Rounding Out Edge Rusher Rotation on Packers Offseason To-Do List
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers may have one of the best pass-rushing duos in football in Rashan Gary and Preston Smith, who combined for 21 sacks and both finished in the top-10 in pressures generated last season per PFF ($$).
However, that production masked a lack of depth at the position. Of course, Za’Darius Smith was sidelined for just about the entire season, and there’s a reason why the team signed Whitney Mercilus once Houston had released him.
The outlook on the position — excluding Gary and Smith, of course — hasn’t improved either. Za’Darius was cut and has since signed with Minnesota, while Mercilus became a free agent and has recently retired.
This leaves the Green Bay Packers with Jonathan Garvin, Tipa Galeai, La’Darius Hamilton, and Randy Ramsey in addition to Gary and Smith.
While meeting with reporters on Tuesday, new OLB coach Jason Rebrovich mentioned that the Packers need more out of their role players at the edge rusher position in 2022.
He also added that he wants four “legit” edge rushers as part of his rotation. Remember, this is a heavily rotated position, both Gary and Smith were each on the field for roughly 68% of the defensive snaps when healthy. This means nearly one-third of the game takes place with those two on the sidelines.
So the big question is, are those third and fourth rotational players that Rebrovich was referring to already on the Green Bay Packers roster?
I would say maybe? But in all likelihood, the Packers will explore upgrades in the draft. Hopefully, we see Garvin and Galeai take a step forward in Year 3, but relying heavily on a former seventh-round pick and UDFA comes with obvious risks.
Last season, through Week 17, Garvin was the lowest graded Packers defender by Packer Report’s Andy Herman, who, over the course of the season, grades every snap of every player. Galeai wasn’t too far ahead of Garvin either, and he ranked 131st among all edge rushers in PFF’s pass-rush productivity metric—which measures how efficient a pass rusher is at getting after the quarterback.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has minimal experience and Ramsey missed the entire 2021 season dealing with an ankle injury—so who knows what we can expect from him or if he will even make the team.
In short, there was a lack of impact plays when Gary and Smith weren’t on the field and issues against the run as well. Of course, when comparing just about any player to those two, there is going to be a drop-off in production, but as Rebrovich said, the Packers need more than what they’ve been getting from others on the roster.
This is why edge rusher should absolutely be on your radar for when the Green Bay Packers are on the clock early on in the draft because I feel confident in saying that it is on theirs.
Whoever the rookie may be, they will be stepping into an ideal situation where they can still play a key role as a situational pass-rusher and continuing to develop, while Green Bay leans heavily on Smith and Gary. Just a few years ago, in 2019, we saw the Packers take a similar approach with Gary after signing the Smiths in free agency.
Edge rusher is a premiere position and one we know that the Packers will target early. It’s also a heavily rotated one where Green Bay has question marks surrounding the depth of the unit. With five picks in the top-100, and four within the first two rounds, I will be quite surprised if one isn’t an edge rusher.