Green Bay Packers: Not Seeing Same Dominance from Preston Smith

We are only three weeks into the season, but we haven’t seen the same dominance up to this point from Green Bay Packers’ pass-rusher, Preston Smith.

There were two big reasons behind the Green Bay Packers’ defensive success in 2019, and they share the same last name. Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith both wreaked havoc on opposing quarterbacks, and offensive lines as each player went on to have a career year last season.

While Za’Darius garnered much of the attention – but apparently not enough as he was snubbed all offseason – Preston’s 2019 season seemed to fly under the radar a bit. When it was all said and done, Preston had recorded 12 sacks, which was the eighth-most in football, and his 62 total pressures tied for the 15th most.

This season, however, and yes, we need to keep in mind that it has only been three weeks, Smith hasn’t found the same success getting after the quarterback. In fact, heading into Week 4, he has just half a sack and three total pressures. His pressure rate in 2019 sat at an impressive 13.5 percent, while so far this season, Smith’s pressure rate is only 4.5 percent.

Without Kyler Fackrell on the team, Smith has been asked to drop into coverage at a much higher rate this year, with 25 percent of his snaps up to this point coming in coverage. That is up nearly 10 percent from 2019.

So, yes, Smith is being asked to do more than what he did a year ago, but his pressure rate, as well as his overall grades from Pro Football Focus (subscription required) and Andy Herman of Packer Report, still show that he has been less productive.

Although these grades are far from the be all end all, a large swing in either direction from year to year is certainly noteworthy. In Smith’s case, after posting an overall grade of 66.5 by Pro Football Focus in 2019, his current grade is just 48.7.

Meanwhile, Andy goes through and grades each individual play for every player, assigning them a score ranging from -2 to +2 with zero being neutral. And by his grading system, Smith finished 2019 at +10.4 and as one of the best players on this Green Bay Packers team. This year, though, he has a grade of -1.70, which is ahead of only Dean Lowry on the defensive side of the ball.

In Andy’s most recent article, he had this to say about Smith’s performance after the Saints game:

"“(Preston) Smith has been up and down dropping into coverage, and he’s been ok against the run, but he’s really struggled to win as a pass rusher with any level of consistency. It’s worth mentioning here that the Saints boast arguably the best offensive tackle duo in the league in Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk, and both were phenomenal against the Packers.”"

Through three weeks, this Green Bay Packers’ defense as a whole has taken their lumps, and while they have still come up with the big play when needed, they haven’t been nearly as dominant as what many of us had hoped we would be seeing. Several key players, in addition to Smith, on this side of the ball are off to quiet starts, and Mike Pettine’s defensive philosophy could be called into question as well.

Having said all of that, by no means is it time to panic or time to worry about Smith. However, he hasn’t been leaving his fingerprint on the game, and it has been noticeable. The success of this defense is centered around that lethal pass-rush, and for this Packers team to reach their ceiling, they need Preston Smith playing at a high-level.