Green Bay Packers: The Uber-Reliable Adrian Amos Flies Under the Radar

While not a flashy player, it’s Adrian Amos’ reliability and steadiness that provides this Green Bay Packers’ secondary with a huge boost.

If I had to sum up the safety position for the Green Bay Packers during the 2018 season, the word I would choose is ‘yikes.’

I’m sure as we all remember, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was traded, Jermaine Whitehead was cut, while Kentrell Brice and Josh Jones just simply struggled. We also saw Raven Greene, Ibraheim Campbell, and Eddie Pleasant all end up on IR. In fact, things got so bad that Tramon Williams spent nearly 400 snaps there that season.

Fortunately, we saw significant improvement at the safety position in 2019, and it all began with the free-agent signing of Adrian Amos. While Za’Darius Smith, Kenny Clark, and Jaire Alexander are going to attract a lot of the attention on the defensive side of the ball – and for good reasons – it’s Amos’ reliability and well-rounded skill-set that makes him such a good player.

As Bear fans were quick to point out last offseason, Amos isn’t a very flashy player. He isn’t going to come away with a lot of interceptions, and he may not make the Pro Bowl every year, but he provides the back-end of this Green Bay Packers’ defense with some much-needed stability.

In terms of his tackling, Amos would miss just two in the passing game, which was tied for the second-fewest among the 35 qualifying safeties, according to Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, against the run, the three that he missed were tied for the sixth-fewest, and his overall tackling efficiency rating – which calculates the average number of tackle attempts per one miss – of 22.0 was ranked third.

Needless to say, Amos’ ability as a sure-tackler was certainly a welcomed sight after what we had seen in recent years from the safety position.

On top of that, he would play in 99.62 percent of the Packers’ defensive snaps in 2019, which was the most on the team. Amos would also finish eighth among safeties in total pressures, he tied for second in pass breakups, and he tied for 10th in stops, which are plays that result in a loss for the offense.

On a four year deal worth $36 million, the addition of Amos was a tremendous value signing for GM Brian Gutekunst. Especially when we consider that Landon Collins signed a free-agent deal last offseason as well, but his contract was for six years and $84 million.

Now as we look ahead to the upcoming season, Amos is entering his second season in Mike Pettine’s system and he expects things to click much quicker for both him and the entire defensive unit, which means we could see an even better Amos in 2020 (via Packers Wire):

"“In the second year of learning something, you are not just trying to get it in and learn the playbook. Now, you are trying to perfect the playbook. I feel like as a defense we should be clicking a lot faster just off of knowledge about what we have to do”"

At the end of the day, tackles, pass breakups, and stops usually aren’t going to be the plays that many remember, but they’re the plays that win games. And while the contributions that Adrian Amos brings to the Packers’ defense may fly under the radar, they shouldn’t be under-appreciated.