Tackling an early issue for Green Bay Packers defense
By Paul Bretl
In just about every facet of the game, we saw improvements by the Green Bay Packers from Week 1 to Week 2. However, one specific area that is still of concern is their tackling ability.
Through two games, this has proven to be a major issue for the Green Bay Packers’ defense.
Against Minnesota and Chicago, Green Bay has missed 20 tackles over that span. This ranks as the 10th most in the NFL through two weeks, and the Packers’ tackling grade from PFF ranks 31st.
According to PFF ($$), eight different players have missed at least two tackles, with De’Vondre Campbell and Preston Smith each with three, which is the most on the team.
Last season under Joe Barry, we saw the opposite from this Packers defense as they were one of the NFL’s more reliable tackling teams. Green Bay had PFF’s second-best tackling grade in 2021 and missed only 101 tackles over the course of the entire season, including the playoffs. At their current pace, they will miss 180 tackles over that same time frame.
Perhaps this is an issue that will work itself out over the course of the season. With few opportunities for tackling during training camp or the preseason with many starters sitting, it may take a few weeks to shake off that rust. With that said, even if that is the case, that doesn’t mitigate the fact that in comparison to the rest of the NFL, the Packers have very much struggled in this category.
As far as how they improve moving forward, you won’t see the Green Bay Packers doing any extra hitting in practice, but rather, they need to be better at getting all 11 players to the football.
"“I think one way to counteract if you aren’t tackling very well is you have to have multiple hats to the ball,” said Matt LaFleur on Wednesday. “So if one guy does miss, there is somebody there to back him up. So we need to make sure we are swarming to the football.”"
These tackling issues have played a key role in the Vikings and Bears finding success on the ground. Minnesota averaged 4.5 yards per carry in Week 1, while the Bears averaged 6.7 yards the following week. Overall the 5.6 yards per rush that Green Bay has allowed ranks 29th in the NFL. They also rank 30th against the run by Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric.
In this Joe Barry defense, which is predicated on stopping the pass first, meaning we see a lot of light boxes with fewer defenders, we may never see a dominant run defense. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect improvement either.
With lighter boxes, both Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage have to be active and willing tacklers against the run. Rookie linebacker Quay Walker also experienced some growing pains in run defense against the Bears, along with Campbell leading the team in missed tackles. Not to mention that, as LaFleur pointed out, this defense needs to play with that all 11 hats to the ball mentality.
With it being only two weeks into what is a long NFL season, and the fact that the Packers defense was so sound at tackling a season ago, it’s not time to hit the panic button yet. But for a defense that was expected to be one of the best in football, cleaning up their missed tackle count is one quick way to see improvements.