The Green Bay Packers finished last season in the top 10 in sacks (45) without any true difference-maker performances up front.
Under first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, it was clear from the jump that he wanted his edge rushers to play more of a contain role, making the path to the quarterback longer and less aggressive in many scenarios.
What was also odd was the usage for each player coming off the edge, including Rashan Gary, who played nowhere near the level snaps to parallel the amount of money the Packers paid him to have. His 639 snaps were 60 fewer than rotational linebacker Isaiah McDuffie.
This type of usage spread far and wide across the defensive front, as the Packers were the only team in the NFL to have at least six primary edge players record at least 150 snaps throughout the season. Dating back to when snap count began being tracked in 2011, having six or more primary edge players register at least 150 snaps in a season is an extreme outlier. In most cases, a team has three or four, sometimes five edge players who register that many snaps.
Throughout the Philadelphia Eagles' most recent Super Bowl run, they put a stamp on how game-changing a four-man pass rush can be, putting theirs on full display as they took down the Packers and others this postseason.
Fast-forward to the 2025 free agency frenzy, where many interpreted General Manager Brian Gutekunst's press conference call for "urgency" as a nod to a possible philosophical change or at least an indication of a big move to come. When, in all reality, he was more than likely addressing the players and coaches already in the locker room, given the context of the rest of his comments.
Regardless of the "urgency" interpretation, the Packers' edge rush production was in a weird spot entering the offseason, with a plethora of questions about what ultimately is the reason behind the lack of a single pass rusher standing out.
Is talent the issue? Is it more scheme-related? Will Lukas Van Ness make the jump? Do they just need to give their best guys more snaps?
On the one hand, they have no one coming off a dominant season, and their top pass rusher, Gary, has still not gotten over the hump into true pass rusher stardom after six seasons. But it's also difficult to do that when playing less than some rotational players on defense.
In the same breath, no one across from Gary was proving to be any more effective as Green Bay regularly cycled between four players to get the job done. The four other primary, non-Gary edge rushers the Packers used throughout the season were only able to accumulate 14 sacks to Gary's 7.5.
On the other hand, this offseason presented very few options for the Packers to immediately remedy the four-man rotation by adding a no-doubt player to slide into a full-time starting role.
Newly acquired Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Josh Sweat has still been the only realistic, available, and meaningful enough option to instantly push Lukas Van Ness, Brenton Cox Jr., and Kingsley Enagbare down the depth chart, thwarting any rotation across from Gary.
Popular names like Khalil Mack, Chase Young, Maxx Crosby, and Myles Garrett never hit the open market, and the Cincinnati Bengals have maintained a largely unrealistic asking price for aging All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson on a pricey contract already as is.
While the Packers could have been more aggressive in trying to acquire Sweat, they clearly had their reasons for not pursuing those negotiations and chose to prioritize replacing the departed Eric Stokes and Josh Myers with new starters at cornerback and offensive line.
That being so, outside of the draft, the only realistic and available option for the Packers to immediately improve their pass rush is by adding another rotational player, who brings some maybes but could potentially add valuable improvements.
The problem is that type of player is no sure bet to be any more effective than what Green Bay already has with an LVN or Cox. At that point, potentially creating more uncertainty around what to do for 2026 while tangling with another four-man rotation across from Gary all season.
Making matters trickier is the development timeline of Lukas Van Ness, not to mention the capital invested in his development by way of the 13th overall pick.
Van Ness was drafted as a project pass rush specialist with low expectations to be dominant over his first season or two. Realistically, it was always year three that made the most sense to set a high bar for Van Ness on the field.
However, after a lackluster sophomore campaign, hinging bets on LVN's year-three breakout looks a lot more unclear. But without a true difference maker on the market and Green Bay not bringing in the only viable option that has so far become available, the Packers have very few levers to pull that would be worth essentially scrapping the Van Ness project right when it's supposed to be getting good.
That being the case, the Packers have almost no choice but to see through his development, which is likely for the best given the timeline they signed up for upfront on draft night. But because of how Van Ness played last season, there's far more uncertainty around what his game in year three will look like, contributing to the Packers' precarious situation for how to address the pass rush this offseason.
Van Ness aside, Cox adds another layer to the dilemma after he proved to be the Packers' second most effective pass rusher down the stretch, adding four sacks in their last eight games. If anything, he looked about as effective as any top rotational type of edge rusher that Green Bay could go out and pay far more money to than what they pay Cox.
Like Van Ness, Cox's development timeline presents an interesting opportunity for the Packers after he spent some much-needed time developing on the practice squad to begin his career after missing most of his college career with off-field issues. For the former five-star recruit and top defensive end in the country, he's proven to Green Bay that he can keep his nose clean, and when given a window to finally flash his talents on Sundays, he continuously stacked results. Also like Van Ness, if simply given more snaps, Green Bay could possibly already have a very good option in-house to correct the pass rush.
The final piece for the Packers to navigate now, barring any big changes in the player market, is turning their attention to the draft in order to address the edge rush.
As much upside that might come with selecting a defensive end early in the draft, that still doesn't fix the issue of a way-too-many-man edge rotation and doesn't help with getting Van Ness or Cox the snaps they'd need to have the best chance at ascending towards their ceilings.
In the short term, adding through the draft will offer about as much potential upside as adding a veteran rotational player. While also bringing the same downsides of adding another body to the mix. Either way, the hope would be for meaningful contributions despite inheriting more risk and potentially creating more questions in the process.
Ultimately, it's reasonable to have expected Gutekunst to swing big to address the edge rush, and the argument is there that he could have been more aggressive. Maybe he still will be; a lot of ball game left until week one.
Regardless of his historical blueprints for roster building, if a strategy isn't producing the desired outcome over time, no successful business keeps doing the same thing without making tweaks, taking calculated risks, or hacking a big swing from time to time. While Gutekunst has proven he will do that, this offseason has ultimately not produced many opportunities.
When considering the full perspective of the Packers' edge rush situation and the landscape to improve it, Gutekunst and Co. have to consider far more than meets the eye regarding the state of their edge rush production and what makes the most sense to correct it.
Only time will tell if they got it right.
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Based in Seattle, Austin's roots are in Wisconsin and he bleeds Green & Gold. He also currently writes for Lombardi Ave and has been featured on various Packers podcasts. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinKrueger_.
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