Looking back at the 2024 season, when you look at statistics, the Green Bay Packers don't look that bad when it comes to sacking the opposing quarterback. They were in a three-way tie for eighth in the league with 45 sacks on the season. Not too shabby, right? Well, wrong actually. 45 sacks on the season gives you an average of roughly 2.6 sacks per game, but the Packers had 10 games where they fell below this average. In fact, seven of those games either had only one sack or none. That 45-sack total was bolstered by two games where the Packers' pass rush feasted on poor opposing offensive lines for a total of eight and seven sacks, respectively. That means about 33% of the team's season sack total occurred in only two games. Not ideal.
One could question, if they didn't get the sack, did they at least rush the QB? Unfortunately, they didn't do so hot in that area either. As a team, the Packers had a pass rush win rate of only 35%, which is good enough for 26th in the league. With pass rushers Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, and, for half the season, Preston Smith being three of their highest compensated players for the season, to rank so low is unacceptable. Obviously, something had to change.
And it did. The Packers brought in a new defensive line coach in DeMarcus Covington, they invested further effort into Lukas Van Ness having a third-year breakout season, and they recently traded for premier pass rusher Micah Parsons.
All offseason long, we heard that the Packers didn't do a thing to improve their pass rush. No free agent signing, no prime draft investment on the position, nothing. The articles read that the team was destined for a repeat of last year or worse.
But then training camp came along, and it was noticed how disruptive Lukas Van Ness had become in the pass rush. Edgerrin Cooper as well. Brains shifted to thinking perhaps they could be better if Lukas Van Ness' improvement was real. Perhaps a new perspective from a new defensive line coach could pour a little bit of lighter fluid on the flame. Then came the Micah Parsons trade, and that lighter fluid just became an entire barrel full of gasoline.
Now the Packers' pass rush went from the family dog that might bite you if you push it far enough, to a full-blown werewolf to haunt the nightmares of anyone who ducks under center.
Manufacturing Nightmare Fuel
A little over a month ago, while talking about Lukas Van Ness making noise in Training Camp, I mentioned the Packers' premier pass rusher in the early 2010s, Clay Matthews. Matthews wreaked havoc on defenses in his first few seasons, but after a while, the Packers' pass rusher ran into a problem; he was the only formidable pass-rushing threat the team possessed. That meant opposing offenses could focus on knocking him out of the play and not worrying about anyone else. Matthews needed a running mate, a pass rusher on the opposite side to take the heat off him. Imagine if in 2012, the Packers traded for another premier pass-rusher like Von Miller. That pass rush would've been lights out as Matthews and Miller would have competed for who could get to the QB first.
Today, while he doesn't have the career stat line of Clay Matthews, Rashan Gary very much has suffered the same fate. Gary is a skilled pass rusher who has no issue being disruptive, but the problem is, he has no one to help take the attention and pressure off him. Until now. Micah Parsons could be to Rashan Gary what Von Miller would've been to Clay Matthews had such a move occurred. Not only could this take attention off stopping Gary, but this takes it off everyone else as well.
In the 2024 season, Jeff Hafley demonstrated some creativity with stunts in the pass rush, sending Edgerrin Cooper all over the field to generate pressure. Late in training camp, some of those looks were shown utilizing both Quay Walker and Cooper on stunts around the defensive line.
Stunts are usually referred to as a manufactured pass rush. The defense is using trickery to confuse the offensive line into making a mistake or missing an assignment, so that one or more rushers spring free to rush the quarterback. This is what you get when your pass rushers aren't frequently winning the battle at the line of scrimmage. This isn't always the case, but it's usually a good chance you'll get a pass rush when you need it out of these play designs.
Now, the Packers have a pass rusher who, in 2024, tied for third in pass-rush win rate. With Micah Parsons, they have the best of both worlds. Who do you focus on? If you double-team or chip Rashan Gary on one end, Parsons could make you pay on the other. If your tackles can win vs Gary and Parsons one-on-one on the edges, are your interior linemen going to pick up Cooper, Walker, or even Van Ness coming in on the inside? Not to mention an interior lineman like Devonte Wyatt, who could benefit from some of the attention focusing elsewhere.
The Packers aren't a team that just traded for Micah Parsons to single-handedly revive their pass rush. They traded for Micah Parsons to be Micah Parsons, but also possibly be the spark that frees Rashan Gary, Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness, Edgerrin Cooper, Quay Walker, and maybe more players to make this defense the best pass-rushing unit in the league.
All the Packers need is for Micah Parsons to be Micah Parsons, and the sky could be the limit for their defense.