Green Bay Packers: Healthy Christian Kirksey will be a Huge Boost

Injuries have plagued Christian Kirksey the past two seasons, but if healthy, he will provide the Green Bay Packers’ defense with a huge boost.

Re-signing Blake Martinez just wasn’t in the cards for the Green Bay Packers this offseason. Although he was the quarterback of this defense and rarely missed a snap while racking up monster tackle numbers, he came with his limitations as well. And with those limitations coupled with his price tag in free agency, bringing him back just didn’t make sense.

Instead, the Packers would sign free agent Christian Kirksey who could very well be an upgrade over Martinez and at a lower cost as well. That is if he can stay healthy.

Drafted in 2014, Kirksey has spent his entire career up to this point with Cleveland. However, after not missing a single game during his first four seasons, in 2018 a hamstring injury would limit him to seven games. And then in 2019, he would play in only two games before having surgery on a torn labrum.

That means that Kirksey has appeared in only nine games out of a possible 32 the last two years. In a recent Zoom call with reporters, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine acknowledged that there was some risk involved with this signing, but a risk worth taking:

"“Very excited about the signing,” Pettine said. “Just going through the medical part of it, and talking to our people, they didn’t think it was anything long term, and he’s never been a guy that’s been injury prone. Obviously, that’s a concern when you see the amount of time he’s missed, but overall, it’s a great signing for us for a lot of reasons.”"

Pettine would then go on to say:

"“Certainly, it’s a risk (signing Kirksey) when you look at it, but it was a risk we were more than willing to take. We’re excited about it.”"

And when it comes to the Green Bay Packers’ coaching staff along with fans, there is good reason to be excited about Kirksey joining the team. During the 2016 and 2017 seasons when he was a fulltime starter, Kirksey would total eight pass deflections, six sacks, 13 quarterback hits, 182 solo tackles, 17 of which were for a loss, along with two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery.

While Martinez was always around the ball, those tackles often occurred four, five, or even six yards downfield. Not to mention that dropping into coverage was not a strong suit of his. However, Kirksey has shown that he can get off blocks, he can make plays in the backfield as a blitzer, he diagnosis plays quickly, and he can hold his own in coverage.

When specifically looking at what Kirksey can do in coverage, Andy Herman of Packer Report has graded a handful of his games from previous seasons and had a few big takeaways about his coverage ability:

"“He drops well in zones and reads quarterbacks well. He also has adequate foot speed and isn’t bad in on-one-one situations. Most importantly, when he is targeted and does give up completions, he does a great job of immediately making the tackle to limit yards after catch.”"

Two other major factors that played a role in signing Kirksey are his familiarity with Pettine’s defense and the leadership qualities that he brings to this Packers team. During Kirksey’s first two NFL seasons, Pettine was his head coach in Cleveland, which should help make his transition much smoother, and on top of that, Kirksey was also a team captain while in Cleveland.

During his conference call, Pettine would go on to mention the importance of what Kirksey adds to the locker room, along with his knowledge of the defensive system:

"“We’re not just bringing a really good player into the room, but this is a guy that has great leadership ability,” Pettine said. “He already has a head start on learning the system with him being drafted when I was in Cleveland.”"

For a Green Bay Packers team that is hoping to make another Super Bowl push, the emergence of Christian Kirksey in the middle of the defense this season is going to be huge. He gives them an explosiveness and playmaking ability in open space that they haven’t previously had. Not to mention that there is a lot of unknowns on the depth chart behind Kirksey. So staying healthy in 2020 is a must.

With limited spending power this offseason, Green Bay was able to sign Kirksey to a relatively cheap two-year deal worth $13 million that comes with an out after the 2020 season if needed. With that said, if Kirksey can return to his form from the 2016 and 2017 seasons, this contract will look like an absolute steal.

And from a pure football perspective, the Packers are going to need him to return to that past form if they hope to see their defense improve this season.