Green Bay Packers Stock Report: Buy! Buy! Buy!

Heading into their Week 4 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons, here is your weekly Green Bay Packers’ stock report.

The Green Bay Packers are coming off their biggest win of the season as they moved to 3-0 after a tough road win against the New Orleans Saints. The defense took its lumps but came up big with a forced fumbled and a three and out when they needed it most. On the other side of the ball, the offense stayed hot, putting up 37 points and moving up and down the field with relative ease.

As you can imagine, in this week’s stock report, there are plenty of players trending upward as the team prepares for their Week 4 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons. And as always, there are plenty of other players who could have made this list, but these are the big ones that have stood out.

Stock Up

Allen Lazard

Without Davante Adams, Allen Lazard took over the WR1 duties and filled that role magnificently. By the time the clock had hit zero, Lazard hauled in six receptions on eight targets for 146 yards – including plays of 48 yards and 72 yards – along with a touchdown.

He continues to be a reliable target for Aaron Rodgers, especially on third downs, but as we saw last Sunday, he can make plays downfield as well. With Adams’ status for Monday’s game still unknown and with a struggling Falcons defense coming to town, it certainly could be another big week for Lazard.

Jaire Alexander as an All-Pro for the Green Bay Packers

If you’re considering buying Jaire Alexander’s All-Pro stock, I would say now is a great time as he is coming off another excellent performance. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Alexander was targeted just twice on Sunday, allowing one catch for -2 yards. On the season, he is allowing only 9.2 yards per catch, just 16 total yards after the catch, and his coverage grade is the second-best among qualified cornerbacks.

Billy Turner at RT

I have to admit I was surprised to see Billy Turner at right tackle and Rick Wagner back on the bench. Last week I wrote that I expected Turner to take over at right guard for Lucas Patrick with Wagner remaining at right tackle given his solid play. However, Turner had won the right tackle job coming out of training camp, so Matt LaFleur gave him the nod in Week 3.

The first drive was a bit shaky for Turner, and to some extent, that should have been expected after missing the first two games of the season. But from that point on, he settled in much better than I would have expected, allowing only two hurries and no hits or sacks for the game.

There has been quite a bit of shuffling along the offensive line this season, but it looks like Turner has found a home at right tackle.

Kingsley Keke

Through the first two games of the season, we saw flashes from Kingsley Keke that had shown he was moving in the right direction. But against New Orleans, he put together by far his best performance of his short career. Keke recorded two sacks, a forced fumble, and a play that won’t show up on the stat sheet was him diagnosing a screen to Alvin Kamara that helped limit the play to only a few yards.

After the game, LaFleur said that this is the standard that Keke has to live up to each game, and if he can show this type of consistency, the run defense is going to benefit greatly, especially when Kenny Clark returns.

Robert Tonyan

Through three weeks, it has been Robert Tonyan who has taken the most snaps at the tight end position for the Green Bay Packers, and against New Orleans, he had another productive game. Tonyan finished the game with five receptions on five targets for 50 yards while finding the end zone for the second straight week.

The tight end plays a major role in the LaFleur offense, and it looks like Tonyan is going to continue seeing plenty of targets, especially in the red zone, moving forward.

Matt LaFleur as one of the best coaches in the NFL

The Green Bay Packers received quite a bit of criticism this offseason, but in Year 2 of the LaFleur offense, they have been one of the most productive teams in football. No matter what stats you look at, there’s a good chance the Packer offense is near the top. They currently rank second in yards per game, second by DVOA, and first in points per game.

Overall, there’s been an excellent balance between the run and pass, the offense is capitalizing on the deep ball, plenty of presnap motion to keep defenses off-balance, and LaFleur’s play-calling has been masterful as he’s scheming players open for easy completions and yards after the catch. It’s time for LaFleur to start receiving some national recognition for the offense’s early performance and the fact that he is 17-4 as a head coach.

Stock Down

Will Redmond

To Redmond’s credit, he had a nice week in Minnesota to start the season and was decent against Detroit in Week 2, however, against the Saints, he really struggled. The same two issues of tackling and dropping into coverage that plagued him in 2019 reared their ugly heads on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Raven Greene was on the field for only six defensive snaps. I expect that he will see more playing time in the coming weeks.

Preston Smith

It’s been a surprisingly quiet start to the season for Preston Smith in terms of pass-rushing. Without Kyler Fackrell, he’s been asked to drop into coverage more, and he has done well against the run. But we certainly aren’t seeing the same impact rushing the passer that we saw a year ago.

After posting 12 sacks and 62 pressures in 2019, through three games, Smith has half a sack and only three total pressures. Now, there’s no need to hit the panic button, but this is certainly noteworthy.

Mike Pettine

Going into this game, without Michael Thomas, it seemed pretty obvious what the New Orleans Saints were going to do. Drew Brees was going to take the easy passes and get the ball to Kamara in space. And for the most part, that is exactly what happened. Yet Mike Pettine continued to play soft zone coverage to which the Saints took advantage of.

Against Brees, it sounds odd to say, but Green Bay needed to play aggressive, taking away the short to intermediate throws, forcing him to beat them deep. Something that he hasn’t done very effectively as of late. Also, when you have Alexander and Kevin King as your corners, trust them and let them play press-man coverage while flooding the middle of the field with an additional defender or two rather than worrying about the big play.

With all that said, as frustrating as that game was to watch at times, not all of this falls on Pettine. Yes, I would like to see him be more aggressive, but the Green Bay Packers’ defense as a whole has to execute better as well.