Packers’ season could depend on play of cornerbacks
Following a 27-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, many have credited Aaron Rodgers and the offense for keeping the the Green Bay Packers’ season alive.
But that’s missing the point. After sputtering earlier in the year, Rodgers, Jordy Nelson, and Davante Adams have been very productive for most of the last six weeks. While there will still be bumps in the road, the offense appears to have found a working formula for the rest of the year by largely abandoning the run and incorporating plenty of short, quick passes.
No, the fate of the Packers’ 2016 season will likely fall on a different group of shoulders: the cornerbacks.
Ted Thompson took a calculated gamble letting Casey Hayward leave in the offseason, and injuries have made him pay. Just as Jordy Nelson’s torn ACL crippled last year’s receivers, Sam Shields’ concussion has left the cornerbacks group reeling. Shields was one of the top players on the team, let alone cornerbacks.
With Damarious Randall also missing five weeks due to a groin injury, the secondary has been forced to rely largely on Ladarius Gunter, Quinten Rollins, and Micah Hyde.
The results haven’t been pretty. The pass defense currently ranks 21st in the NFL in yardage with 260.6 yards per game given up, and 16th in interceptions with eight. Over the course of the four game losing streak, they gave up an average of 310 passing yards per game.
With Randall’s return this past week, the Packers gave up just 254 yards. Randall helps so much because he’s by far the most athletic corner on the team save for Josh Hawkins, and he allows Quinten Rollins to move into his more natural position in the slot. He’s been an inconsistent player thus far in his career prone to giving up big plays, but he also has the best ball skills in the secondary and is the best corner at producing turnovers. He will need to sustain a quality level of play and quickly emerge into a true No. 1 corner in the coming weeks.
But Randall is just one piece of the puzzle. The rest of the corners need to play much, much better in the coming weeks. Gunter, Rollins and Hyde are ranked 55th, 70th, and 88th, respectively, by Pro Football Focus (Randall, meanwhile, is a brutal 116th). While those grades can’t be taken as gospel, they are an accurate representation of the shaky play that those three have produced this year.
Davante Adams, Jared Abbrederis and Jeff Janis didn’t make the famed second-year jump last season. Randall, Rollins and Gunter need to step up.
The Packers don’t face too many explosive passing attacks down the stretch, with the Seahawks ranking the highest at 14th. And the Texans this coming Sunday rank a lowly 31st. But the 20th-ranked Titans passing attack put up 47 points on this Packers defense. Every week has the potential to be a challenge for Dom Capers and his inexperienced, shorthanded unit.
The receivers facing the Packers the rest of this season include the likes of DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, Doug Baldwin, Stefon Diggs and Marvin Jones. If Dom Capers can trust the corners even occasionally to play one-on-one coverage without safety help, that will help the defense in myriad ways. Dependable cornerback play allows a defense to blitz more, play more aggressive run defense, and vary coverages to confuse quarterbacks.
Next: Packers Perspective: The First Step to the Crown
This team has plenty of other things to be concerned about, including the complete lack of a rushing offense and a regressing rushing defense. But Aaron Rodgers gives the Packers a chance to win every single game for the rest of the season.
Rodgers is confident this team can run the table, but he can’t do it himself. It will be largely up to the young corners to turn the quarterback’s bold prediction into a reality.