7 important Packers with opportunity to bounce back from injury-plagued seasons in 2023

These seven Packers will have a chance to shake off injury issues from 2022 and either re-emerge or continue on as dominant players in 2023.

Injuries often play a big part in the success or failure as a football team during any given year. But the correlated property can also be observed: Important players returning from injury-plagued seasons can individually improve or provide a substantial boost the next year.

This is one area of optimism for the 2023 Green Bay Packers because injuries played such a big role in the downfall of the 2022 team.

The offensive line never got settled. Receivers were shuffling in and out of the lineup. The future Hall of Fame quarterback dealt with a broken thumb. The pass-rush and coverage units on defense both took big personnel hits due to injury.

Matt LaFleur’s team will return for training camp later this month as a healthy football team.

Here are seven Packers players with an opportunity to shake off injuries from 2022 and re-emerge (or continue on) as healthy and dominant players in 2023:

How many drops did current Chiefs receivers have last season?

Drops were much less of a problem for the #Chiefs in 2022 compared to the season prior.

The Kansas City Chiefs struggled with dropped passes during the 2021 NFL season, with two wide receivers ranking in the top 10 in the league. Last season, the Chiefs completely re-created their wide receivers corps. It resulted in a vast decline in dropped passes, both as a whole and individually. No receiver on the roster had more than five dropped passes.

The team has lost a few receivers who contributed during the 2022 NFL season and added some new faces in the receiver room heading into 2023. How did the newcomers fair when it came to catching the football last year? How about the several returning players for Kansas City?

Below you’ll find a look at the targets, receptions and drops from each of the receivers on the 90-man offseason roster who were targeted last season, including the incoming free agents. Also, a brief look at the rookies and how they performed in college. All drop statistics (combined regular season and postseason) courtesy of Pro Football Focus.

Chiefs DT Chris Jones named NFL’s most disruptive pass-rusher from 3-technique

On the latest Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar, #Chiefs DT Chris Jones was recognized for his play at 3-technique in 2022.

[mm-video type=video id=01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x/01h4070wd6c5h5xc5h4x-4f09cde313c169cad39a8a8a06c224b8.jpg]

Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones was recently recognized as the league’s most disruptive pass-rusher when aligning as a 3-technique.

On the latest episode of “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the two veteran film junkies sought to identify the NFL’s most disruptive pass-rushers from every gap. They spent some time identifying the various traits that make for good edge rushers and interior rushers before delving into the players who were the best during the 2022 NFL season.

If you’re not familiar with the term, the 3-technique refers to when a defensive lineman aligns in the B-gap. They’ll align to the outside shoulder of an offensive guard, between that offensive guard and the offensive tackle.

While Aaron Donald remains in a league of his own, Jones was the better player at 3-tech last season in the eyes of Farrar.

“I’d say the guy who played the best three (technique) last year, to me, was Chris Jones with the Chiefs,” Farrar said. “He has great techniques, ways of just pulling you in and then slipping around.”

Cosell found himself impressed with Jones’ size and quickness, but there was something that he couldn’t seem to put his finger on about his playstyle.

“Yeah, he’s very big,” Cosell said. “He’s not as explosive of an athlete as (Aaron) Donald. So, he has a little bit more control in his playstyle, I mean, his game. Although, for his size, he’s quick. But he’s not quick in the way you think of like a true 3-technique.”

Farrar emphasized Jones’ finesse and hand-fighting as one of the things that set him apart.

“No, he’s a jiu-jitsu man,” Farrar said.

Be sure to check out the full episode at the top of the page or over on Touchdown Wire for more on the top D-Linemen in the NFL during the 2022 NFL season

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Packers cornerbacks limited separation when in man coverage in 2022

Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas and Eric Stokes were sticky in man coverage for the Packers’ zone-dominant defense in 2022.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

The Green Bay Packers defense primarily uses zone coverage under Joe Barry, but the team’s top three cornerbacks, Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, and Eric Stokes, all allowed little separation when in man coverage.

A recent chart put together by Judah Fortgang of PFF helped illustrate which cornerbacks (who played at least 200 snaps in 2022) were better in man coverage in terms of separation allowed and which were better in zone coverage. All three of Alexander, Douglas, and Stokes had negative separation grades when in man coverage, which is a good thing in this case and shows that they were in tight coverage.

Believe it or not, between Douglas, Stokes, and Alexander, Stokes was the one who actually performed the best by this metric. This hopefully points to 2023 being a bounce-back season for Stokes once he’s healthy after a very inconsistent 2022 season prior to his injury. Despite being close in coverage, Stokes still allowed five completions on seven targets at 11.8 yards per catch, with only one forced incompletion when in man.

