The Green Bay Packers haven’t gotten much production out of their defensive ends this season. Ahead of the trade deadline, there were fair arguments that it would make sense to add a player like Chase Young or Jadeveon Clowney, but general manager Brian Gutekunst went in the opposite direction.
Respecting the veteran’s desire, the Packers traded Preston Smith away to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a seventh-round pick.
With any roster moves at the position, the Packers had their first game with the new edge rotation against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Here are the main takeaways of what happened.
Snapcount impact
Rashan Gary has had 64.2% of the snaps throughout the season on the defense. Against the Bears, he played exactly 64% of the defensive snaps. So the best edge rusher of the group didn’t have (or at least hasn’t had) a spike in his workload.
There were two big beneficiaries of the extra space. The first one was Kingsley Enagbare, who is the new starter and played 57% of the snaps — his number for the entire season is 44.38%. The other, and that might sound like a surprise, was Brenton Cox.
The former undrafted player is in his second season in the NFL and hadn’t played a single snap in 2024, being a frequent presence on the inactive list. On Sunday, he played 22 defensive snaps, 31%, close to Lukas Van Ness’ number and ahead of Arron Mosby.
Lukas Van Ness has played 40.31% of the Packers’ defensive snaps this season. You would expect growth without Preston Smith, right? Wrong. He played 35% of the snaps against the Bears.
Performance
Gary might not have been what the Packers expected when they gave him a four-year extension during last season, but he was the most productive and impactful edge rusher of the team. He finished the game with a sack, five total pressures, and a 79.0 PFF grade.
The biggest surprise as aforementioned was Cox. The second-year player had a tackle for loss, a sack, and two pressures even playing only 22 snaps. His 65.6 PFF pass rush grade was close to Gary’s and above everyone else’s. However, he wasn’t as solid against the run — probably a reason for him not to be much more than a designated pass rusher early on in his career.
Enagbare, the new starter, got three pressures but missed a tackle and wasn’t effective on a snap-by-snap basis.
The biggest concern, though, is Lukas Van Ness. The low percentage of snaps was a product of the former first-round pick simply not being good on the field. He had the worst run defense grade among the five (40.5) and generated only one pressure in 10 pass rush snaps.
Near future
For the next few games, it’s fair to think that what happened against the Bears will be the trend. Rashan Gary will be on the field more often, but not with a huge increase in the percentage of snaps. Kingsley Enagbare and Lukas Van Ness will be in the tier 2, with Cox and Mosby (the lighter defensive ends) as rotational pieces.
If Van Ness keeps playing poorly, that will mean more chances for the pieces of the bottom of the depth chart. And that’s probably not the outcome the Packers hope for.