Packers: Rashan Gary a Full Participant at Friday’s Practice

Fortunately, in a season full of injuries for the Green Bay Packers, Rashan Gary avoided a major elbow injury against Seattle, even though in the moment it looked quite gruesome.

But the big question that remained was, when would Gary be back on Sundays for the Green Bay Packers?

For all three practices last week, Gary wore a brace on his injured elbow and was listed as a limited participant each day. However, as we all know, Gary was held out of Sunday’s game—even if he badly wanted to out there.

This week started out similarly with Gary being a limited participant on Wednesday and Thursday, and it ended similarly with Gary being listed as questionable for this Sunday. But the big difference is that he was a full participant on Friday—which shows that he is trending in the right direction.

Led by Preston Smith and Kenny Clark, the Green Bay Packers would generate 22 pressures against the Vikings, according to PFF ($$), their fifth-most in a game this season, but they had some help from blitzes dialed up by Joe Barry, and of course, there is no replacing Gary.

"“You talk about a guy that puts everything into whatever it is he’s doing … and you see it paying off for him,” LaFleur said over the summer via Packers.com. “He’s going to be a big-time player for us, and I think he’s going to be a big-time player in this league for a really long time.”"

Despite missing a game, Gary is tied for sixth among edge rushers in pressures with 46, he is tied for fifth in quarterback hits, and he is sixth in pass-rush productivity, an efficiency metric.

Even if Gary is back in the mix, the Packers will be short on experience at the edge position but that rings especially true if he can’t play. As we all know, the team is still without Za’Darius Smith, Whitney Mercilus is on IR, and just this week, Jonathan Garvin was placed on the reserve/COVID list.

This leaves Green Bay with Preston Smith, Tipa Galeai, and La’Darius Hamilton as healthy options at edge, along with the possibility of Gary being available. The team also just signed Nate Orchard to the practice squad.

This week, the short-handed Packers will be going up against a Los Angeles Rams offensive line that is PFF’s highest-graded pass-blocking unit, they also rank second in ESPN’s pass block win rate metric, and the Rams have given up the fewest pressures.

Time in the pocket for Matthew Stafford will make life a lot more difficult for the Green Bay secondary that will be tasked with covering Cooper Kupp, who leads the league in several receiving categories, as well as Odell Beckham Jr.

However, when under pressure, it’s worth mentioning that Stafford ranks 27th out of 38 quarterbacks in competition percentage this season per PFF.

Now, having said all of that, it is still not a given that Gary plays on Sunday—we all know how conservative the Packers medical staff is. And if he does suit up, there is the possibility that he is on a pitch count.

But the fact that Gary was a full participant on Friday is some very good news. As we’ve done the past few weeks, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

"“I would say if a guy’s cleared to play, we’ll let him go,” LaFleur said after Friday’s practice via SI. “But you’re also mindful of what you have in front of you. And certainly we never want to put somebody in a position where you could subject them to greater risk where they could be out for a longer period of time.”"