Green Bay Packers: Third Year Player Performance Grades
By Kenny Jilek
Early Round Picks
1st Round Pick – Jaire Alexander – CB
In his third season, Jaire Alexander has gone from good to great for the Green Bay Packers that drafted him in the first round. This season, he’s become one of the true shutdown corners in the NFL, and not many wide receivers can do much against him one-on-one. He’s locked up every challenger that’s come his way.
In his first two seasons, his yards per completion against him were 13.9 and 14.1, and his yards per target were 9.0 and 7.6 with passer ratings of 100.0 and 85.8. This year, all three of those numbers are down significantly to 9.7, 5.1, and 70.2. If that’s not enough, after giving up just over 800 yards in each of his first two years, he’s given up just 360 yards through 13 games in 2020. Teams are learning that it’s not even worth looking Alexander’s way because of his dominance this season.
Unfortunately, that means that he doesn’t have much of a chance to rack up stats like passes defended and interceptions. He has only one interception this year, which came in the first game of the season against the Vikings. He did make his first Pro Bowl this season, but if he can get his hands on a few more passes and improve his catching, he’ll have even more recognition as an All-Pro.
Overall Grade: A
2nd Round Pick – Josh Jackson – CB
Jackson has had a rough go of his time in Green Bay, mostly due to the scheme he’s been asked to play in. When he was a standout at Iowa, he played in deep zones and got to read the quarterback and use his ball skills to make big plays. The Packers play a lot more man coverage, something great for a guy like Jaire, but not Jackson.
Jackson didn’t have a bad rookie season, with 10 passes defended, but he didn’t play much in his second year. His third season here has definitely been a roller coaster, with plenty of ups and downs. Without the speed to play in the slot, he started the season behind Kevin King and Jaire Alexander on the depth chart for outside corners. Then, he got his chance to be a starter from weeks 6 to 10. He quickly endeared himself to Green Bay Packers’ fans by helping in run support on his first drive against the Buccaneers and doing much of the same in the weeks that followed.
Unfortunately for Jackson, when both starting cornerbacks were back healthy, he was put back on the bench. In fact, he’s been a healthy scratch multiple times since he was pulled from the starting lineup and hasn’t seen a single defensive snap since week 10. He simply doesn’t have the skill set to play anywhere but the outside, so he likely won’t get another chance unless there’s another injury. Even his coverage stats weren’t that good in his time this season, as he’s given up a 74.2 percent completion rate and 113.0 passer rating.
Overall Grade: C-
Third Round Pick – Oren Burks – LB
If Josh Jackson is a disappointment, then it’s hard to come up with a word for Oren Burks. He’s currently the second-most experienced inside linebacker that the Packers have, but he just has not been playable there this season. As a former safety, he was supposed to be a good coverage linebacker who could play all three downs. He’s shown that he can’t do that, and he’s even worse against the run.
Pro Football Focus has given Burks an absolutely abysmal grade of 28.3 this season. Whether or not you agree with their ratings or methods, it’s pretty clear that someone graded that poorly probably isn’t contributing much. This year, they’ve been so desperate to make this pick not be a complete bust that they’ve tried him as an edge rusher, taking away reps from Rashan Gary and other young guys with potential like Jonathan Garvin. If you wanted to know how that’s going, he doesn’t have a single quarterback pressure this season.
He’s been a fine special-teams piece, and that’s undoubtedly what’s keeping him on the roster. However, at some point, he has to produce on defense to justify taking up a roster spot, especially with four other inside linebackers on the 53-man roster. With Krys Barnes and Kamal Martin looking like the clear future for the Packers at his position, he’ll have to do enough to catch the attention of a different team if he wants to stay in the NFL.
Overall Grade: D-