These 11 Players Could Help Packers’ Defensive Line
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Experienced or past their prime? Veteran or over the hill? Oldie but goodie or just old?
That’s the dilemma with the NFL’s class of free agent defensive linemen. With free agency having entered Week 2, it’s the one group with plenty of depth, so long as you don’t mind your players carrying a helmet in one hand and their AARP card in the other.
The Green Bay Packers need defensive line help. Pro Bowler Kenny Clark is the leader of the group by word and deed. But the depth chart is thinner than today’s newspaper. There aren’t even enough players to take into the regular season, let alone compete in training camp.
Dean Lowry will join Clark for a seventh consecutive season. TJ Slaton, a fifth-round pick last year, showed some promise. Jack Heflin made the roster as an undrafted rookie but played only 17 more snaps than you did.
And that’s it. With Tyler Lancaster unsigned in free agency and Kingsley Keke released in January, the Packers have just four defensive linemen under contract.
With seven picks in the first four rounds and 11 in total, perhaps general manager Brian Gutekunst will focus on the draft to add to the group. But adding one of these veterans would allow him to focus some of his draft resources elsewhere.
(As an update, an agent for one of the players on this list said the Packers have shown interest in his client. That perhaps signals the team would like to add a veteran and not just focus on the draft.)
Here are our top available defensive linemen. Five of the first six are 31 or older.
Akiem Hicks, Bears (32): Hicks’ days as a dominant player are behind him. He had 7.5 sacks and 12 tackles for losses in 2018, (somehow) his only Pro Bowl season. He posted a total of eight sacks and 13 tackles for losses the past three seasons. Injuries haven’t helped; he played in only five games in 2019 and nine games in 2021. Of the free-agent defensive linemen, Hicks ranked No. 1 in PFF’s pass-rush win rate in 2021. In 2020, he had a career-high 21 quarterback hits. He used to be practically unblockable vs. the run; not so much the past couple years. In his last four games against Green Bay, he had two sacks and seven quarterback hits.
Larry Ogunjobi, Bengals (27): Ogunjobi agreed to a three-year deal worth more than $40 million to replace Hicks in Chicago but failed his physical, perhaps due to a foot injury that kept him out for the final three playoff games. He went from 2.5 sacks and five tackles for losses in 2020, his final season with Cleveland, to seven sacks and 12 tackles for losses in 2021 with the Bengals. He’s started all but three games the past four seasons, so otherwise has been healthy. Of 75 interior defenders with at least 250 pass rushes, he ranked 46th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. Of 75 interior defenders with at least 200 snaps on run defense, he ranked 23rd in PFF’s run-stop percentage. His average tackle came 1.5 yards downfield, second-best among the free agents (D.J. Jones, 1.2) and best of who’s left.
Calais Campbell, Ravens (35): Campbell is a six-time Pro Bowler and potential Hall of Famer with career totals of 93.5 sacks and 161 tackles for losses. While he had only 1.5 sacks in 15 games for the Ravens, he still produced 12 quarterback hits, his 11th consecutive season hitting double figures. His average tackle came 1.7 yards downfield, third-best among the free agents. He ranked 32nd among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. Had he played enough run-defending snaps to qualify, he would have ranked fifth in run-stop percentage. On a short-term deal, he’d provide an immediate upgrade.
Ndamukong Suh, Buccaneers (35): Suh is the defense’s version of Adrian Peterson – without the off-the-field issues. He’s just an ageless wonder. No, he’s not the dominant player he was in 2016, when he was voted to his fifth and final Pro Bowl team. But he’s impervious to injury. He’s missed two games in his 12-year career – and those were in 2011. In 2021, he recorded six sacks for the second consecutive year. He’s had at least a dozen quarterback hits in 11 of 12 seasons. He ranked only 59th among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate and was third-to-last in run-stop percentage. So, the production wasn’t great but he still can devour snaps. Suh played 718 snaps last year, an average of 42.2 per game. That’s the fewest snaps of his career; it’s more than Lowry has ever played.
Linval Joseph, Chargers (33): Joseph earned Pro Bowl honors for the Vikings in 2016 and 2017. In his prime, he was a run-stuffing, quarterback-pressuring defensive tackle. Now, he’s a massive run-stopper and merely a pocket-pushing tackle. He had one sack and three tackles for losses in 14 games (12 starts) in 2021. While he rarely put his fingers on the quarterback (one sack, one hit), he tied for 16th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate and 20th in run-stop percentage.
Jarran Reed, Chiefs (29): A first-round pick in 2016, Reed’s career consists of one fantastic season. In 2018, he had 10.5 sacks, 12 tackles for losses and 24 quarterback hits. However, he had only two sacks and zero tackles for losses in 2019 and 2.5 sacks and two tackles for losses in 2021. Reed finished 64th among interior defenders in pass-rush win rate, worst among this year’s free agents (minimum 250 pass rushes), but a decent 33rd in run-stop percentage. He did start all 33 games the past two seasons. With durability and age, he could be one to watch.
Sheldon Richardson, Vikings (31): Richardson, a first-round pick in 2013, mostly came off the bench last season – a first in his career. He recorded 2.5 sacks, six tackles for losses and 13 quarterback hits. He ranked only 45th among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate and 43rd in run-stop percentage. He’s played in every game the past four seasons and missed merely seven games in nine seasons.
Eddie Goldman, Bears (28): Goldman was released a couple weeks ago by the Bears. Picked early in the second round in 2015, Goldman had been a strong two-down player to start his career. A COVID opt-out in 2020, he had a half-sack and one tackle for loss in 14 games (10 starts) in 2021. Moreover, he lost his sting as a run defender. He’s played all 16 games only once. His one really good season came in 2018, when he was playing for a new contract.
Solomon Thomas, Raiders (26): Draft grades still matter. That means Thomas, the third pick of the 2017 draft by San Francisco, will get another look. Coming off the bench for all 17 games last season, he set career highs with 3.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hits. Limited mostly to passing situations, he finished 37th in PFF’’s pass-rush win rate. Ten of his 19 tackles for losses came as a rookie.
Derrick Nnadi, Chiefs (25): A third-round pick in 2018, Nnadi has played in 64 of a possible 65 games with 52 starts. Three of his four career sacks and five of his seven career quarterback hits came in 2021. Mostly, though, he’s a solid run defender. Had he played enough pass-rushing snaps to qualify, he would have finished 70th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. He was 54th in run-stop percentage.
Tyler Lancaster, Packers (27): Lancaster did what he usually does: play no-nonsense run defense. His 31 tackles included three for losses. That TFL count matched his total from his first three seasons. Two of those came at Minnesota, when he delivered the best performance of his career. Had he played enough snaps to qualify, he would have finished 15th in run-stop percentage but fourth-from-last in pass-rush win rate.
Green Bay Packers: Key 2022 Transactions
Extended: QB Aaron Rodgers
Traded: WR Davante Adams
Re-Signed: TE Robert Tonyan
Re-Signed: LB De'Vondre Campbell
Re-Signed: CB Rasul Douglas
Signed: P Pat O'Donnell
Tendered: WR Allen Lazard
Extended: OLB Preston Smith
Released: OLB Za’Darius Smith
Released: RT Billy Turner
Pay cut: WR Randall Cobb
Restructured: S Adrian Amos
