This armchair coach wonders if the scheme change on D is effecting the production of the edge rushers. Their stats are off, but is this truly an indicator of poorer play and less effectiveness, or is pressure coming from elsewhere, more evenly?

Any thoughts?

Apparently Smith requested the trade to get back to an odd base front. The Packers obliged.

Yesterday, November 05, 2024, at 11:34 am I wrote:

"We Packer fans will be most fortunate if "Gutey" doesn't trade Jaire, Romeo, Christian Watson, Malik Heath, Bo Melton, Eric Stokes, Kenny Clark, Emanuel Wilson, Chris Brooks, or Preston Smith for a bag of potato chips.

Last year it was the Packers best corner other than Jaire - Rasul - 38.6 passer rating and 51.3% completion rate and 4 interceptions against Rasul last year in the 9 games Rasul played for the Bills and 59.4% completion rate against Rasul this year - which is even lower than Jordan's 61.3% completion percentage, which at 30th, is just 2 short of being the worst in the NFL. And Rasul doesn't miss tackles!!"

Well "Gutey" traded Preston Smith for less than a bag of potato chips in effect:

1) making a team that lacks veteran leadership worse in that regard,

2) further deflating the locker morale in midseason as Gutekunst did last year with the trade of Rasul

and

3) making an already anemic Packer pass rush worse as Preston Smith has the best sack per snap and 2nd best pressure per snap percentages of the Packers edge rushers as well as 2nd best missed tackles numbers - see table below.

Has Smith's play declined from previous years?

No, his QB pressures are up.

Sacks per snap: 2018 0.5%; 2019 1.4%; 2020 0.5%; 2021 1.3%; 2022 1.0%; 2023 1.1%, 2024 0.8%

Smith is tied for the lead in sacks with Rashan with 2.5 but Rashan has played 57 more snaps - 1 more sack this year and Smith's sack % is 1.1% the same as last year.

Pressures per snap: 2018 3.1%; 2019 3.9%; 2020 2.0%; 2021 4.1%; 2022 3.3%; 2023 3.1%, 2024 3.6%

Tackles per snap: 2018 6.4%; 2019 6.4%; 2020 5.2%; 2021 5.5%; 2022 7.2%; 2023 6.6%, 2024 6.2%
Smith has missed just one tackle according to football reference.

By comparison:

Snaps: Smith 308, Van Ness 233, Enagbare 243, Gary 365, Mosby 7

Sacks per snap: Smith 0.8%, Van Ness 0.4%, Enagbare 0.6%, Gary 0.7%, Mosby 7.1%

Smith has the best sack numbers, Van Ness the worst and Mosby's 7 snap sample size is too small to draw any conclusions.

Pressures per snap: Smith 3.6%, Van Ness 1.7%, Enagbare 2.6%, Gary 4.7%, Mosby 14.3%

Gary has the best pressure % numbers with Smith 2nd and Van Ness worst.

Tackles per snap: Smith 6.2% , Van Ness 8.6%, Enagbare 6.7%, Gary 6.6%, Mosby 28.6%

Van Ness has the most tackles per snap - maybe an indication that teams prefer to run at Van Ness rather than whomever is on the opposite side for the Packers.

Missed Tackles per tackle: Smith 5%, Van Ness 13%, Enagbare 20.8%, Gary 4.0%, Mosby 0%

Enagbare misses the most tackles followed by Van Ness.

Mosby's numbers are based on just 7 defensive snaps, a sample size too small to reach any conclusions.

Rashan Gary 12th overall pick by "Gutey" and this is the performance we are getting?

Gutey has to go.

Lukas Van Ness 13th overall pick by "Gutey" and this is the performance we are getting?
Wil McDonald - the Packers 15th pick who Gute traded to the Jets in the Rodgers trade for the Jets 13th pick - Van Ness - has 8 sacks and 23 pressures this year in just 184 snaps - Van Ness by comparison has 1 sack and 4 pressures in 233 snaps.

Gutekunst passed over McDonald - and many other superior players - for this bust van Ness.

Gutey has to go.

The Steelers are trying to win - adding tried and true veterans Preston Smith to back up Watt and Mike Williams at receiver to back up Pickens, Austin and Jefferson
The Lions are trying to win - adding Za'Darius Smith.
Chiefs too adding DeAndre Hopkins.
Jets too trading for Davante Adams and signing Reddick.

Gutekunst however is not adding star tried and true players to get the Packers over the edge, but instead continues to destroy play on the field and the team chemistry the once veteran led Packers team possessed - the once veteran team that went to the NFC Championship game in January 2015, January 2017, January 2020 and January 2021 and Divisional round game at home in January 2022 with 13-3, 13-3, and 13-4 records and was on the brink of Super Bowls as Gutekunst continued the destruction.

Last year on the legs of Aaron Jones and clutch interception of Jaire and pick 6 interception of Darnell Savage and play of other veterans we snuck into the playoffs and beat the Cowboys- as the players overcame the locker room deflating trade of Rasul:

'It was a moment I've never had,' Jones said.

'I've never had somebody that close to me get traded… We both started talking and shed a few tears. It's been a long journey for both of us.

'When you got somebody on the other side of the ball who is a mirror of you, who believes in the same things, same work ethic, you know what you're gonna get out of them. It's tough losing a brother like that.'

“I was pretty surprised, to say the least,” Alexander said, while adding, “I didn’t expect Rasul to be gone. He’s a vet. He’s made a bunch of plays throughout his time here, but that’s just the NFL.”

