Paul Bretl | 9/24/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — In Sunday’s win over the Tennessee Titans, we saw the disruptive potential that this Packers’ pass rush possesses, but also on display was the impressive depth of this unit.
“I just think we have a lot of depth and we’re rolling guys,” said Matt LaFleur after the win in Tennessee. “You guys can see that a lot of guys are getting snaps, and I think that’s to the benefit of our team.”
In that dominant defensive performance, as a team, the Packers posted a whopping eight sacks, with just about everyone getting in on the action. According to ESPN, seven different Packers defenders contributed to the overall sack count. PFF credited eight players with at least one quarterback hit and 10 with at least one quarterback pressure, including five players who had multiple.
After a more conservative approach during the first two games, where the emphasis for the defensive front was on containing the quarterback, in the second half against Tennessee, we saw this attacking play-style on display with the Titans’ offense playing catchup and in a pass-heavy mode–allowing the Packers front to pin its ears back and go.
Between the defensive end and defensive tackle positions, the Packers have eight players that they rely on heavily each week. Also on the 53-man roster at those positions are Colby Wooden, Brenton Cox, and Arron Mosby. This depth gives the Packers the ability to have a hockey-like rotation, enabling them to help keep the front fresh throughout the course of the game, which can pay dividends in key moments as the offensive line potentially wears down.
“You saw we kept quite a bit of defensive linemen because we do believe that’s where it starts,” said Jeff Hafley about rostering 11 defensive linemen. “I think if you keep those guys fresh in the game, when it comes down to the key third downs and the key moments and the key red-zone situations where you gotta go get after the quarterback, you have those guys fresh to play and they need to be. I think that’s where their production will come and that’s where our opportunities to make big plays will come.”
With this “attack” front under Hafley, as the coaching staff calls it, the job of the defenders is to get off the ball and penetrate into the backfield as quickly as possible, rather than the read-and-react approach utilized under Joe Barry. As Kenny Clark described during OTAs, this play-style requires a heavier rotation because of the constant effort being exerted.
However, going beyond the need to keep the defensive front fresh, having eight to nine players that can be utilized regularly will create matchup problems for the offense. For one, depth across the front can lead to more one-on-one matchups because double-teaming one player makes the offensive line susceptible elsewhere.
Along those lines, having a number of players to lean on means having a variety of skill sets. This allows Hafley to mix and match as he builds out the game-plan or makes in-game adjustments based on the situation, which can put a lot on the plates of the offensive line.
Now, how the Packers go about determining what these rotations will look like, as you can imagine, has a number of contributing factors. Going into each game, the team has a general snap count range that they want each player to be in. There is also what the game-plan dictates given the opponent, the situations that the defense might face throughout the course of the game, and then there’s getting the in-game feedback from the players in regards to how they are feeling.
“Every situation is going to be different,” said defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich. “It’s our job to observe what those guys are doing out there and ask them on, you know, between series, in a series, ‘hey man, how you feeling, how you doing, where’s your air? Hey look, you ready for third down? You ready for first down? Hey, if they get a first this is what we’re going to do.’
“So you’re constantly gathering information from them, you’re gathering the information from the guys up top, like we said either VO (Assistant DL coach Vince Oghobaase) or Wendel (Davis, defensive quality control coach), and you’re trying to figure out what that combination is going to be in those certain situations, you know. Third downs a big one, red zone, short yardage. What are you doing on a backed up situation? Are they bigger personnel? Are we going to go bigger personnel? Things like that that we’re trying to determine is part of that substitution.”
As Hafley said, success for the defense all starts up front, as we saw in Tennessee. The best way to wreck any play for an offense is with a quick push from up the middle. Pressure can disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play and lead to mistakes. When there is steady pressure from the defensive front, every single player on the defensive side of the ball benefits from it.