Paul Bretl | 7/13/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers need more from their four-man pass rush this season. Accomplishing that will have to be a group effort from both the players and the coaches, but a lot of it starts with Rashan Gary.
“We have to get better,” Jeff Hafley said of the pass rush, “and I’m talking to myself. I need to be better. Our coaches need to coach better. Our players need to play better. We just don’t wanna stay the same. We wanna be better.”
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
Gary finished the 2024 season with 49 pressures and 7.5 sacks. Compared to the 2023 season, his production was down, with Gary posting 66 pressures and 9.0 sacks that year.
One of the reasons for this drop in production, according to PFF’s metrics, is that Gary didn’t win his matchups as often. This year, Gary had a pass rush win rate of 12.2%, which ranked 48th among defensive ends, while in 2023, he had a win rate of 16.0%, and that ranked 21st.
Overall, among his position group, Gary ranked 34th in pressures and 48th in pass rush productivity. From a pass rush perspective, Gary was good, but more is needed.
“I work on my complete game,” Gary said of his offseason. “Shoot, going back, watching my game, realizing where I need to be better, from the run to the play-action to my hand placement to just really being consistent in my pass-rush plan. Every season I feel as defensive linemen and players, you’ve got to get better at all parts of your game, and there’s all ways to really work on your game, so I really worked on every piece.”
Pressures and sacks are what garner the attention and are what ultimately get defensive ends paid, but in order to have the opportunity to rush the passer, defenders have to eat their vegetables on early downs and stop the run. Although Gary didn’t have the pass-rush impact that was expected, he was very good in the run game.
From the defensive end’s perspective, being stout against the run isn’t only the tackles that are made or about the plays behind the line of scrimmage. It’s also about setting a strong edge to prevent the ball carrier from bouncing outside, which forces him back to the middle where the interior defenders are hopefully waiting.
Gary would finish the 2024 season ranked 21st in PFF’s run defense grade among all defensive ends. He was also 11th in run stops and fifth in run stop rate.
“Man, just really trying to be locked in and honing on the scheme and be aggressive and be physical where I need to be,” Gary said of his run defense. “I was able to prove that in the run. This year, going to show more of an all-around game in the 4-3.”
To add some additional nuance and context to the conversation, NFL+ notes that Gary’s pressure rate on third downs last season was the sixth-highest among defenders with 75 or more pass rush snaps. However, his pressure rate on early downs was just 7.8%, which could be a product of playing the run first.
Gary was named to his first Pro Bowl last season, an accomplishment that was an “honor” and a “privilege.” Beyond the recognition that he received, the event also provided Gary with the opportunity to pick the brains of other top pass rushers, along with offensive linemen, some of whom shared what they see and don’t see from Gary as a pass rusher.
To help foster more production from the pass rush unit this season, the Packers’ defensive linemen spent the weekends during offseason programs watching film at Kenny Clark’s house. The players would watch each other’s film from their individual drills in practice and share any insights to improve technique, and ultimately get everyone playing faster.
“In Year 2, off to a better start, man,” Gary said of the pass rush. “Everybody had a great offseason up until this point getting back to OTAs, just how we been locked in Monday to Thursday. Even us meeting on the weekends, having film studies, like I feel like we really locked in as a group. Things that we didn’t do last year at this point.”
The continuity of being in the same defensive scheme for a second year can often be a key factor in players and units making a big jump. Rather than learning and implementing an entirely new scheme, like the Packers were doing at this time last year, they are instead building off what has already been established and can focus more on fine-tuning.
And with that, there is a greater understanding of what not only your own individual responsibilities are, but also everyone around you, and even how the offense might try to attack the specific look the defense is giving.
“You got a whole year of understanding what the defense is,” Gary said. “Understanding our in and outs and understanding how he wants to attack it. So we had a whole year to get better at our techniques and he had a whole year to refine our system, tweaking and tune things. Just going into Year 2, the confidence, man, just how we flying around. Understanding play calls. Understanding where people need to roll down, the strengths of the defense, and just communicating at a different level right now.”
Also, a key part of this equation for the Packers’ pass rush is Hafley bringing in a new defensive line coach, hiring former New England Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington to lead this unit.
Covington brings an outside perspective to this Packers’ defense, and with that, new ideas. He also has a holistic viewpoint of the defense, with being a former coordinator, and he has coached in a variety of different defensive schemes.
“Great addition,” Gary said of Covington. “I love the confidence that he has as coach because has players you have to be confident so you see a coach that’s confident, bringing that swagger that only makes you have more confidence and swagger. But just how he coaches from the individual to how he’s intense on the details and just how he focus right now and is detail oriented, really getting coached up on different techniques and things like that to make us play fast.”
Last training camp, we spent a lot of time discussing the new approach for the defensive line unit at that time, which was all about getting off the ball as quickly as possible and attacking. But from the sounds of it, the usage of blitzes, simulated pressures, and more of a read-and-react play-style will continue to be key elements in helping to make this pass rush unit go.
The ceiling for this Packers defense will be determined by how good the pass rush is. When the four man front is able to create regular havoc on their own, that is a massive stressor for opposing offenses, while every other defender on the field benefits greatly from it. Again, from top to bottom, this will be a group effort, but at defensive end, Gary is expected to lead the way.
“Man, just the confidence in the leaders that we have,” Gary said. “Having me, having X, having KC, I could keep on going. Having Keisean, just having different guys across the board that play at a high level, understanding the standard. I love the confidence that we have as a group, like I said, it’s Year 2, you can feel us flying around and we just communicating at an elite level.