While watching the Green Bay Packers battle the New York Jets

last Sunday in a game that ultimately meant little to both non-playoff contending teams Brett Hundley Color Rush Jersey , the glimpse of a familiar face was caught on the MetLife Stadium sidelines between plays: former Green Bay outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene.After a three-year hiatus from the NFL, Greene returned to the league in a similar role coaching the outside ‘backers for the Jets in 2017 and remains on a defensive staff that, like Green Bay’s, may be on its way out in less than a week. In the midst of what has been a disappointing season from the Packers’ outside linebacking crew in generating pressure, seeing Greene on the sidelines evoked a sense of “what-if.” What if Greene had not surprisingly left Green Bay following the 2013 season, giving way to Winston Moss? Would the Packers’ defense be in a better shape now had there been continuity for the OLB unit, perhaps the most vital position in the 3-4 system?With the stability of Dom Capers as Defensive Coordinator spanning a wide range of years before and after Greene’s departure, that answer may not be as clear-cut as initially thought. Here are comparisons based on two important stats: sacks and quarterback hits.Kevin Greene (2009-2013)Greene oversaw a Packer linebacker corps that included a young Clay Matthews, who reached four Pro Bowls in a five-year stretch, but also a large number of undrafted free agents. Green Bay won a Super Bowl during the 2010 season, boasted a 15-1 record in 2011, and only tallied less than 10 wins once in that span. While some of those feats, as well as a top offense, could mask some of the Packers’ deficiencies on defense, Green Bay’s outside linebackers were not as dangerous during Greene’s tenure as one might think. The Packers, more or less, had a classic “bend-but-don’t-break” defense during Greene’s years in Green Bay, but they really lacked a dynamic pass rusher opposite Matthews. Mike Neal’s five sacks in 2013 were the most for an edge rusher in that timeframe, with Frank Zombo, Dezman Moses, and Brad Jones a close second at four sacks apiece. In fact, a monumental reason why the Super Bowl champion Packers were able to become what they were in 2010 was due to the pass rush from other positions in Capers’ scheme. Cullen Jenkins brought seven sacks from the five-technique https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Kyle-Murphy-Jersey , while B.J. Raji added 6.5 sacks from the nose and Zombo notched his four as a rotational player on the other end from Matthews, who tallied 13.5. As seen below from Pro Football Reference, the Packers recorded Greene-era highs of 89 quarterback hits and 47 sacks during the 2010 season despite just 37 hits and 21.5 sacks from the outside linebackers. OLB Pass Rush Under Kevin GreeneYearTeam QB HitsTeam SacksOLB QB HitsOLB SacksClay Matthews SacksYearTeam QB HitsTeam SacksOLB QB HitsOLB SacksClay Matthews SacksBut outside the 2012 season, the Packers really struggled to get to the quarterback during Greene’s stint. The 2011 season was abysmal in that the entire defense registered only 29 total sacks and 70 total hits, with just 11 sacks and 42 hits coming from the outside linebackers. Really astounding was Greene’s last season in 2013 when the Packer defense was relatively all-or-nothing when rushing the passer. As a team, the Packers recorded 44 sacks among their 63 quarterback hits, with the outside linebackers producing 21 sacks on just 28 hits! As ESPN notes, “players who have a disproportionately high or low percentage of sacks per knockdown are likely to see their sack total rise or fall accordingly the following year.” That indeed was the case and will be mentioned below, but although Aaron Rodgers’ injury that season severely impacted time of possession, the Packers still struggled greatly to generate consistent pass rush outside of their sacks.Winston Moss (2014-2018)Although Rodgers was injured in parts of Moss’ tenure in Green Bay as well, the Packers’ outside linebackers became a much larger focal point of the pass rush.Moss was instantly aided by the addition of Julius Peppers in the 2014 offseason, finally giving the Packers a bookend rusher to help Matthews. Peppers gave the Packers 24.5 sacks over three seasons and was a catalyst for helping the Packers increase their quarterback hits and sacks overall. Excluding a shortened 2018 season, Green Bay never saw the OLBs record fewer than 53 quarterback hits under Moss’ leadership, a single-year total higher than any year under Greene. Four full seasons under Moss saw the Packers average 26.3 sacks and 58.3 hits from the outside linebackers compared to just 19.7 sacks and 41.1 hits under five seasons of Greene. OLB Pass Rush Under Winston MossYearTeam QB HitsTeam SacksOLB QB HitsOLB SacksClay Matthews SacksYearTeam QB HitsTeam SacksOLB QB HitsOLB SacksClay Matthews SacksWhile the acquisition of Peppers and emergence of Nick Perry certainly helped the Packers over the past five years, the pass rush improvement from the unit after the coaching change is staggering. Even in what was considered a “down” season in 2017, the Packers’ outside linebackers were still on par with any unit of Greene’s tutelage.And while the negative outlier of the 2018 season certainly has caused a stir among the Packer faithful, the Packers, by the numbers, have actually created more pass rush in the latter half of the decade from their OLBs than the former. This year, their production has merely reverted back to many seasons under Greene - seasons that many people on the surface may have considered the Packers’ glory days of the