A few weeks ago, Packers blogger hall of famers Andy Herman and Justis Mosqueda drafted which Packers they thought would improve the most, via PFF score, from last season to this one. It got me thinking about which players on the inferior NFC North teams would make a similar leap from year to year. Let's go over a few - they could be actually making the leap as a young player, or simply coming back from some sort of regression.
TJ Edwards
Edwards' worst year of his career was last year - and by a substantial margin. Going back to his first year starting, his PFF grade was 15 points less than his second-worst and 21 points below the score where he topped out in 2022.
Edwards has always been an instinctive but unathletic linebacker and last year, he just didn't look like himself at times. Look for the score to go up and Dennis Allen puts him in better positions to succeed and blitz the QB this year.
Montez Sweat
Sweat also had his worst season and coincidentally his score was 21 points below his 2022 grade. Sweat dealt with injuries and obviously, it's hard to keep it going on a massive losing streak.
It would be hard to swallow his grade being something like 65.7 (55th among edge rushers) again this season. Look for both Dennis Allen's arrival and the additions of Dayo Odeyingbo and Grady Jarret to improve Sweat's grade from last year to this.
Terrion Arnold
Arnold had a horrific grade last year. At 55.8, he was 109th among corners. Extremely disappointing for a first-round pick who was going against second receivers most of the time.
There are reasons for optimism (pessimism for normal people): Arnold's score in many of the early-season games was hampered by repeated penalties, and he scored over that 55.8 grade in seven of the last eight games. The number of penalties went down as the year progressed, so just ditching those will raise his score year over year. If he looks anything like he did in college, that grade could go up 25 points.
Ivan Pace Jr.
Pace was shot out of a cannon his first year in the league, making the Vikings' defense electric in Brian Flores' first season. Pace is one of those linebackers who is basically only good going toward the ball. Have him shoot a gap in the rune game or blitz and he looks great; put him on an island against a good running back or tight end in coverage, and you can see why he went undrafted. Last year, offenses got him in bad positions far too often.
Now, Flores has a full off-season knowing that his linebackers will be Blake Cashman (good against the pass) and Pace, and can scheme to put Pace in better spots and make him flash more often. That alone should get his bad PFF grade of just 63 up.
Jordan Addison
"Addison's already good, you even admitted it!" You're probably saying right now. And he is, part of the time. Addison's PFF grade of 72.9 ranked 42nd among receivers - probably worse than you thought. And the problem is consistency.
Addison had games with grades like 90.1 and 87.4, but also games with grades like 50.2 and 53.0. The next step for him is to become a true top receiver and take coverage away from Justin Jefferson every game. Not just when he's matched up against a slow corner with no safety over the top.