Paul Bretl | 8/11/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers preseason opener on Saturday against the New York Jets wasn’t only an opportunity for rookied fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell to showcase the progress he’s made and the potential impact that he can have on this team in 2025, but it was also recognizing the long-standing dream he’s had of suiting up and playing in the NFL.
“Man, just the whole experience,” Sorrell said when asked what he’d take away from the game. “This is literally what I dreamed of since I was a kid to be able to play in the NFL and not just to do that but do it at a high level. I’m proud of the way I played tonight. Played for my teammates, played for my community, my coaches, it was a just a great all around experience. The fans here. The Packer Nation it just was a blessing.”
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
As head coach Matt LaFleur said in his postgame press conference, the Packers’ performance was “sloppy,” and it was a “humbling” experience. However, one of the bright spots was the play of Sorrell, particularly as a pass rusher.
Sorrell would see extended action, playing 39 snaps in total against the Jets, with 22 coming as a pass rusher. On those reps, he would generate a pair of quarterback pressures and won his matchups against his blocker regularly. Sorrell’s pass rush win rate of 28.6% was tied for the 11th-best mark among defensive ends in Week 1 of the preseason.
“It definitely just shows that I’m trending the right way,” Sorrell said of his performance. “Just trusting my coaches that’s been working with me and helping me push myself to be better. Being able to see everything come alive on game night it definitely gives me some good hopes for the future.”
While the production is always great and that’s the end goal and what every player is working towards, those pressures and the ability to win his one-on-one matchup aren’t what stood out to defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley about Sorrell’s play. What caught Hafley’s attention was Sorrell’s ability to self-correct and make his own adjustments on the fly.
“Here’s what I saw last night,” Hafley recalled on Sunday, “he got better as the game went on. He made mistakes in the game, in the same drive, he was correcting it, which says a lot. Which doesn’t really happen a lot of time for rookie players. He was correcting mistakes and he was fixing his own mistakes fairly quickly, which to me might be the most promising thing.”
Although we didn’t see it during the preseason game, Sorrell provides Hafley with some added versatility along the defensive front. During certain team periods, when it’s more of an obvious passing situation, Sorrell has seen some snaps lined up along the interior as a pass rusher and as one way for Hafley to get three defensive ends on the field.
Against the Jets, most of Sorrell’s snaps came as a traditional edge rusher, but he did have a few snaps where he was shaded over the tackle.
“We’re not putting him at like a true nose or like a true 3-technique,” Hafley said. “There’s certain fronts where he’s getting reduced down and he might play a 5-technique, so he might play with 4-technique, so you might see him head-up on a tackle. If we get in a certain situation, he might slide inside and play a 3-technique, so you might see him on a guard. Just trying to experiment to see what we can do with him right now.”
Given what we’ve seen over the last few weeks of training camp practices, the defensive end rotation for the Packers seems to be pretty well established. Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness have been the starters, while more often than not, JJ Enagbare and Brenton Cox have been the next two players in.
Sorrell started training camp working almost exclusively with the third team defense, but as things have progressed, he’s gotten more opportunities to rotate in with the twos.
The preseason debut for Sorrell certainly showcases the potential he has. However, like any first-year player, he is also still navigating the learning curve that comes with making the jump to the NFL level.
“I think he’s a young guy who’s learning how to play the position,” Hafley said. “You got a guy who has pass rush ability. He strains…”He’s tough as we know. His leadership I think he has a chance to be a really good leader down the road. But certainly we need to keep working with him too. It’s early. It’s early for all these guys.”