Heading into the season, many thought the Green Bay Packers would struggle to find any sort of success pressuring the quarterback.
Despite Micah Parsons' absence, though, the team has done just that and gotten help from a player who might have already proven he was taken too low in the draft: Dani Dennis-Sutton.
Dennis-Sutton, selected in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft, was someone many thought highly of ahead of the draft. Coming from a perennial prestige school like Penn State, Dennis-Sutton, or DDS as many refer to him, was viewed as a potential Day 2 pick. Instead, he surprisingly dropped to the 120th overall, where the Packers gladly took him.
Dani Dennis-Sutton is already becoming an impact player for the Packers
Throughout the offseason, Dennis-Sutton flashed potential but didn't get to show it much. The rookie didn't play much in spring training, leading many to wonder if he'd get much playing time in the regular season. Thankfully, he has, and he's almost immediately shown that he may end up being an absolute steal for the Packers when all is said and done.
In the team's 20-17 overtime win against the New York Jets last Sunday, Dennis-Sutton absolutely had himself a game. He had four pressures on just 18 pass-rush snaps, a sack, two hurries, and four tackles. Alongside Lukas Van Ness, Sutton was a key part of a Packers defense that absolutely helped save the game. According to data from PFF and SumerSports, Sutton is also in the top 15 of edge pass-rush win rate so far.
While those numbers will likely regress a bit given a larger sample size, it shows that Dennis-Sutton is far from a raw talent rookie. He has displayed a surprisingly high amount of skill in his limited reps and helped lead the Packers' pass-rush group to shocking numbers.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Packers have the third-highest quarterback pressure rate in the NFL, at 45.6 percent. Those numbers are even higher than they had last year with Parsons, and show a glimpse of just how potent the team's defense can be when Parsons returns.
While it's nice to look ahead and wonder what it might be like if Dennis-Sutton continues this play, it's important he do so in real games first. He's still yet to be given a full workload of snaps, but that might be coming given the way he's played so far.
Should DDS continue to shine, and if Van Ness' play continues to climb, then the Packers might go from having a pass rush group many thought would be in the bottom tier of the NFL, to it being the team's premier asset.
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