Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
GM should trade Rodgers to strengthen defense
Green Bay — After watching his defense dominate the San Francisco 49ers for all but two drives in the team’s 13-10 divisional playoff loss, the blueprint for the Green Bay Packers’ future was written. If general manager Brian Gutekunst doesn’t follow it, he’s making a big mistake. There’s no chance the offense next season will be what it was in 2020, or even in a less-productive 2021, and so his plan this off-season should be to trade quarterback Aaron Rodgers and build his defense into a unit that can carry this franchise for years to come.
He can try to re-sign Davante Adams, but maybe he figures out a way to do a sign-and-trade using the franchise tag to force someone to fork over draft picks for him. After getting as many draft picks and players as he can for Rodgers — that bounty might have gone down after Rodgers’ cruddy performance Saturday night — he can build that defense into something special.
The Packers’ bloated salary cap in 2022 (more than $40 million over) will leave Gutekunst with little choice but to trade Rodgers, but he should forget about trying to replace him. There are other ways to get where he wants to go and playing really good defense is one of them.
Not too much should be made about shutting down a mediocre 49ers offense that features mediocre quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, but the Packers’ defense did show it can rush the passer and cover, which are the two most important things a defense must do. And it played extremely hard.
“I thought our defense battled their ass off,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I thought they competed at the highest level.”
Against a team with arguably the best play-caller in the game in 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, the Packers defense held San Francisco to 58 yards in the first half. In the second half, it gave up two fieldgoal drives, the last starting with 3 minutes, 20 seconds to go and ending in Robbie Gould’s 45-yard game-winner.
It probably should have given up another touchdown, but wide-open tight end George Kittle dropped a well-thrown ball down the middle in the first half.
The Packers offense, with the presumptive MVP at quarterback, did almost nothing in the second half, unable to move the ball against a San Francisco defense that isn’t the unit it was two years ago but features some of the same impact players.
Still, it shut down Rodgers in the second half and won the game despite its own quarterback completing 11 of 19 passes for 131 yards with an interception (57.1 rating). As much credit as Shanahan gets for being an offensive genius, it’s been his defense that has led to deep playoff runs two of the last four years.
The Packers don’t need a Rodgers to be competitive every year. They have an offensive coach who runs the same system as Shanahan and was hired because his system is quarterback friendly and doesn’t necessarily require a superstar to run it.
LaFleur will still have a good offensive line and two good running backs. He’ll probably have to find someone to compete with Jordan Love, but if the resources are allocated to the defense, he can win right away.
The foundation of the defense is nose tackle Kenny Clark, outside linebacker Rashan Gary, inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, cornerback Jaire Alexander, cornerback Eric Stokes, cornerback Rasul Douglas and safety Adrian Amos. Put Za’Darius Smith in there if his back is no longer a problem and toss in Preston Smith if Gutekunst can afford him and it’s that much better.
Imagine what a front line of Gary, Clark, T.J. Slaton and Za’Darius Smith could form and then add the all-pro Campbell at inside linebacker, the three corners and Amos in the back end.
Now, think about what Gutekunst could do with, let’s say, two first-round picks, three second-round picks and maybe a promising young player or two that would come from the Rodgers/Adams deals. He would have the option of bundling picks for a big-time defensive lineman or using the picks to add a stud inside linebacker to team with Campbell, a safety to replace disappointing Darnell Savage and another pass rusher.
He’ll have to re-sign Campbell and Douglas, who are both free agents, but he could build this team in the mold of Tampa Bay or Buffalo or some of the New England teams where defense is the strength and the offense — for the time being — is just a compliment.
And here’s the thing. The more you build a team with hard-hitting defensive players, the better you are on special teams.
Those players you draft most likely become key members of the special teams. Instead of having a lot of big receivers and tight ends trying to establish the tone, the special teams are made of linebackers, safeties and speedy corners.
And everybody knows how badly the Packers need to improve their special teams.
As bad as the feeling was after a season-ending loss, the defensive players had to be wondering what level they could have reached with the return of Alexander, Za’Darius Smith and Whitney Mercilus to the fold.
Smith had a sack on his first play from scrimmage and Alexander had receiver Deebo Samuel blanketed on a key third down late in the game that caused Garoppolo to hold the ball and get sacked. These are two guys who were hurt before the leaves were falling, so they were only going to get better with each game they played.
The defense sacked Garoppolo four times and picked him off once. It held the combination of Samuel and Elijah Mitchell to 92 yards rushing on 27 carries (3.4 average). The week before against Dallas, the two combined for 168 yards on 37 carries (4.5 average) and two touchdowns.
Maybe Tom Brady or Matthew Stafford would have produced more points and yards against the Packers, but Joe Barry’s unit played hard for him and with a couple more pieces could be better than its No. 9 rating in total yards and 14th rating in points.
“Yeah, 100%, I think we’ve got a lot of players coming back, a lot of good, building blocks, a lot of young guys that are building into leaders and are already leaders,” Clark said. “We definitely as a defense got a lot of stuff to look forward to just based off our talent, the young guys that we got this that’s coming up.
“You know Eric Stokes played really well this year. Jaire, RG, myself, (Darnell) Savage, we’ve got a lot of guys that are young and growing into leaders. So, I’m excited about it.”
Gutekunst doesn’t have to start over if he trades his quarterback and best receiver.
He has the makings of a very good defense and that can be enough to get to the playoffs, where 11-7 teams can come to town and knock off a 13-4 team with homefield advantage.