Green Bay Packers: End of the Regular Season Superlatives

The regular season is in the books, so let’s take a look back at which Green Bay Packers’ players stood out.

The 13-3 Green Bay Packers clinched the top seed in the NFC last weekend with their win in Chicago, and as a result, they’ve earned a well-deserved bye week while the rest of the conference battles it out. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a little reflecting on the regular season.

Before training camp began, I did my ‘Pre-Training Camp Superlatives’ article, highlighting my guess at who would be the team MVP, the unsung hero, and Rookie of the Year, among other things. Now, I wanted to take a look back at the regular season and hand out these “awards” based on how things actually played out.

Be sure to leave your answers below or find us on Twitter at @DairylandXpress to share!

Green Bay Packers Offensive MVP: Aaron Rodgers

I mean, this one is pretty straight forward, isn’t it? It’s Aaron Rodgers, who is the front-runner to win league MVP this season. We saw remarkable accuracy from Rodgers, who completed nearly 71 percent of his passes — a career-high — for 4,299 yards at 8.2 yards per attempt. He had 48 touchdowns to only five interceptions and finished with a passer rating of 121.5, which led the NFL.

The Green Bay Packers’ offense took a huge step forward in Year 2 of the Matt LaFleur system, ranking first in points per game as well as Football Outsiders’ DVOA. And it all starts with the play of Rodgers.

Green Bay Packers Defensive MVP: Jaire Alexander

For me, and I assume most of you out there, it’s Jaire Alexander. Alexander had taken a step forward from Year 1 to Year 2, but now in Year 3, he has emerged as one of the best corners in football, being named a second-team All-Pro.

According to Pro Football Focus ($), Alexander was targeted 69 times this season, allowed a completion rate of only 50.7 percent and just 9.6 yards per catch. He came away with a sack, an interception, 13 pass breakups, and he held quarterbacks to a passer rating of 68.3.

Below is how Alexander fared against the No. 1 wide receivers that he faced this season. Welcome to Jaire Island, everyone.

Green Bay Packers Rookie of the Year: Krys Barnes

From an undrafted rookie to seeing playing time Week 1 against Minnesota, to wearing the green dot as the Mike linebacker in Week 15, Krys Barnes’ presence at linebacker has been a huge boost for this defense. Barnes is intelligent, he’s aware of what’s happening on the field around him, and he brings some quickness to the position.

Barnes has forced a fumble at the goal line against Carolina, plugged holes on the defensive front, made plays in coverage, as well as in the backfield. He finished the regular season with five pressures, 76 tackles, 30 stops — or plays that constitute a failure for the offense — and he’s the play-caller for this defense.

Green Bay Packers Biggest Surprise: Billy Turner

I wrote an article this week highlighting how wrong I was about Turner this season. I honestly wasn’t even sure if he’d beat out Lane Taylor at right guard, let alone had much confidence in him playing tackle. But he has happily proved me wrong.

With injuries to the offensive line, we’ve seen Turner play right tackle, right guard, and left tackle, where he will be for the rest of the playoffs. Despite all the movement, Turner has allowed only two sacks, 25 pressures — he gave up 52 a year ago — and he’s the third-rated tackle by ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric.

Green Bay Packers Most Underwhelming: Preston Smith

After a dominant 2019 season with the Green Bay Packers that included 12 sacks — the 8th most in football — and 62 pressures — the 15th most among edge rushers — it was a quiet start to 2020 for Preston Smith. While he made some noise here and there, he was still a far cry production-wise from the player that we saw a year ago.

This season, Smith has tallied four sacks and only 26 pressures. In terms of PFF’s pass-rush productivity metric, which measures the rate at which a player generates a pressure, Smith ranks 99th out of 121 eligible edge-rushers. He’s also struggled in the run game and isn’t sealing the edge with the same regularity. Let’s hope we see more consistency out of him for the upcoming playoff run.

Green Bay Packers Unsung Hero: Corey Linsley

In most instances, the offensive line is going to go unnoticed, that is, unless they make a mistake. And when the Packers’ offensive line is discussed, rightfully so, David Bakhtiari draws a lot of the attention, as does Elgton Jenkins because of his versatility and high level of play. But do you know who is a really, really good football player? Corey Linsley.

In 437 pass-blocking snaps this season, Linsley has allowed just one sack, four pressures — that’s right, only four! — and he hasn’t been called for a penalty. Out of all offensive linemen, he’s tied for second in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric, and in ESPN’s pass-blocking and run-blocking win rate metrics, Linsley ranked fifth and first, respectively.

Green Bay Packers Breakout Star: Darnell Savage

We saw flashes from Darnell Savage as a rookie, but he also took his lumps. This season started off slowly as well, but around Week 10, everything started to click, and we’ve seen him turn into a bonafide playmaker.

In the last eight games, Savage has been targeted 22 times and allowed a completion rate of 40.9 percent. He’s also tallied two quarterback pressures as a blitzer, he’s logged four interceptions, and wherever the ball ends up, Savage isn’t too far behind. Fun fact, Savage finished with 11 combined pass breakups and interceptions, which is tied for the second-most among all safeties, and 10 of those pass breakups or interceptions have come Week 10 or later.

Green Bay Packers X-Factor: Kevin King

The defense has been trending in the right direction for a number of weeks now, but they really kicked it up a notch in Week 15 against Carolina. The run defense has been much better; they’re getting to the quarterback with more regularity, Savage and Adrian Amos are playing like the best safety duo in football, and Alexander is locking down his side of the field.

And because Alexander is playing at such a high level, that means Kevin King is going to receive a lot of targets–the Bears threw at him 12 times last Sunday. But which Kevin King are we going to see? Well, that’s always difficult to know, which is why he’s my X-Factor.

King has missed some time this season with an injury, he’s also had some ugly performances, but he’s had some very good ones as well. If we see the King from 2019, that coupled with Alexander and the play of the rest of the defense, and there really isn’t a weak spot on this unit. But if he struggles, opposing teams will try to pick on him.

Entering the Playoffs Don’t’ Forget About: Allen Lazard

Matt LaFleur gets a little twinkle in his eye when he talks about Allen Lazard because of all the extra things that he does that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. Since he returned from his core injury, he’s been fairly quiet. In five of the seven games, he has less than 23 receiving yards, he’s averaged only 9.8 yards per catch, and he has just one touchdown.

But in the three games before his injury, he averaged nearly 20 yards per catch, had two touchdowns, and a 146-yard performance against New Orleans. Lazard is happy to go about his business and do some dirty work in the running and passing games, but in the blink of an eye, he can also light up the stat sheet.

Most Under the Radar Season: Aaron Jones

With Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams lighting up the scoreboard on a weekly basis, I think it was easy to forget about what Aaron Jones had done. Even with missing two games, he finished with 1,104 rushing yards, which was more than he had in 16 games a season ago. And that is thanks in large part to an impressive 5.5 yards per carry, which was fourth-best in football.

Jones also finished with 47 receptions, only two less than last year, and posted 355 receiving yards. He didn’t have the same gaudy touchdown numbers, recording 11 instead of 19 — still impressive by the way — but in what could very well be his last season with the Packers, we can’t take for granted what he provides this offense.