However, as I alluded to already, the Packers do not use a lot of man coverage. One of the primary principles of Barry’s defensive scheme is to take away the big play, which leads to a heavy usage of zone coverage. According to PFF, Alexander was in man coverage on just 20% of his total snaps in 2022, Douglas 20.5%, and Stokes 26.2%.

As a coach, it’s always a balance between sticking to the system and molding it to fit with what your players are good at. Stokes was primarily used as a cover corner while at Georgia, and Alexander is one of the best cover cornerbacks in the game. Douglas has shown to be a playmaker under just about any circumstance, and while it’s a small sample size from last season, Kiesean Nixon, who will be starting in the slot at least until Stokes returns, was able to limit pass catchers when in man. It’s also worth noting that while rookie Carrington Valentine likely won’t see much, if any, playing time this season, the Packers did spend another draft pick on a player who thrived as a man cover corner in college.

Now, it’s not as if Barry was completely rigid and didn’t make any adjustments either. Although man coverage was never a staple for this defense last season, we did see Alexander with the opportunity to travel more with the opponent’s top receiver towards the end of the year. Not to mention that, as Daire Carragher of Packer Report would write, during the defense’s best stretch of football in those final few weeks, the Packers saw a huge increase in their usage of Cover-2 and Cover-6. Those are still primarily zone coverages, but adjustments, nonetheless.

It’s also not as if Stokes, Douglas, and Alexander graded out poorly as zone defenders, either. That same chart from PFF that I highlighted above shows them maintaining good zone coverage separation grades–although in Alexander’s case, at least by this metric, he was much better in man. A number of the issues that the Packers ran into last season either came from being too soft with the zone coverage alignments or coverage breakdowns, which included the passing off of pass catchers from one zone to the next or just being in the wrong spot, and on many occasions, led to big plays for the offense.

For the coaching staff, the offseason is a time to reevaluate what went right, what went wrong, and to put a plan in place for the upcoming season. I certainly don’t expect to see the Packers all of a sudden become a heavy man coverage team; again, that’s not the M.O. of this defensive system. But after an inconsistent 2022 season defensively, could we see more of it, with man coverage being a clear strength of this cornerback room? It’s now or never for Barry and his defense.

Packers offense ranked last in goal-to-go situations in 2022

No team was worse at converting goal-to-go situations into touchdowns than the Green Bay Packers in 2022.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

Among many issues that the Green Bay Packers’ offense had in 2022, one glaring problem was a league-worst finish in finding the end zone in goal-to-go situations.

According to Sharp Football, the Packers’ 50% touchdown rate in these scenarios ranked 32nd in the NFL. The next closest to Green Bay was Washington at 56%, followed by Chicago, scoring 60% of the time when faced with a goal-to-go situation. Conversely, Tennesse’s 94% success rate was the best in football.

As is the case with just about anything in football, it’s difficult to boil down the reasoning behind any result to just one or two things, but in short, the Packers’ inability to find the end zone when inside the 10-yard line was a microcosm of the issues the offense as a whole experienced last season.

For much of the year, opponents did not fear the Green Bay passing game and knew that if they could take away the run game and make the Packers’ offense one-dimensional, moving the ball primarily through the air was going to be quite difficult. This same concept applied inside the red zone, and the results were even magnified given the short field.

Defenses often would crowd the line of scrimmage last season when in those goal-to-go situations, essentially daring the Packers to throw the football, which they often did. To a degree, the injuries and movement that Green Bay experienced early on in the season along the offensive line may have played a factor in that decision-making as well.

Unfortunately, however, with Aaron Rodgers not playing at a high level, along with young receivers and injuries at the position, the passing game simply wasn’t good enough to shoulder that burden, especially in a condensed part of the field where passing the ball is already more difficult with there being less space to work with.

“There is a lot we have to study this offseason. Whether it was poor play design, or lack of execution or all of the above, it wasn’t good enough. We did a piss poor job in the red zone,” LaFleur said following the Packers’ Week 18 loss to Detroit. “I’ve said it before, sometimes you kick enough field goals, and you’ll get yourself beat. That’s kinda what happened (vs. Lions).”

Perhaps, technically, passing the ball rather than repeatedly running into loaded boxes is the correct decision on paper, but as already mentioned, this offense wasn’t equipped to be a pass-heavy and, at times, predictable unit. The Packers also have a power back in AJ Dillon and a playmaker in Aaron Jones, who has a nose for the end zone, totaling 40 touchdowns between 2019 and 2021. Not to mention that, at the very least, running the ball somewhat consistently will at least keep the defense honest and know that they have to be ready to defend it.

