Rashan Gary will play verse Jets; plus a look at the inactives
By Paul Bretl
Rashan Gary was listed as questionable for the Green Bay Packers matchup with the Jets due to a toe injury, but he will play.
With only 48 players able to be active on game day, the Green Bay Packers announced their inactives for their Week 6 matchup with the New York Jets–and there weren’t any surprises, although there was some good news.
As has been the case all season long, four of the inactives are rookies Samori Toure, Rasheed Walker, Sean Rhyan, and Jonathan Ford, all of whom are essentially having red-shirt years. Christian Watson, who was ruled out on Friday with a hamstring injury, is also not playing.
However, the good news that I alluded to is that Rashan Gary is not on this list. After sustaining a toe injury in the middle of the week and being limited in practice on Thursday and Friday, he was listed as questionable on the injury report, but is good to go for today’s game.
Despite the uncertainty around Gary’s availability during the week, with the Packers choosing not to elevate an edge rusher on Saturday, especially with Galeai heading to IR, all signs had already pointed to Gary playing–otherwise, they would have had only three active edge rushers, which just isn’t feasible with such a heavily rotated position.
Gary is off to a fast start this season, ranking 12th among all edge rushers in pressures and eighth in pass rush productivity–an efficiency metric from PFF ($$).
However, despite Gary’s performance, along with Preston Smith’s, the depth of the edge rusher position is very much in question on this Packers team. Had Gary not been available, it would have left a massive hole on this defense. Between their 64 combined pass rush snaps, Kingsley Enagbare and Jonathan Garvin have just one total pressure.
Getting after the quarterback is always going to be a key element regardless of the opponent, but doing so against Zach Wilson could have a major impact on this game. Wilson has completed just three of his 16 pass attempts when under pressure, with two interceptions while averaging 2.9 yards per attempt.
Gary, along with the rest of the Green Bay defensive front, will also have to be prepared for rookie running back Breece Hall, who has already proven to be a playmaker both as a ball carrier and pass-catcher. Hall ranks 11th in number of explosive runs and 14th in average yards after contact among all running backs.
The only player that was elevated from the practice squad for Sunday’s game was receiver Juwann Winfree, as the Green Bay Packers again find themselves without Christian Watson.