Defensive Captain Disappears, and Packers Have Suffered Because of It

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Through Week 3, Rashan Gary led the NFL with 4.5 sacks. When he sacked Aaron Rodgers twice at Pittsburgh, he was up to 7.5 sacks in seven games. He wasn’t just on pace for his first 10-sack season. He was on pace for 18.

Since then, the Green Bay Packers’ $96 million defensive end has disappeared off the face of the football earth. In Saturday’s blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Gary’s streak of games without a sack reached nine.

It’s the second-longest streak of his career, with an asterisk. While Gary had a 10-game streak as a rookie in 2019, that was back when he was playing 15 snaps per game behind The Smith Brothers. Otherwise, since becoming a starting player, he hadn’t had a streak of longer than five games.

The final snap counts from Saturday’s loss to the Ravens were jarring. Kingsley Enagbare led the defensive ends with 60 snaps, followed by Lukas Van Ness with 47. Gary? He played 34, or about 45 percent.

Gary didn’t play much. And he didn’t do much. While Van Ness had six tackles and Enagbare had five, including the team’s two tackles for losses, Gary had an assisted tackle in the first quarter and a quarterback hit in the third quarter.

That’s it.

Clearly, without Micah Parsons, the Packers need more from one of their defensive captains. They need more snaps. More pressures. More sacks. More impact plays. More hustle.

More everything.

“I would say that we need more from everybody,” coach Matt LaFleur said in the ultimate non-answer on Sunday. “The collective, everybody has got to raise their level. Not even raise their level. They’ve got to do their job. How about that? All 11 on the field got to do their job. Nothing more, nothing less, and that might’ve been some of the problems yesterday in regards to guys trying to make plays. Do your job. Everybody does their job, we got a chance.”

Gary wasn’t on the injury report and hasn’t been on the injury report. Asked if he was battling an injury or was among the players impacted by illness, LaFleur said no.

“All these guys are battling soreness, fatigue,” he said. “It’s a long year. But I wouldn’t say it’s not anything that any team’s not dealing with at this stage of the game.”

More Than Sacks for Rashan Gary

According to Pro Football Focus, 105 edge defenders have played at least 150 pass-rushing snaps. Gary is 54th in pass-rush win rate at 11.3 percent. Parsons is third, Van Ness is 26th and Enagbare is 69th.

During his no-sacks streak, 105 edge defenders have played at least 70 pass-rushing snaps. Gary is 61st in pass-rush win rate at 10.6 percent, so not appreciably worse. In the two full games without Parsons, it’s actually up to 15.0 percent.

He’s just not getting home, which has been a theme in his career.

Another perspective is quick pressures, which Next Gen Stats defines as a pressure within 3 seconds. These are the pressures that get quarterbacks off the spot and aren’t necessarily dependent on terrific coverage to buy the pass rushers a bit more time.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) prepares to throw a pass under no pressure from Rashan Gary (background). | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

According to Next Gen, Gary is tied for 26th with 47 total pressures. Of those, eight were quick pressures. By contrast, the Texans’ Will Anderson and the Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson are tied for the NFL lead with 84 pressures. Anderson has 35 quick pressures and Hutchinson has 24. Even after missing the last two games, Parsons is third with 83 pressures. Of those, 33 were quick pressures.

Giants rookie Abdul Carter leads the NFL with 44 quick pressures. Gary is tied for 105th with his eight.

Before last week’s game, Gary was among 63 edge defenders with at least 25 pressures. According to Next Gen, his time-to-pressure of 3.23 seconds was the sixth-slowest. He’s almost wholly dependent on his cornerbacks playing sticky coverage.

His time-to-pressure figures were 2.84 seconds in 2024, 2.99 in 2023 and 2.67 before his torn ACL in 2022. His quick-pressure count has plunged from 20 last year to eight this year.

In his seventh NFL season, Gary has never been a big-time sacker of the quarterback, so there was a reason to assume that his early-season prediction was Parsons-fueled fool’s gold. What Gary always has been is a brute-force, high-effort run defender.

Not this year.

This year, according to league data, opponents have averaged 0.62 yards per carry more when Gary is on the field. Last year, the run defense was 0.14 yards better with Gary. That he played less than half the snaps on Saturday when the Packers were getting their teeth kicked in on the ground is rather stunning. Too often, he’s seen jogging behind plays.

It’s part of a stunning downturn this season, with his first 10-sack season seeming like a lock to an impossibility.

“The thing I’ve said to him,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said of a conversation with Gary after the Pittsburgh game, “I’m just so impressed with how he’s playing the run game. I mean, he’s setting edges, he’s getting off blocks. He’s not just rushing up the field. He’s physical, he’s tackling. I think he’s becoming a complete player. What he’s doing is he’s taking advantage of his opportunities and he’s winning his one-on-ones.

“I think it all stems back from the hard work that he’s put in from OTAs to training camp to now and how hard he’s working on the practice field, and I still think his best football’s ahead of him. So, just appreciate how hard he’s working and how hard he’s playing right now.”

Rashan Gary’s Not Earning His Paycheck

In the aftermath of Parsons’ injury, Gary said he was having a good season, and he was looking forward to making a lot of big plays down the stretch.

“I’ve just got to be myself,” he said. “You know, when guys are thinking that they need to do more than what they've been doing, you start to strain, start to try to find plays that's not there. And throughout the season, I've been doing a great job of being effective, being myself. And I know if I keep playing at a high level, keep playing how I'm playing, the plays are going to come and it's going to be right what the team needs.”

Gary said it would take all 11 players being “on the same page” for the defense to thrive without Parsons.

Gary, obviously, needed to be the focal point of that. Including an $8.7 million roster bonus, Gary is making $15.75 million this season as part of the four-year, $96 million contract extension he signed in October 2023.

Next year, he is due an $18.0 million base salary and his salary-cap number will surge past $28.0 million. The Packers can move on after this season and create almost $11.0 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap.com.

That’s a decision – perhaps an easy decision – to make after the season. For now, with the playoffs on the horizon, the Packers desperately need Gary to be the quarterback-pressuring, ball-carrier-chasing, impact-making player.

As he said a few weeks ago: “If I do what I’ve got to do – I'm a big part of this team – we're going to be right where we need to be.”

Gary’s not doing what he needs to do, and the defense – and the team – is suffering.

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