Green Bay Packers: It’s Time for More Snaps for Rashan Gary

With just six games left in the Green Bay Packers’ season, it is time for Rashan Gary to start seeing more snaps.

If we rewind back to draft night in April, I can’t imagine that many out there thought that the Green Bay Packers would draft Rashan Gary. They had just loaded up on edge rushers in free agency, they had needs at other positions, one of which included wide receiver, and if the draft experts did have Green Bay taking an edge rusher, it was Brian Burns.

However as we all know the Packers did take Gary, but many fans were not happy with the selection. While Gary is incredibly athletic, he lacked production at Michigan and for whatever reason, many thought that he didn’t give full effort on every play. But if you’ve watched any Michigan or Packer games, you will quickly realize that is just false.

Of course every fan wants to see their 12th overall draft pick make a big play or two every week and Gary hasn’t done that. Instead the Green Bay Packers have been bringing him along slowly since they have Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith to rely on. This means that as a rookie, Gary doesn’t have to step in and be “the guy.” And this is a good thing!

But with six games left in the regular season, it is time for Mike Pettine and the Green Bay Packers to start giving Gary more snaps. Understandably, it has taken some time for Gary to develop and whether or not the stat sheet reflects it, he has been getting better every week.

So far this season, Gary has recorded two sacks and nine total pressures, but his stat line isn’t he only way to measure success. According to Pro Football Focus, he has been the Green Bay Packers’ most improved defensive player over the last five weeks with his overall grade jumping by 27.3 points. But perhaps where Gary has improved the most has been in his run defense as illustrated by Ben Fennell of The Athletic:

Gary is also making strides as a pass-rusher and refining his technique which hasn’t gone unnoticed either:

Through the Green Bay Packers’ first 10 games, Gary is averaging 18.2 snaps per game, including two games where he has taken 10 snaps or less, but now it is time for more. For one, both Za’Darius and Preston have played over 80 percent of the snaps this season, and for a Packer team that looks like they could have a long playoff run ahead of them, having those two as fresh as possible is needed.

Also it is no secret that the Packers’ run defense is possibly this team’s biggest weakness, but one of Gary’s attributes that made him so desirable to Green Bay was his ability to play 3-technique in addition to lining up outside. With Kenny Clark oftentimes double-teamed, having Gary’s athleticism and explosiveness – which is something that Dean Lowry and Tyler Lancaster just doesn’t have – would give him a great opportunity to be a difference maker, especially with his improvements as a run defender.

Since the moment he was drafted it’s been clear that Gary has the raw talent and physical tools to be a star in this league but he needs to refine his skill set and learn the position at the NFL level. However, he has been making strides in the right direction and it is time that Pettine and the Packers give him more snaps during this final stretch of the season, not only for his development but to also help this team win.