Packers 2022 NFL Free Agency Preview: Defensive Line

With NFL free agency officially starting on Wednesday (but the negotiating window opening on Monday), here is a look at the Green Bay Packers’ defensive line situation.

Packers Level of Need

High.

Packers Outlook

Kenny Clark is a Pro Bowler, Dean Lowry has been a decent sidekick and TJ Slaton had a promising rookie season. But the Packers released Kingsley Keke in January and Tyler Lancaster is headed to free agency.

Strength of Free Agent Talent Pool

6, on a 1-to-10 scale. This is a group that is completely devoid of high-end, game-wrecking talent, but there are a lot of players who are good enough to contribute without breaking the bank.

Best Available Defensive Tackles in Free Agency

D.J. Jones, 49ers (27): A sixth-round pick in 2017, Jones started 11 games in 2019, 14 games in 2020 and all 17 games in 2021, when he had two sacks and a career-high 10 tackles for losses. Of 75 interior defenders with at least 250 pass rushes, he ranked 40th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. Of 75 interior defenders with at least 200 snaps on run defense, he ranked No. 1 in run-stop win rate, a metric that mirrors Green Bay’s win-loss grading. For instance, a solo tackle on first-and-10 that limits the play to 3 yards or less is a run stop (or win); a tackle that holds the play to 4 years is not a run stop. Wrote Conor Orr in SI.com’s huge free-agent preview: “If you’d like a mobile up-front presence who can shift and chase like a middle linebacker, Jones is your man. While the veteran defensive tackle market is almost always a mess, Jones looks like a late bloomer worth gambling a multi-year deal on.”

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 in nine games in 2021. Of the free-agent defensive linemen, Hicks ranked No. 1 in PFF’s pass-rush win rate.

Larry Ogunjobi, Bengals (27): Ogunjobi 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. He ranked 46th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate but 23rd in run-stop percentage.

Folorunso Fatukasi, Jets (27): Fatukaski is right out of Central Casting at 6-foot-4 and 318 pounds. He started 15 games last season. The stats (zero sacks, five tackles for losses in 2021 and two sacks and 18 TFLs in four seasons) hardly speak to his impact. He ranked 11th in PFF’s run-stop percentage. Wrote Gary Gramling in SI.com’s free-agent preview: “He’s a two-down player, but Fatukasi is dominant against the run, and his work on the nose frees up his teammates. With the power run game coming back into style, Fatukasi is hitting the market at an ideal time.”

B.J. Hill, Bengals (26): A third-round pick by the Giants in 2018, he started 12 games as a rookie and only seven games since – including two starts in 2021, his debut season with Cincinnati. He matched his career high with 5.5 sacks, and his 12 quarterback hits were only one off his career total. Mostly used as a pass rusher, he ranked 27th among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate.

Sebastian Joseph-Day, Rams (26): Joseph-Day missed the second half of last season with a torn pectoral. In seven games, he had a career-high three sacks and was on his way to obliterating his career high for tackles. Even with a decent number of sacks in limited action, he would have ranked 65th in pass-rush win rate had he played 250 pass-rushing snaps.

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. 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. If your team needs a long-term solution on the defensive line, keep looking. If you need an immediate boost, Campbell is a strong fit.

Ndamukong Suh, Buccaneers (35): Like Campbell, if you’re looking for a one-year rental, Suh is your guy. He 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 missed games 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. Suh played 718 snaps last year, an average of 42.2 per game. That’s the fewest snaps of his career.

Harrison Phillips, Bills (26): A third-round pick in 2018, Phillips started a career-high eight games in 2021. His 51 tackles, one sack, four tackles for losses and six quarterback hits weren’t great but they equaled (or close to equaled) his combined totals from his first three seasons. He ranked 19th in PFF’s run-stop percentage but rarely played on passing downs. At the 2018 Combine, he muscled up 42 reps on the 225-pound bench press.

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.

Maliek Collins, Texans (26): Collins bounced back from an awful year in Las Vegas in 2020 – he had zero sacks and zero tackles for losses in 12 games – to tally 2.5 sacks and nine tackles for losses with the Texans in 2021. He ranked 25th among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate but a woeful 69th in run-stop percentage.

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.

Quinton Jefferson, Raiders (28): Jefferson started every game last season – a first in his six NFL seasons – and had career highs of 4.5 sacks, 16 quarterback hits and five tackles for losses. Jefferson ranked No. 2 among the free-agent defensive linemen and No. 16 overall in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. He’s not nearly as good against run, ranking 46th 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.

DaQuan Jones, Panthers (30): Jones is another defensive rock. He’s started every game the past four seasons and six of the last seven. In eight seasons, he has only 10 sacks. In 2021, he ranked 52nd in PFF’s pass-rush win rate. He’s never had more than a half-dozen quarterback hits or four tackles for losses, but he’s a decent run defender even though he finished 67th in run-stop percentage.

Eddie Goldman, Bears (28): Goldman was released last week 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.

Bilal Nichols, Bears (25): While Hicks and Goldman were the big names on the Bears’ front, it was Nichols who drew consistent praise from the Packers. He had five sacks and seven tackles for losses in 2020, when he started all 16 games, and three sacks and five tackles for losses in 2021, when he played in all 17 games (15 starts). He ranked 54th among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate and 60th in run-stop percentage in 2021.

Tim Settle, Commanders (24): A fifth-round pick in 2018, Settle has only two career starts under his belt. He did have five sacks and seven quarterback hits in 2020. In 2021, he played 20-plus snaps in only four games. Had he met our 250-snap threshold, he would have ranked 19th in pass-rush win rate.

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.

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.

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