Green Bay Packers Claim Run-Stuffer Anthony Rush off Waivers

As a part of a couple of roster moves on Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers claimed IDL Anthony Rush off of waivers from the Chicago Bears.

On Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers made a few roster moves, one of which included claiming interior defensive lineman Anthony Rush off of waivers from the Chicago Bears.

Now, there are two main reasons that they made this move. The first being that they’ve been without Montravius Adams — who has been quite solid this season — the last few games, and a corresponding move to the Rush addition was placing Adams on IR. The second reason is that this team could always use more help inside.

Rush went undrafted in the 2019 class out of the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). There he would appear in 27 games over his final two seasons, recording 77 tackles, 20 of which were for a loss, along with two sacks, two forced fumbles, and an interception.

During his short NFL career, Rush has bounced around, playing for Philadelphia two different times, as well as Oakland, Seattle, and most recently Chicago. He has 237 career defensive snaps over 13 games and has totaled four pressures, one sack, nine run-stops — a play that constitutes a “failure” for the offense — and nine tackles.

Rush will likely never be the player who fills the stat sheet with a ton of quarterback pressures or sacks, but at 6’5″ – 350 pounds, he eats up space in the middle as a run-stuffer. Pro Football Focus’ ($) run-stop percentage metric calculates how often a defensive player records a run-stop, and in 2019 when Rush saw his most extensive action, he ranked 46th out of 184 eligible interior defensive linemen with a rate of 8.7.

For some context, he was tied with A’Shawn Robinson, Quinnen Williams ranked 42nd with a run-stop rate of 8.9, and Michael Pierce — a player that many fans wanted the Green Bay Packers to sign this past offseason — ranked 38th at 9.1 percent. Although keep in mind that Rush played far fewer snaps than the players mentioned.

For a closer look at Rush’s game, here is an excellent breakdown from Fran Duffy, a film analyst for the Philadelphia Eagles:

If you count the fact that Rush was signed by the Eagles two different times, this will be his sixth team in less than two seasons. Expectations should absolutely be tempered. But given his skill-set, along with the Green Bay Packers needing some additional help at the interior defensive line position, I won’t be surprised if we see Rush on the field sooner than later.