received.

Of the offensive issues from last season, the offensive line play, specifically at both guard positions was a huge contributor. As a unit, the offensive line would give up 3.3 sacks per game, which was tied for the second most in the NFL and the duo of Justin McCray and Byron Bell at right guard was a revolving door.

As a result, the Green Bay Packers signed Billy Turner this offseason who will give the offensive line versatility and he had the best season of his career in 2018 with the Denver Broncos.

At guard, he would allow no sacks and only one quarterback hit. Hopefully, he can build upon that performance and give the Green Bay Packers some stability along the offensive front. Even amongst all of the changes that have taken place in Green Bay, this team only goes as far as Aaron Rodgers takes them, so they must keep him upright.

As mentioned above, all four of these players are going to play a major role and if they can all perform as we hope, the Green Bay Packers will be in very good shape this season.