Green Bay Packers: Rashan Gary has Career Game against Jaguars

Against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Rashan Gary has a career game for the Green Bay Packers.

In what ended up being a much closer game than anticipated against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, the Green Bay Packers needed someone to step up on the defensive side of the ball. Well, that player was Rashan Gary, who put together the most productive game of his NFL career.

According to Pro Football Focus ($), Gary totaled seven pressures, one of which was for a sack. For some context, Za’Darius Smith has hit the seven pressure mark just one time this season, and during his 2019 campaign that should have made him an All-Pro, he surpassed seven pressures just five times.

And it’s not like these were just any pressures; three of them came at a huge moment in the game on Jacksonville’s final drive. With Green Bay holding a four-point lead, Gary plowed right through right tackle Jawaan Taylor and came away with a sack on second down. On third down, he did much of the same, bullying Taylor and then pressuring Luton, which eventually led to Preston Smith coming away with the sack. Then on fourth down, Luton fled the pocket, and Gary pursued him until his pass went flailing out of bounds. And at that point, the game was all but over.

As the former 12th overall pick, Gary has been a lightning rod amongst Packer nation since joining the team, but this performance gives us a glimpse into the player that he is becoming. I mean, tallying seven pressures and essentially sealing the game on the final drive just doesn’t happen by accident.

In 2019, the Green Bay Packers made the conscious decision to bring Gary along slowly since they had Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith to lean on. While this decision was scrutinized heavily by fans, it was actually a luxury that most teams don’t have and gave Gary additional time to work on his game.

Then during training camp this summer, Gary’s name was one that we heard often from the beat reporters in attendance, and he carried that momentum into the first two weeks of the season, totaling seven pressures and two sacks against Minnesota and Detroit.

Admittedly, there was a quiet stretch that followed; however, I do believe that was in part due to his ankle injury which zapped some of his effectiveness. But even so, Gary has still been relatively efficient as a pass-rusher this season. By Pro Football Focus’ pass-rush productivity metric, which measures the rate at which a player generates a quarterback pressure with a heavier weighting towards sacks, Gary ranks 27th out of 116 eligible edge rushers. I’m going to assume that’s better than what most would have guessed.

After the game, Matt LaFleur said that this performance was “a step in the right direction” for Gary and that “he’s got to continue to progress,” which is all true. However, if you’re still wondering why the Packers took Gary at 12th overall, it’s because he’s capable of performances like this one. On a team with the Smith Brothers, Gary was the top pass rusher, and it was he who pressured Luton on the final three plays of the game.