Packers’ Roster Deemed Best in NFL

The pre-free agency unit grades posted by ESPN.com's Mike Clay had one obvious red flag.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have the best roster in the NFL.

So says ESPN.com’s Mike Clay, who posted his pre-free agency unit grades last week. Green Bay finished just ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Seattle Seahawks, Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns round out the top five. The Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers tied for sixth.

In the NFC North, the Minnesota Vikings are 10th and the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions are tied for 24th.

Going through the extremes of his positional grades:

With Aaron Rodgers, the Packers are second at quarterback behind only Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

With Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams headed to free agency, the Packers have the fifth-worst backfield in the NFL. As it stands, Green Bay might have a solid starter with AJ Dillon but nothing but questions behind him with Dexter Williams, Mike Weber and Patrick Taylor.

Green Bay has the sixth-best offensive line, even with All-Pro center Corey Linsley headed to free agency.

Defensively, with Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage, the Packers have the best safeties in the NFL. Their edge rushers rank eighth with Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Rashan Gary.

On the other hand, Clay deemed Green Bay’s linebackers the fourth-worst in the league. Throwing all of Clay’s rankings into doubt, he had Tampa Bay at the bottom of his linebackers list. While Lavonte David will be a free agent, an obvious ding on the group, Devin White is a standout. Any unit with White can't possibly be the worst in the NFL.

Of course, Clay’s grades are irrelevant in terms of winning and losing when the season begins anew in September. Just about everything is irrelevant at this point of the year. Rodgers has to be a star again, somebody must replace Linsley and maybe Krys Barnes and Kamal Martin will be stars at linebacker.

“I think every year is different, and so what happened last year, the challenges we faced, the areas we needed to get better, certainly can change coming into this year,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said last week.

“As we get through free agency and the draft and get into the offseason – whatever there is of one – the places where we need to get better to compete for championships usually make themselves known, and then we’ll certainly attack those at that time. As we build a team, I think you need to be careful of reacting too much to the previous season, because every year is different. There’s so much you can’t predict, there’s so many variables that I think you have to try to build a sound, robust, all-around football team that can take on whatever challenges come your way.”