Dean Lowry has Most Productive Year w/ Packers & will be Key in Playoffs

I’m sure just about every Green Bay Packers fan has either thought or said at some point, “get Kenny Clark some help.”

For the capped strapped Packers, Dean Lowry was thought of by many as a cut candidate this past offseason because doing so would have created $3.3 million in much-needed cap space. However, Green Bay would choose to restructure Lowry’s deal instead by adding voided years, which still helped lower his cap hit by $2.48 million.

In terms of depth along the interior defensive line, as I wrote over the summer, the Green Bay Packers just didn’t have the luxury of moving on from Lowry–they needed him.

After a 2018 season in which Lowry recorded 29 pressures and four sacks, he signed an extension, but over the next two seasons, Lowry would total only three sacks and 42 total pressures–21 each season.

Now, it’s important to note that Lowry is often tasked with doing the dirty work, as IDL coach Jerry Montgomery put it, which includes eating up space, occupying defenders, and taking on double-teams–and with that, he’s not someone who will typically light up the stat sheet. However, his play was still lacking over these past two seasons.

But during training camp this summer, coach Montgomery would tell reporters that Lowry was having a “good camp” and perhaps that success could be attributed to Joe Barry’s new defense. Lowry would mention that he has more freedom and he is able to move around more to find the favorable matchup.

"“Dean does so much of the dirty work at the position he’s at,” said Montgomery via Packers.com. “He takes on a lot of double-teams, he pushes the pocket on third downs when he gets those opportunities. But he’s definitely had a good camp so far and saw some things last night from him which were nice. He’s headed in the right direction.”"

That momentum and good play from the summer would carry over into the regular season, and it was around Week 5 against Cincinnati where we really saw Lowry begin to flash. On what seemed to be a weekly basis for much of the regular season, we would see Lowry bull rush his way into the backfield, blowing up a passing play or a run play once or twice a game.

Overall, he would finish the season with 42 pressures, including five games where he tallied at least four, as well as six sacks–both of which are career highs. Lowry’s 42 pressures were the 15th most among all interior defenders this season, his five tackles for loss tied a career-high, and he ranked 27th out of 64 eligible defenders by PFF’s grading system.

The best way to disrupt a play almost immediately is by generating pressure up the middle, and although I mentioned that Lowry doesn’t typically fill the stat sheet, this season he has, and the defense at all three levels has benefited.

Looking ahead to playoffs, Lowry is one of my X-Factors for this Green Bay Packers team. When he’s playing well, the entire defense can benefit.

This gives Green Bay the ability to move Clark around to find those one-on-one opportunities. When Lowry is occupying multiple defenders, it frees up the edge rushers as well as the linebackers, and when he’s bullying his way into the backfield almost immediately — something we’ve seen much more often this season — the secondary greatly benefits.

There have been a few games over the last month, particularly against Baltimore and Cleveland, where the Green Bay run defense really had issues. Of course, that starts upfront as the interior defensive line was pushed around, but there was also poor tackling and in Joe Barry’s defense that prioritizes stopping the pass first, it’s not as if the Packers run defense unit is ever going to be dominant.

With that said, prior to those games, Green Bay hadn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher all season, and while their numbers against the run weren’t eye-popping, opponents weren’t able to take games over on the ground as they had in the past. Again, this unit won’t ever be dominant, but they were improved, and Lowry’s play is one of the reasons why.

In the playoffs, a team’s weaknesses are magnified, and issues that Green Bay has been able to overcome during the regular season could be the reason they are sent home early. For this playoff run, the Packers are going to need Lowry to continue to be at his best–something that he has been able to do for a good portion of the season.

"“He’s Steady Eddie,” said Brian Gutekunst via Forbes. “He’s consistently improved from the time we got him. He’s a true professional, effort, work ethic, and he’s gotten better. You just see how he’s really worked himself into being a really good NFL football player, and he’s been very reliable and dependable.”"