Are the Packers willing to go small to add a huge impact on their pass rush?

Brian Gutekunst has traditionally prized size on the edge. But Jeff Hafley's scheme has worked for teams will smaller pass rushers and Green Bay could use a boost.

Size matters. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t. I’m talking, of course, about pass rushers where Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst seeks out the biggest athletic outliers he can find on God’s green earth. But Jeff Hafley brought a style of defense that has thrived with smaller, speedier pass rushers off the edge. In an offseason where free agency and the draft provide opportunities to bolster an underwhelming group, the Packers would be wise to consider downsizing.

Jason laid out the case for prioritizing athleticism over production in collegiate pass rushers, but it’s not just athleticism that matters. The Relative Athletic Score system uses size as an input. Height and weight factor into that calculation.

Here are the edge defenders, across two different defensive coordinators, Gutekunst has used premium capital to acquire:

Preston Smith 6-foot-5 265

Za’Darius Smith 6-foot-4 270

Rashan Gary 6-foot-5 277

Lukas Van Ness 6-foot-5 272

The year Gutekunst took over, the Packers started Clay Matthews and Nick Perry on the edge with Kyler Fackrell putting together one of the flukiest 10-sacks seasons in NFL history. Gutekunst let Matthews, a folk hero in Green Bay, hit free agency. Perry never played football again. Fackrell walked a year later.

The overhaul began with the Smith Bros and Gary. This was a team built in Gutekunst’s vision. He signed Whitney Mercilus in-season to make a playoff push, but Mercilus is 6-foot-4, 258 pounds and was going to play outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme mostly as a sub-package rusher.

Jonathan Garvin was a late-round swing but he was nearly 260 pounds at 6-foot-4. Ditto for Kingsley Enagbare. In fact, the “smallest” player to be a part of a regular rotation on the edge since Fackrell is Brenton Cox at 6-foot-4, 250 pounds.

It’s just not just about size here either. They need diversity. The Packers have brutes on the edge. Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness tower over mere mortals

They’re built like the Greek gods of bull rush.

Enagbare isn’t far behind but the only speed the team has is Cox who exploded onto the pass-rush scene this past season after the Preston Smith trade (another monster edge defender). Cox is a solid athlete, not a first-step maven with burst and bend around the corner.

Adding a player with some speed and burst would complement the types of players already on the roster. It’s not a coincidence Arron Mosby made the 2024 Packers and got some opportunities despite his size (6-foot-3 250). He offers some twitch to this pass-rush room.

And if we think of Hafley as being on the Robert Saleh tree, a variation of the old Legion of Boom Seahawks defense requires disruptive players off the edge, we’ve seen that version of the defense succeed with smaller edge players.