It had been a quiet start to training camp for Green Bay Packers fifth-round pick Kingsley Enagbare.
With two rotational roles up for grabs behind Preston Smith and Rashan Gary at the edge rusher position, La’Darius Hamilton, Tipa Galeai, and Jonathan Garvin had captured more of attention.
However, between the Packers’ preseason opener against San Francisco and Sunday’s practice, Enagbare has strung together some impressive performances.
Enagbare was on the field for 45 snaps on Friday, according to PFF, and came away with a team-high three pressures, one of which was a sack, along with two total tackles.
By PFF’s win-rate metric, which measures how many “wins” a pass-rusher had against their blocker, Enagbare won 20% of his snaps. For some context around that figure, last season Maxx Crosby led all edge rushers in this category, winning 26.8% of the time.
Then during the final two-minute drill portion of Sunday’s practice, as Bill Huber noted, Enagbare would beat Royce Newman on two separate occasions to pressure Aaron Rodgers for what very well would have been sacks in a real game.
As previously mentioned, there is playing time available at the edge rusher position, and the battle for those rotational roles still seems fairly wide open.
Enagbare, Garvin, Galeai, Hamilton, and Randy Ramsey have all had their fair share of snaps with the second team defense, and most have even had reps with the starters at times.
In 2021, both Gary and Smith were on the field for roughly 70% of the Packers’ defensive snaps, meaning whoever can emerge as the third and fourth edge rushers could see roughly 20-25 snaps per game this season.
If a part of that rotation, Enagbare will most likely be featured in obvious passing situations, such as on third downs or second-and-longs, where he can pin his ears back to get after the quarterback – which is what he does best.
Enagbare finished his 2021 season at South Carolina with 45 pressures, and he was PFF’s fourth-highest graded edge rusher, for what it’s worth. However, as The Draft Network wrote, there is “plenty of room for improvement” against the run.
As a fifth-round rookie, Enagbare could play an important role this season. Edge rusher is a premier position in this game, and the Packers have snaps available.
Whether it be Enagbare or any of the other edge rushers not named Smith or Gary, the Packers need more from their rotational players this year, as there was a lack of production against both the run and the pass in 2021 from that group.
With a pair of joint practices this week with New Orleans followed by a preseason game, this is an important week for Enagbare, as well as anyone fighting for playing time and a roster spot. There is still a lot to be determined at the Packers’ edge rusher position.
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