Green Bay Packers: The Smith signings have been a home run

It’s only three weeks into their Green Bay Packers’ careers, but the Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith singings have been absolute home runs.

Although in 2018 the Green Bay Packers ranked eighth overall in the NFL with 44 total sacks, that number wasn’t an accurate representation of the production that they were receiving from their highly paid edge-rushing duo of Clay Matthews and Nick Perry.

All of last season, Matthews and Perry would combine for just 43 total pressures and only six sacks between the two, according to Pro Football Focus.

While Kyler Fackrell had a breakout season in the sack column, many of Green Bay’s sacks had to come from creative blitz schemes that defensive coordinator Mike Pettine had to cook up. The Packers just weren’t consistently putting pressure on the quarterback from their defensive front.

As you can imagine, a defense is much more effective when they are able to get to the quarterback without having to send blitzers on every play. So to remedy this, GM Brian Gutekunst made four big free-agent signings this offseason, two of which – Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith – were for the edge-rusher position.

Green Bay would sign Za’Darius Smith to a four year – $66 million contract and Preston Smith to a four year – $52 million deal. While certainly these weren’t cheap additions by any means, they’ve been 100 percent worth it, both on the field and in the locker room.

Through three games the dynamic duo has combined for 36 total pressures, 7 sacks and both players are tied for the fourth most quarterback hits in the league. Each player has had some big moments as well, including a Z. Smith sack on third and goal against Denver while P. Smith would force a fumble during that same game and have the game-sealing sack against Chicago.

To add a bit of context to these numbers just refer back to the second paragraph and you’ll see that through three games, the Smiths already have more sacks than Matthews and Perry did all of last season, and they are very close in total pressures.

There’s no question that the Smiths presence and production along the defensive front is having a huge impact on the rest of the defense. Currently, the Green Bay Packers lead the NFL in defensive pressure percentage at 39 percent and they are doing it with the fifth-lowest blitz rate in the league. This is essentially the opposite of what we saw last season.

The Packer defense also ranks second in points per game, giving up an average of only 11.7 and they are first in forced turnovers with eight. And perhaps most importantly, this Green Bay defense – led by the Smiths – has carried the Packers to each of their first three victories.

While we don’t want to take anything away from what they’ve done on the field, we cannot overlook their impact off of it in the locker room. It only takes watching about two seconds of their joint interviews to realize that these two love to have fun. But they also command the respect of the rest of the locker room and when they talk, everyone listens.

There’s no question that Za’Darius and Preston have played a major role in changing the Green Bay Packers locker room vibe and culture that had become stagnant by many accounts over the years.

Very few players in the NFL can produce at the level that Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith have and there are even fewer that can be true leaders as these two have. So take a bow Mr. Gutekunst, you didn’t just hit a home run, you hit a grand slam by adding these two fine football players and individuals to this Packers team.