The Green Bay Packers will enter the 2020 season with one of the NFL’s most unproven group of inside linebackers.
GM Brian Gutekunst swapped Blake Martinez for Christian Kirksey and drafted Kamal Martin in the fifth round, but Pro Football Focus still believes the Packers have one of the five worst inside linebacker groups.
PFF ranked the team’s inside linebackers at No. 28 overall, above only the Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams.
The Packers will be relying on Kirksey, a long-time starter for the Browns, to bounce back from two injury-plagued seasons and become a solid player in the middle of the defense. If healthy, he could end up being a slight upgrade on Martinez. From there, Mike Pettine’s defense needs a complementary player – or players – to step up next to Kirksey. Martin, Oren Burks, Ty Summers and Curtis Bolton will all have opportunities to do so, although none of the four has legitimate experience playing linebacker at the NFL level.
Burks has been injured and ineffective during each of his first two seasons. Summers didn’t play a single defensive snap as a rookie. Bolton missed the entire 2019 season with a knee injury.
Ideally, a player like Burks or Martin would earn a starting role and give the Packers defense an athletic, rangy linebacker capable of handling the run game and all coverage responsibilities in the middle of the field. But that might be wishful thinking considering Burks’ first two seasons and Martin’s inexperience at the position.
Summers could be capable of filling a two-down role as a run stopper, much like Antonio Morrison and B.J. Goodson of the last two years.
The wildcard might be Bolton, who impressed last summer before going down with an injury. He looked more instinctive than both Burks and Summers and was actually on track for playing time when the injury struck.
The Packers also signed undrafted rookie Krys Barnes, a linebacker from UCLA.
A veteran free agent option or another summer trade might be necessary if the Packers don’t like what they see from the young linebackers behind Kirksey.
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