As we look for ways that the Packers can bounce back in this area in 2023 without Rodgers, it starts with – you guessed it – running the ball, specifically, getting Jones enough red zone touches. It will also require Matt LaFleur’s play-calling and game plan to help get his pass catchers into space rather than expecting them to win their one-on-one matchups regularly. With such a diverse skill set amongst the skill position players, LaFleur should be able to open up his playbook and keep the concepts simple while still stressing defenses through, what he calls, the ‘illusion of complexity.’

Until proven otherwise, most likely, the Packers’ margin for error this upcoming season is going to be small. This means, for one, we don’t know how often they’ll get into these goal-to-go situations, so that already could put a premium on those visits, but also, settling for a field goal versus finding the end zone could be the difference between a win and a loss.

Here’s how new Chiefs OT Donovan Smith is adjusting to Kansas City

New #Chiefs OT Donovan Smith spoke about adjusting to his new team in Kansas City as he looks to recapture his form after an injury-riddled 2022.

[connatix div_id=”3f8b015acdd24c648befc5d5dac47469″ player_id=”afe1e038-d3c2-49c0-922d-6511a229f69c” cid=”7cbcea0d-4ce2-4c75-9a8d-fbe02a192c24″]

Donovan Smith has played for just one team during the course of his eight-year NFL career, which means joining the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent was a big step. Smith doesn’t only have to adjust to a new city, but he also has to adjust to new teammates and a new offensive scheme all at once for the first time as a professional.

Speaking to members of the media for the first time following Wednesday’s OTA practices last week, Smith briefed reporters on how he’s adjusting to his new team.

“It’s real good,” Smith said. “You can see why (the Chiefs are good). Everybody’s talking with each other, making sure we’re all on the same page, obviously. You know we just make sure they bring everybody up to speed. That’s something you look for in an offensive line room because you know, five minds all on the same page is what matters. Everything else – physicality, footwork and stuff we take care of that at practice and whatnot with (Offensive Line Coach) Coach (Andy) Heck. In terms of the guys, you know, they’re great! No bad news yet (laughter).”

The veteran appears to buying into the Chiefs’ way of doing things rather quickly, embracing the “championship mentality” along the way. He’s getting himself into shape ahead of training camp and ensuring that he can keep up with some of the younger talents in the offensive line room.

After just a short time of working under Chiefs HC Andy Reid, he can already tell that he’s both a “player’s coach” and an “offensive line guy.” Anyone who knows Reid’s history knows that he’s both of those things and more.

“You know he’s an offensive line guy, so that’s always a good thing,” Smith said. “Anytime you got a coach (who’s) a fan favorite of O-line you automatically kind of get a whatever you want to call it – a good pass. But no, you can see why he’s a player’s coach. He communicates with a lot of guys. He coaches you hard, but he understands that nothing’s perfect and you know we’re going to get the job done but at the end of the day we’re working. So, to be able to have that leadership from him, consistently through the years just speaks volumes to the man that he is and the coach that he is.”

Under the tutelage of Reid and Heck, Smith is hoping to recapture his prior form after an injury-riddled campaign in 2022. He sees the opportunity as a new beginning and another opportunity to compete for a Super Bowl title.

“I played with a lot more injuries than I probably should have,” Smith said of his final season with the Bucs. “You know, it’s just something that we do. We go out there, we sacrifice our bodies to go out there for the greater good of the team. . . New beginnings, new journey. I’m healthy, fresh, and feeling real good.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Chiefs TE Jody Fortson emerged as an elite run blocker in 2022

#Chiefs’ Jody Fortson was quietly one of the NFL’s best run blockers at the tight end position last season.

[connatix div_id=”3f8b015acdd24c648befc5d5dac47469″ player_id=”afe1e038-d3c2-49c0-922d-6511a229f69c” cid=”7cbcea0d-4ce2-4c75-9a8d-fbe02a192c24″]

Kansas City Chiefs TE Jody Fortson could turn out to have a big role on offense in 2023 and not just as a pass-catcher.

Fortson ended up playing 21% of the Chiefs’ offensive snaps in 2022, the most to this point in his career. He took a big step forward in one specific aspect of his game — where he was rarely utilized the season prior. In 2021, Fortson appeared on the field for just 15 run-blocking snaps in Kansas City. He saw more than quadruple the run-blocking snaps the following season.

Among tight ends with 80 or more run-blocking snaps in 2022, Fortson managed the eighth-highest run-blocking grade in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. Over 60% of his run-blocking snaps came on zone running schemes, while just under 20% of his snaps came on gap/power schemes.

Now, Fortson dislocated his elbow in Week 15 and spent some time on injured reserve before he was activated for the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LVII. It was a little surprising when Blake Bell was benched in favor of Fortson for the AFC title game and Super Bowl LVII, but it makes a bit more sense when you consider how much he’s improved as a run blocker and how important running the ball effectively was in each of those games.

