
Despite the struggles of its top pass rushers, the Green Bay Packers have been a formidable defense this season.
Leading the NFL with 17 takeaways through Week 7, Green Bay has been benefiting from forced turnovers. This has resulted in a differential of +6, which is good enough to tie the team for third place in the league. The Packers are aware that they must improve better rushing opposing quarterbacks off the edge in order to maintain the defense as effective in the latter part of the season as it has been thus far. However, depending only on turnovers to carry the defense is a risky position to be in.
But that doesn’t mean Green Bay hasn’t been packing the pocket with quarterbacks. Currently tied for seventh place, the Packers have accumulated 20 sacks this season. The players the team is paying to reach those figures, though, haven’t been performing up to par with their contracts.
As a result, on October 23, ESPN’s Seth Walder proposed a trade proposal in which the Packers would acquire Carolina Panthers player Jadeveon Clowney.
According to Walder, “the Packers rank 30th in pass rush win rate, and Rashan Gary and [Preston] Smith rank 39th and 43rd out of 50 qualifiers at edge.” “I’m sure Green Bay would like to rely more on 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, but if he qualified for that same list, he’d be tied for 47th.” Clowney, 31, is currently playing in Carolina on a two-year contract worth a total of $20 million.
Jameveon Clowney Among the Top NFL Pass Rushers in 2023
Despite being the first overall choice of the Houston Texans in the 2014 draft and a three-time Pro Bowler, Clowney hasn’t been very impressive off the edge this season, with just two tackles for loss and one sack.
But just last season, when playing for the Baltimore Ravens, Clowney recorded a pass rush win rate of 25%, which tied him with Pittsburgh Steelers standout T.J. Watt for fifth place in the league. Clowney tied for a career-high 9.5 sacks at the end of the season and has amassed 53.5 sacks overall.
The same multi-author article where Walder recommended Green Bay pursue Clowney also revealed that the Packers had already started marketing Smith, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Smith earns more than Clowney and is signed to a $52 million contract.
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