The Green Bay Packers had the 31st-ranked passing defense in 2016. Their remedy for that was to draft cornerback Kevin King with their top pick and bring back veteran free agent Davon House.
The team also, inexplicably, released LaDarius Gunter, who finished 2016 as the team’s No. 1 corner. So how did those changes ultimately work out in 2017?
Not real well.
House was beat up for much of the season. King initially tried to play through a lingering shoulder injury and was eventually shut down for the season. After a slow start and a benching, former first-round pick Damarious Randall eventually came on. However, he appears to be the only sure thing when looking at the 2018 group. House will be a free agent. Also coming back from injury is former second-round pick Quinten Rollins, who looked horrible before getting injured.
Once again, it appears to be a group in flux. Throw out the injuries for a second. This was a group that just wasn’t good in 2017.
According to Next Gen Stats Packers’ corners allowed the worst passer rating (106.2) in the NFL when they were the nearest defender.
It gets better (or worse, actually). According to Football Outsiders, the Packers were the worst in the league at covering No. 1 receivers. They were 26th at covering No. 2 receivers.
It’s clear the Packers need to add an impact cornerback this offseason. Two guys on the free agent market that would fit the bill are the Patriots Malcolm Butler and the Rams Trumaine Johnson. Neither is going to come cheap, however. And it remains to be seen what flexibility general manager Brian Gutekunst will have now that both he and director of football operations (and holder of the pursestrings) Russ Ball report to president Mark Murphy.
I could absolutely see a scenario where Gutekunst wanted to pursue a guy and Ball thought he was too pricey. Then who makes the decision? The other money guy in the group, Mark Murphy, who has never been part of the football operations.
That said, barring injuries, the Packers may finally have a decent cornerback group with Randall, King and a player to be determined.
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Butler scares me. I wouldn’t touch him. Trumaine Johnson is probably the best available. But he will be $12 million at minimum, probably more. I would consider bringing House back, he is a press corner that will play in a defense that suits him.
With Marcus Peters potentially being on the trade block, do you take the risk and make a trade? I thInk Peters has one year left on his deal. He gets out of control on the field at times. I don’t think the chiefs trade with an AFC team.
Peters is a “talented” POS, always has been, going back to his college days. His own team probably doesn’t even want him. That would be a sad day seeing him in green and gold, imo.
Agreed Kato. House is relatively cheap, if he isn’t your starter, he’s good depth. The bottom line is the Packers need to hit on a cb in the draft, i don’t care what round (move up if you have to), then add another CB maybe in later rounds, or get a mid level free agent. Someone who can play without embarrassing themselves.
Where have we come, when we are proclaiming Damarius Randall being a “sure thing”? Really?
Aside from being able to tackle a relatively stationary receiver around the line of scrimmage, what have we seen from Kevin King? Here’s what i saw, even when healthy. Any receiver easily gets open against him after the line of scrimmage, watch the tape. All they have to do is fake and cut inside…BOOM…open receiver. King bites on it every time. Leaving him steps behind the receiver like he’s guarding the sideline. You’d think he’d know this by now, or learn from his coaches and watching the tape….but he doesn’t. The other flag on him is his frail body. His injuries aren’t exactly shocking to me. Yes, he’s long, he’s also skinny and frail. I won’t call him a bust yet, but…..
So where are we now? I’m guessing they are looking heavily at cb’s in the draft and free agency, for the 3rd straight draft. The problem with this team is they can’t fix a position on this team in a season. More times than not, it takes years. Hey…we still need a tight end right? It took years to get a good O-line. Then we finally have a good one, then they dismantle it….lol. Don’t let this current O line fool anyone, they gave up 51 sacks last season.
I’m not trying to shit on this team on purpose, but until they can show me they know what the fuck they are doing, it is what it is.
I don’t think Randall will play well in this defense. As a corner, he is better suited in a zone defense rather than press man. I still stand by my statement that he would make a better free safety. Probably better than HHCD
lol…i read that, and i all remember when the Packers play zone, is the corner coming off thinking a safety is over the top (and he rarely ever is), all the while the receiver being wide open for 20+. I used to lose my shit watching that, now i watch it and smh thinking it’s just another Packer game.
Everybody knows Teddy sucked dick, both literally and figuratively as a GM with very few exceptions. Blame Rodgers for keeping this piece of shit employed long enough to create a crater this team hopes to escape from. Now we’ll see if the defense is really as bad as it’s looked all these years or how much did Dr. Comb-Over add to it’s pathetic performance. Hard to say how bad these corners are because the front 7 with the exception of the two tackles sucks. However, it’s safe to say they’re not exactly shut down cb’s. Restructure some of these over the hill contracts (Mathews) and sign either Butler or Johnson. As much as Peters would love playing in Wisconsin, he’s just a tad fucking out of his mind:)
Great, I get to re-write my entire response because this page loves to act up.
Surprise surprise, the Packers cornerbacks are the worst in the league. Meanwhile, Casey Hayward is arguably the best CB in the NFL at least statistically. Micah Hyde is in the Pro Bowl for being one of the best safeties in the league while we’re stuck with Haha Clinton-Suck-Dix. And the only guy they had who was worth a shit in 2016, Gunter, was let go for no apparent reason. Yet, somehow Demetri Goodson is still on this team. Great fucking job guys! I don’t know how you do it, but each year this team is worse off than the last. It’s almost becoming a skill.
The Buffoon has ALWAYS kept and played favorites. Same shit until he is gone. There is effectively NO personnel changes that would make any sense until this High School Coach goes away. I would bet money that Buffoon had a say in all talent acquisition in the past 11 1/2 years. Look no further than his unwillingness to draft Aaron Rodgers while he was OC in San Francisco. The guy seems to lack the requisite personnel skills that are so essential to being a head coach in the NFL, and to that I blame TT (the frugal GM) and that newest of “outed” fucktards Mark Murphy . . .
LOL Sad but true
Sorry, “is” should be are . . .