Given that the Chiefs played one of the highest rates of 12- and 13-personnel looks in 2022, it’s reasonable to expect that Fortson could find himself on the field even more in 2023.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Chiefs RG Trey Smith leads team in performance-based pay for 2022

#Chiefs RG Trey Smith was the team’s leader in performance-based pay for the 2022 NFL season.

The NFL announced performance-based pay distributions for the 2022 NFL season and Kansas City Chiefs second-year RG Trey Smith led the way for the team.

The league announced on Friday that NFL players are set to receive a whopping $336 million in performance-based for 2022. This is a benefit that is collectively bargained between the NFL and NFLPA to compensate players based on their playing time and salary.

Smith, a sixth-round draft pick out of Tennessee in 2021, played the fifth-highest percentage of offensive snaps in Kansas City in 2022. His 1,037 snaps earned him a 90.25% share of the team’s offensive snaps last season. As a result, he comes in at No. 20 in the NFL in terms of performance-based pay with over $663K earned.

Smith has often been considered the steal of the 2021 NFL draft and this is just more evidence supporting his case.

Former Eagles S Marcus Epps (now with the Las Vegas Raiders) was the top earner in the NFL this past season with over $880K in performance-based pay.

If you’re curious about how exactly performance-based pay is determined, here’s an explainer and chart from the NFL:

Each player on the same team com­petes for his own share of his club’s Performance-Based Pay pool. The hypothetical example in the table below illustrates how the Player Index works, using a simplified four-player team and a club bonus pool of $1,000,000. Each player receives his share of the pool depending on how his Index compares to those of his teammates.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1]

Top stats to know from Packers’ 2022 season-ending dope sheet

A collection of the most interesting or noteworthy stats from the Packers’ season-ending dope sheet in 2022.

The Green Bay Packers released the team’s season-ending dope sheet for the 2022 season this week.

The dope sheet was once the team’s press release during the 1920s. It continues today as a program/media guide that is put together by members of the Packers’ public relations staff.

Here is a collection of the most interesting or noteworthy stats from the dope sheet:

Packers defense picked as one of NFL’s most underperforming units in 2022

Many thought the Packers defense could be elite. The group was nothing if not average. NFL.com picked Joe Barry’s group as one of the most underperforming units of 2022.

The defense of the Green Bay Packers was one of the NFL’s great disappointments of the 2022 season.

Many believed the group could be elite, given the returning stars at each level, the unit’s finish to the 2021 season, the additions made during the offseason and the sheer amount of resources poured into the defense over the last few years.

Instead, the Packers were nothing if not average. Joe Barry’s defense ranked 17th in yards allowed, 17th in points allowed and 28th in yards per play.

Not surprisingly, Cynthia Frelund of NFL.com picked the Packers defense as one of her most underperforming units of the 2022 season based on her analytic models.

From Frelund:

So … I picked the Pack to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl based mainly on their defense, the presence of a back-to-back MVP QB (Aaron Rodgers) and Green Bay’s run game/offensive line. I was wrong. My models had all three levels of the defense ranked no lower than sixth in win share. I also forecasted some different usage from players such as safety Darnell Savage, who is better when given more coverage responsibilities. Again — I got this one very wrong. While we saw some intermittent increases in pressure rates and individual game grades for players, as well as parts of the defense ranking in the top half of the NFL at different points in 2022, and while Green Bay finished with a respectable-seeming yards-allowed ranking of 17th, the Packers were very inconsistent, with all three levels of the defense ending the season ranked no higher than 18th.

Losing Davante Adams required evolution on offense, and change takes time. The Packers banked on a top defense carrying the team through early expected struggles, but the defense had ups and downs all the same.

During a 1-7 stretch midseason, the Packers gave up 27 or more points five times.

The Packers’ season ended with the Detroit Lions converting a fourth down to close out a Week 18 win at Lambeau Field. The defense failing late in a must-win game provided a fitting end to a disappointing season.

As Frelund notes, the Packers had major issues at all three levels of the defense. The interior run defense wasn’t consistently good enough. The pass-rush faded after losing Rashan Gary, and Kenny Clark was inconsistent as a disruptor. The secondary improved down the stretch but was mostly disappointing, especially during the mid-season slump. Regression was a big factor; many veterans, including Clark, Darnell Savage and Adrian Amos didn’t play up to standards.

The other underperforming units from Frelund included the Raiders pass rush, the Broncos offense, the Rams offense and the Buccaneers run game.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbxb1xg7g19wqdc player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

[listicle id=89366]