Green Bay Packers: A Big Role for Jonathan Garvin in 2020?

As the Green Bay Packers look to round out their edge-rusher position, Mike Pettine hints at rookie Jon Garvin playing a big role in 2020.

The Green Bay Packers edge-rushing unit is perhaps one of the deepest positions on the team this season. There is, of course, Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith, who combined for 25.5 sacks, 167 total pressures, and 28 tackles for loss last season. Joining them is Rashan Gary, who has put together an excellent training camp up to this point and appears poised for that Year 2 leap.

While those three will take a bulk of the edge-rushing snaps this season, with Kyler Fackrell now with the New York Giants, the Packers have at least one spot open and potentially two, depending on how many edge-rushers they want to roster.

Well, as we continue on down the depth chart after The Smiths and Gary, the Packers have plenty of young and talented options to fill that fourth and possibly fifth spots on the roster.

Preston Smith discussed Tim Williams playing a larger role this season, and Randy Ramsey – a.k.a Rambo – is making plays in training camp. Meanwhile, both rookie edge rushers, Tipa Galeai and Jonathan Garvin, are making noise as well. Even the lesser-known Delontae Scott has had some nice reps.

So as we scroll through Twitter daily, read articles from the beat reporters, and try to glean any sort of information that we can on the Green Bay Packers’ edge-rusher battle, recently there was a telling quote from Mike Pettine that gives us some insight into who is standing out.

Earlier this week in a Zoom call with reporters, Pettine was asked about taking some of the pressure off of The Smiths. He would, of course, mention Gary but he also brought up Garvin’s name as well (via Zach Kruse at Packers Wire):

"“Rashan (Gary) is going to have a big part, a big role in what we’re doing, as well as Garvin.”"

Pettine wouldn’t go on and on about Garvin by any means, but mentioning him when discussing players who are going to be “a big part” of the edge rusher group this season is very telling.

Although Garvin would leave Miami after his junior season, he is a very experienced collegiate player having appeared in 13 games as a true freshman, while making 24 starts over his next two seasons. Over that two year span as a stater, Garvin would total 97 tackles, including 26 for a loss, along with 10.5 sacks.

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), during those same two seasons, he would also record 43 run stops, 33 hurries, and 12 quarterbacks hits. Certainly, solid production for a late seventh-round pick and on top of that, Garvin has recently just turned 21-years-old.

As Pettine would point out, along with several draft analysts in their pre-draft scouting reports, Garvin is an exciting player who flashed some serious potential on his college tape. And from the sounds of it, he’s making those same plays in training camp as well.

If you follow along with the Packer beat reporters’ live tweets, we’ve consistently seen Garvin’s name mentioned. With roster cuts looming, it now looks like Garvin is not only going to make the final roster but that he will see some playing time as well.