The Packers have had one major weakness in the years following their Super Bowl win over the Steelers. The Defense. The team has moved through scheme, personnel, and coaches trying to recapture the ingredient that propelled that 2010 team to history. They’ve begun that search again with Jeff Hafley’s new look defense.

The results so far have been mixed to say the least. There’s flashes of what could be every week. Given the amount of investment that’s been made on the defense it’s hard to call the results so far great.

What’s working, what isn’t, and why? What’s going on with the defense right now can actually be summarized through the play of two of the most expensive players on the team for better and worse.

The Better:

It’s almost beating a dead horse at this point, but:

Five interceptions in five games is ludicrous.

The very best defenses in the NFL on a year to year basis usually have two things going for them. First, they have one or two stars that are true game changers at their positions. The Niners have Warner and Greenlaw, the Jets have Sauce and Williams, the Chiefs had Jones and Sneed. The Packers have Xavier McKinney. Interceptions can be a fickle thing however. Just how good has McKinney been overall?

These aren’t just good numbers. These are All-Pro, DPOY level numbers to go along with the absurd interception count. Add a recovered fumble to the tally and McKinney is responsible for 6 turnovers, which is as many or more than two thirds of the teams in the league have in their entirety.

The Packers have fourteen turnovers through five games. A team hasn’t done that since the Bills in 2021. If you told me before the season that number, I’d assume that the defense was performing at the very least as a top half of the league unit. So why hasn’t it? I mentioned above that the truly good defenses in the league have two things. The first is stars. The second is a dominant “unit”. By that I mean a team can point to a group on it’s defense as the catalyst for it’s success. More often then not it’s either the defensive line, or the secondary.

McKinney’s play has kept the Packers secondary afloat with the injuries at the corner spots between Jaire Alexander and Carrington Valentine. But it’s hardly been a dominant unit. Coming into the season, I and many others placed our hopes for the defense on the defensive line. Last season the line ranked 6th in pressures by DVOA, with rookies playing a big role that one hoped would improve going into their second season.

Unfortunately the line, and by extension the pass rush, has been anemic this year. The biggest reason? As I said at the top, the performance of the defense can be looked at through the lens of two players. Xavier McKinney has done his part, which leads us to this player.

The Worse

Rashan Gary has all but disappeared this season. Drafted to be ‘the’ edge rusher of the future, Gary’s lead up to this season has mostly been viewed through the lens of his “potential”. Gary has never produced the raw sack numbers that you would want from a guy making the money he does, but you could always point to pressures as the mark he could make on the game. This year?

To be clear, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Kenny Clark has not played up to his standards, Preston Smith has had a quiet year, and Lukas Van Ness hasn’t shown much development from last year. Gary however is supposed to be that second star that makes defenses great.

So what’s the reason? It could be the switch in scheme. Gary had been playing in a more stand up OLB position prior to this season. The thought was that letting him get his hand back in the dirt would lead to better production, but obviously that hasn’t been the case. Some might point to the contract he signed, and how some players fall can fall off after getting paid. There is also examples of teams going out of their way to slow him down – and when that’s the case it’s fair to look at those players mentioned above and ask why they aren’t taking advantage.

Then there’s little things like this:

If the Packers hopes to field a Super Bowl level defense this year, nothing is more important then getting Gary back on track. To be clear I think they can. Nothing about Gary’s time in Green Bay leads me to believe he’s the type of guy to mail it in after a contract. Players can have bad stretches. The Packer go against the Cardinals this week, their offensive line is suspect, and they just lost one of their starting guards for the year. It’s the type of game Gary, and the rest of the d-line, need to make their presence felt in. If they can, I expect a convincing win at home this week. If not, then Green Bay may need to start reevaluating their plans for both the season and the longer term future.