past decade. Final ThoughtsNeither Greene nor Moss were given many high-level prospectsBoth coordinators had the luxury of gaining high-impact players immediately. Greene with Matthews and Moss with Peppers. But outside of that, the talent level was marginal. Green Bay did draft two players with a premium draft pick to help Greene - Jones and Perry - but both provided inconsistent production or relatively none. Moss, on the other hand Justin Vogel Jersey , was never given a high draft pick unless you count Fackrell in the third round. It is a perplexing concept, as the Packers have gone to the first-round cornerback well so many times over the past decade to alleviate defensive concerns, yet have neglected adding pass rushers. Unlike the New York Giants of the early 2010s or last year’s Philadelphia Eagles, the Packers were rather complacent with the pass rush group they had. A positive pass rushing season at outside linebacker, especially in Moss’ time, led to almost no new influx of talent at the position. That approach finally started to catch up to the Packers in 2017 when Peppers left as a free agent and in 2018 when they added little outside depth. This year’s crop of edge rushing talent in the draft could give the Packers a chance to right some of those wrongs.The impact of a proven free agent can lead to quick changesGreen Bay’s outside linebacker pass rush improved both immediately and dramatically when it welcomed Julius Peppers in 2014. Of course, the Packers did not strike the same kind of gold when they signed an aging Ahmad Brooks in 2017. But for a team like the 2018 Packers, a proven commodity could help enact fast change. In free agency, younger players such as Jadeveon Clowney, Demarcus Lawrence, and Dee Ford could hit the open market in 2019. It has not been Packer-like to sign marquee free agents like these since the splashes of 2006, but the second year of Brian Gutekunst as General Manager could have a surprise in store.Moss might have had more talent to work with than Greene, but he ultimately cultivated the most position-specific results.Moss’ abrasive personality toward the end of his run in Green Bay was a distraction, but his units were either more or just as productive as any Packers outside linebacking crew of the past decade. I give Greene plenty of credit for trying to develop former undrafted free agents into contributors and former defensive ends like Aaron Kampman into edge-rushing linebackers. That Kampman recorded 16 quarterback hits in 2009 after standing up for the first time actually is quite remarkable. But in the end, Moss helped Perry and Peppers transition from ends to linebackers as well and made the most of the talent he was given, even if many Packer fans like myself did not realize or appreciate it. The first snippet emerged on Friday, and it wasn’t a great look for a franchise quarterback with a propensity for passive-aggressive commentary. The full story has now landed, and it’s clear that both Packers coach Matt LaFleur and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers currently don’t see eye-to-eye regarding the issue of audibles, and that they’re not bashful about publicly discussing it.“Aaron and I have had some good talks, and we’re going to have to talk a lot more — and one thing we have to work through is the audible thing,” LaFleur told Mike Silver of NFL Media. “We’re running a system I first picked up while working with Kyle [Shanahan] in Houston a decade ago, and we’ve never really had a quarterback who’s had complete freedom to change plays at the line Justin McCray Color Rush Jersey , because that’s not really the way the offense is set up. But, I mean, this is Aaron Rodgers. He’s had a lot of freedom to make those calls, and deservedly so. Now, how do we reconcile that, and get to a place where we put him in the best position to succeed?”However they do it, it’s clear that Rodgers wants more control than the offense currently gives him. Here’s the full version of the quote that made a stir over the weekend.“It’s a conversation in progress,” Rodgers told Silver. “I don’t think you want to ask me to turn off 11 years [of recognizing defenses]. We have a number of ‘check with mes’ and line-of-scrimmage stuff. It’s just the other stuff that really not many people in this league can do. That’s not like a humble brag or anything; that’s just a fact. There aren’t many people that can do at the line of scrimmage what I’ve done over the years. I mean, obviously, Tommy [Brady] can do it, no doubt. Peyton [Manning] could do it. Drew [Brees] can do it. [Patrick] Mahomes will be able to do it. Ben [Roethlisberger] has called the two-minute for years. There are a few of us who’ve just done it. It’s kind of second nature. And that’s just the icing on the cake for what I can do in this offense.”The real question is whether LaFleur wants his cake to be iced.“[W]e pride ourselves on having concepts that have answers for whatever,” LaFleur said. “Now, it might not always be the best answer, but you have an answer. But when there are plays that are called that have maybe not a very good answer, we typically call two plays and we run one or the other, based upon the look that the defense is giving us. The quarterback chooses, and there are criteria: We try to teach him the criteria for why we would want this play over the other play.”There’s the core of the debate. LaFleur’s system has two plays and one or the other is used. Rodgers would like to have the freedom to broaden that menu. The challenge for LaFleur will be to get Rodgers to buy in to the approach, and then to perhaps exercise some discretion when it’s time to go through his reads.