Green Bay Packers: Offseason roster cut candidates
By Kenn Korb
Letroy Guion
2016 Statistics
Regular Season (15 games; 450 snaps): 30 tackles (20 solo), 1 pass defensed
Playoffs (3 games; 75 snaps): 4 tackles (1 solo)
PFF* Rankings: 50.1 (overall), 75.7 (run defense), 46.1 (pass rush), 60.8 (coverage)
Contract Details**
Remaining Length/Cost: 2 years/$7,533,334 remaining
Potential Cap Gain/Dead Money: $3,283,332/$333,334
A release of Guion wouldn’t carry anywhere near the level of intrigue as a move on Matthews, but it does stand as one which is eminently more of a possibility.
He did not have a great year in 2016, easily getting outshone by the other players in his unit throughout the season. Per PFF, the other three defensive lineman receiving 200+ snaps (Mike Daniels, Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry) all graded out as at least average in their time on the field, and even little-used Christian Ringo managed to do so as well in his 77 snaps. Guion meanwhile could muster no better than a poor overall showing, led mainly by a terrible showing on passing downs.
He does have at least a couple things working in his favor for staying around, however.
For one, while other options would be cheaper, his cost isn’t onerous by any means. He also did just sign on for three years prior to last season; unless Green Bay is absolutely appalled by his lack of pass rushing production, there isn’t much reason based solely on what he brings to the table to get rid of him. His pass rush production was ugly, but his run defense contributions were decent and helped the team get out to their record-level showing against the run to begin the season before they slowly reverting to being a top-third unit across the entire year.
Perhaps most worryingly, if he were to be released, that would leave the Packers with only Daniels as a veteran on a suddenly-very-young defensive line rotation (Clark and Lowry both were rookies in 2016, while Ringo was essentially one himself too).
As with Matthews, I don’t expect a move to be made here. It could though, and there’s enough evidence working against Guion which wouldn’t necessarily make it an overall terrible decision. We’d just have to hope his intangible impact doesn’t outweigh his calculable on-field production.