Green Bay Packers Stock Report After Ugly Loss

After their ugly loss to Tampa Bay, here is your Green Bay Packers’ stock report heading into Week 7.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it; the Green Bay Packers were whooped down in Tampa Bay. While it was a promising start, it ultimately ended in 38 straight points by the Buccaneers and a Green Bay Packers team that looked completely lost on both sides of the ball.

Hopefully, Green Bay has learned from that game, burned the tape, and is now 100 percent focused on the Houston Texans. While I will be turning my focus to Houston as well, first, I’ll be taking one last look back at Week 6 with my weekly stock report.

Stock Up: A.J. Dillon

Pretty much all season, and especially in those short-yardage situations, we’ve been wondering where A.J. Dillon is. Well, on Sunday, he got his most extensive action of the season, which was only 10 snaps, but he was effective. On five carries, Dillon totaled 31 yards, including a 20 yard run between Corey Linsley and Lucas Patrick.

Most weeks, we’ve heard Matt LaFleur tell reporters that he needs to get Dillon more snaps and touches, so here’s to hoping that’s true moving forward.

Stock Down: Preston Smith

After a 12 sack, 62 total pressure performance in 2019, Preston Smith hasn’t been close to that player this season. In five games, he’s registered just one sack and seven pressures. Now, there’s been some speculation that he’s been asked to drop into coverage more this season, however, that just isn’t true.

According to Pro Football Focus ($), Smith has 51 coverage snaps this year, and through five weeks in 2019, he also had 51 coverage snaps. The truth is, he’s just really struggling, and this inconsistent Green Bay pass-rush needs him to start playing like the Preston Smith from 2019.

Stock Up: Montravius Adams

That’s right, I have Montravius Adams in the ‘stock up’ category. Granted, it’s been in small doses, but there have been a few plays each week since the New Orleans game where Adams has really stood out, and that continued in Tampa Bay with Adams finding his way into the backfield on a few run plays. With Tyler Lancaster’s status unknown at this time, and with Adams starting to find some success, he could see more snaps in the coming weeks.

Stock Down: Billy Turner

To his credit, Billy Turner had been very good at right tackle during his first two starts of the season, but against a stout Tampa Bay pass rush, he was exposed. When it was all said and done, Turner had allowed a sack, a quarterback hit, and six total pressures. Now we wait to see how he bounces back against Houston.

Stock Up: Krys Barnes

I know that Krys Barnes didn’t grade very well over at Pro Football Focus, and I think part of that was due to him missing some tackles, but I thought overall he still had a nice game. Barnes totaled 10 tackles, three of which qualified as stops, meaning the play ended in a loss for the offense. Meanwhile, in coverage, he allowed two receptions on three targets but only for 12 yards.

Stock Down: Mike Pettine

Mike Pettine’s play-calling has been under some scrutiny already this season, but on Sunday, we were all left scratching our heads on numerous occasions. For starters, the key to this game was pressuring Tom Brady, yet we often saw three and even a two-man rush. Then there is still screenshot circulating Twitter of the Green Bay corners playing 7-8 yards off the line of scrimmage on third and two:

As a defensive coordinator, Pettine isn’t going to stress opposing offenses. Rather, he wants to limit the big play, and if they are going to score, it’s going to be on a 12 plus play drive. However, the hope is that his defense can make a play or the offense simply stalls.

But this clearly isn’t working. The Green Bay Packers pass rush has the third-lowest pressure rate in the NFL, and as we saw Tom Brady do, when there’s time, he picked apart this soft zone coverage scheme. It’s time for Mike Pettine to become more aggressive as a play-caller; start sending more blitzes and let the corners play up at the line of scrimmage.