“We took a blow,” Valentine said. “It stung a little bit, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to keep going.”

“I think everybody in the locker room was pretty surprised,” Love said. “It’s tough. It hurts.”

“I’m gonna miss ’Sul a lot just because he always kept me locked in,” Nixon said. “If I get a little sidetracked, ’Sul’s always the one just to keep me locked in on football and now my boy not here no more, so it’s gonna be tough trying to figure it out right now.”

and the Packers players overcame a half season of NFL league leading interceptions and lowest accuracy (completion %) from the quarterback that in 2019-20 led all of college football - FCS and FBS - in interceptions - and were 17 minutes away from the NFC Championship game when Jordan Love mentally choked and played like everyone thought Jordan would when Jordan was drafted in April 2020:

Packers' Nonsensical Decision to Trade Up for Jordan Love Could Be Crippling
Brad Gagnon
Bleacher Report
April 24, 2020

Excerpt:

It strikes me as a blatant example of hubris, with Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur possibly under the foolish impression that they've outsmarted everybody else and that they saw something in Love their counterparts missed.

Gutekunst ruined the Packers' chance for several chances at a Super Bowl with the Love pick in lieu of a wide receiver.

There are no guarantees in the draft, especially with a quarterback like this. The incoming rookie has the arm and athleticism you want in a franchise quarterback, but he threw 17 interceptions last season, and his decision-making ability is a huge concern. Bleacher Report draft guru Matt Miller wrote that the 21-year-old "could end up being the best quarterback from the class or a journeyman backup."

The Packers overcame a lot of Gutekunst's destructive moves last year, but the Packers could not overcome perhaps the most boneheaded quarterback play and throw - among terrible QB play by Jordan in those final 17 minutes - that Packer fans going as far back as the 1940s had ever personally seen from a Packer starting quarterback.

Would Rasul have made a clutch play to overcome Jordan's boneheaded plays last January in the 49ers game? - Quite possibly.

Would have Rasul have inspired confidence and spirit and smart play in the younger players for the 49er game? - Quite possibly.

Would Preston Smith, Rasul Douglas and Aaron Jones be making plays for the remainder of this season to offset Jordan's boneheaded plays? Quite possibly.

Would Preston Smith, Rasul Douglas and Aaron Jones have inspired confidence and spirit and smart play in the younger players for the 49er game? - Quite possibly.

Humility and respect for veteran player leadership is a great coach's greatest asset. Lafleur has that.

Humility and respect for veteran players is also a general manager's greatest asset and Gutekunst has neither - the cancer in the locker room and at 1265 Lombardi is "Gute".

"Gute" has got to go.

This deserves a stand alone comment so as not to get lost in the bigger picture:

Rashan Gary 12th overall pick by "Gutey" and this is the performance we are getting?

Gutey has to go.

Lukas Van Ness 13th overall pick by "Gutey" and this is the performance we are getting?
Wil McDonald - the Packers 15th pick who Gute traded to the Jets in the Rodgers trade for the Jets 13th pick - Van Ness - has 8 sacks and 23 pressures this year in just 184 snaps - Van Ness by comparison has 1 sack and 4 pressures in 233 snaps.

Gutekunst passed over McDonald - and many other superior players - for this bust van Ness.

Gutey has to go.

They should have traded AJ Dillon, too. He's worthless. Vic Ketchman was right: Dillon is an average back who averages 2-3 yards per carry.

P. Smith says he wanted to play in the 3-4-4.
His experience is with the 3-4-4.

So Gute speaks up and says we want to see
what the young guys do.

Ok -So where does this leave Gary??

I get we couldn't trade both.
But upon further review-
I feel it was a mistake not too.

The Packers have, in successive seasons, traded away a defensive starter, and people think that two data points make a pattern.

In the case of Douglas, the Packers were contacted by the Bills and were not initiators of a trade. And he brought a 3rd round pick....that's more than a bag of chips,

In the case of Smith,he has expressed his desire to be traded to a team that plays a style of defense he's familiar with .

And from those two instances, we're going to draw conclusions about the "eptness" of Gute.??? Am I reading this stuff correctly?

I think there is certainly a lot more to draw conclusions about "eptness" of Gute beyond Gute's draining team morale out of the team in mid season with mid season trades of veteran leaders who happened to be a better corner than all Packer corners on this current team other than Jaire and this year's leading pass rusher in terms of sacks per snap.

The drafting of Love, Gary and Van Ness where they were drafted and loss of Davante and Aaron Jones over a million $$ while giving an NFL record $75 million signing bonus guarantee - now collected and banked - to a QB that was unproven and under contract would be a few more, but my no means all.

I'm not overly concerned on Gutey making this move. Certainly works better for Smith, since he's more comfortable in the 3-4 D than what we're playing now. Good for him, he was a model citizen and vet leader for the club. It's also good for the Packers in the long term. We will just have to see who steps up in replacing Smith's snaps....that could backfire but that's the risk in all of this.
With that, the names being presented are Mosby and Cox.....but Hafley may have plans to creatively use more pieces in various ways. Just spit balling here but I won't be surprised if they use Walker in other roles depending on the situation. Coop needs way more PT and Wilson has been reliable, even better, than Walker at times. Also, don't forget about recently signed Jamin Davis, LB. Much like Smith, he was not a good fit with Washington but he's a solid player who can perform at a high level....

What was their record last year when they traded Rasul? Seems they got better after he left not worse?

to be fair, moseby's sack occurred due to the lineman tripping over his teammate