Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Nijman’s play could force tough decision
Green Bay - With each Yosh Nijman start it's hard not to wonder if this is the week he becomes a liability as a thirdstring starter at left tackle. And each week it keeps not happening.
Nijman has started seven games for the Green Bay Packers this season, including facing premier pass rushers Nick Bosa of San Francisco, Von Miller of the Los Angeles Rams, Robert Quinn of Chicago and Myles Garrett this past game against the Cleveland Browns.
Each time, Nijman has held his own, and over the course of seven starts — three early in the season, and now the last four — has improved to the point where he's a bona fide tackle in the league.
Compare that, for instance, to all the problems the Chicago Bears have suffered through the past few weeks with Teven Jenkins, the No. 39 pick in this year's draft, starting at left tackle, and it's even more impressive that the Packers are getting this solid play from a guy they signed undrafted in 2019.
Now, nobody is putting Nijman in the Pro Bowl or suggesting he's as good as Elgton Jenkins, let alone a healthy David Bakhtiari. And the Packers continue to give Nijman his share of help in pass protection, though not as much lately as they did early in the season.
But if he continues playing like this and improving almost by the week, the Packers might actually have a decision to make if Bakhtiari isn't ready to come back from ACL surgery until the playoffs.
Bakhtiari's return has been set back twice now – once when he underwent arthroscopic surgery in late November, and apparently again last week when he was held out of practice after participating the week before.
He hasn't played real football since late December of last year and is coming off major surgery. It's an awfully big assumption to think he'll play well in his first game or two back.
So if he's not able to get some snaps in before the regular season ends, the Packers might have to ask themselves, do they want to put him out there for the first time in a win-or-go-home game, or go with a
guy who has held up well enough to get them where they are?
In the end, the Packers might very well decide the All-Pro is still the better option, even if he hasn't played a snap in the regular season, based on what they see from him on the practice field. But at minimum, that wouldn't be the no-brainer it was a month ago, which says a lot about Nijman's performance.
In the Packers' 24-22 win over the Browns on Saturday, Nijman was matched mostly with Garrett, who is tied for third in the NFL in sacks (15) and alone in third for quarterback hits (29). To be fair, Garrett came into this game with a groin injury that likely affected his play, though he was not noticeably gimpy, as he was the previous week against Las Vegas.
Aaron Rodgers attempted 34 passes in the game and for the first time this season wasn't sacked. Garrett came close only once, when he beat Nijman off the snap on a third down in the final minute of the first half. But Rodgers got the ball out so fast on a short completion to Davante Adams that it didn't matter.
In fact, Rodgers helped his line out often in this game with quick deliveries. The Packers also chip blocked on Garrett five times – three by tight end Josiah Deguara,
and two by running back Aaron Jones. And on three plays, left guard Jon Runyan slid over late in the play to help Nijman with a double team.
But there were still plenty of snaps where Nijman was on his own, and he held up well enough. He is a huge man (6-foot-6
, 314 pounds) with long arms (34 ⁄ inches) and takes some time for rushers to get around just because of his size and length. But he also has surprisingly good feet, which showed up in protection and on a couple runs where he pulled and looked comfortable blocking in the open field. He was ahead of Jones the whole way while pushing back linebacker Anthony Walker on a 27-yard run to open the third quarter, and a few plays later pulled and blocked cornerback Greedy Williams in space on 6yard run by Jones.
The future looks bright for Nijman as a possible full-time starter in the league, at either right tackle or left. That's pretty good bang for the buck from an undrafted player.
On the run, again
Nick Chubb has been running through defenses all season, so his 126 yards and 7.4-yard average per carry were hardly an anomaly. He is one of the game's best backs, ranks fourth in the NFL in average rushing yards per game (97), and Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has been committed to the run game all season.
Still, the Packers' run defense hasn't been what it was in the middle of the season and got gashed Saturday. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry's scheme is more sound against the run than his predecessor Mike Pettine's, but the Packers have played the run poorly the last few weeks and been especially vulnerable at the edges.
Starting outside linebackers Preston Smith and Rashan Gary haven't held the edge against the run as consistently as they did earlier in the season. One backup, Jonathan Garvin, has good size (257 pounds) but lacks the explosion it can take to hold the edge, such as on a 15-yard run by Chubb late in the third quarter when Garvin was bowled over to create the hole. And the other backup, Tipa Gileai, is just too light (229 pounds) to hold his ground.
This is where the Packers miss in-season acquisition Whitney Mercilus. Though the 31-year-old Mercilus is better known as a rusher from his younger days, he in fact was playing better as an edge run defender before his season ended because of a torn biceps in his fourth game with the Packers.
It's a safe bet offenses will pound the ball at the Packers' edges going forward until they prove they can stop it.
Extra points
* Kenny Clark's return from the reserve/ COVID-19 list might not have helped the Packers' run defense statistically, but it showed up in the pass rush. The Packers sacked Baker Mayfield five times, and though Clark didn't have any of them, his pressure as an inside rusher forced Mayfield to move into two of them – one by Gary late in the first quarter, and one by Preston Smith in the fourth quarter.
* Marcedes Lewis has rumbled for a few big catches this season, but the Packers have to be careful about overusing him in the passing game and losing the element of surprise that has helped make him effective. He's a blocker first and foremost, and on Saturday picked up only 1 yard on each of his two receptions.