Packer Central

Packers Star Rashan Gary Suffers Torn ACL

The Green Bay Packers' leading pass rusher, fourth-year pro Rashan Gary, suffered a torn ACL against the Detroit Lions.

Bill Huber

SOMEWHERE IN MICHIGAN – Could it get any worse for the Green Bay Packers than losing to the Detroit Lions? Of course it could.

During that 15-9 loss on Sunday, star outside linebacker Rashan Gary sustained a torn ACL, a source said in confirming national reports. Obviously, he will miss the rest of the season. A rapid recovery could get him on the field for the start of next season.

Gary was injured on the first defensive snap of the third quarter, a harmless change of direction changing the course of his career.

Through nine games, Gary leads the team with six sacks and 12 quarterback hits. According to Pro Football Focus, he ranks ninth among edge rushers with 35 pressures. Of 64 edge defenders with at least 150 snaps rushing the passer, Gary ranks fifth in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap, and ninth in pass-rush win rate (20.2 percent).

Gary was the team’s first pick in the 2019 draft, general manager Brian Gutekunst betting on Gary’s vast potential over his mediocre production at Michigan. Gutekunst won that bet last season, when Gary emerged as one of the NFL’s breakout players. Along with his team-high 9.5 sacks, he ranked second among edge defenders in pressures (81) and pass-rush win rate (26.0 percent), according to PFF.

Gary entered the season set to cement his star status.

“I want to be the best at my position,” Gary said. “When you say things like that, that’s where I want to be is be able to be top of the categories and things. But my No. 1 thing is bringing a ring back. So, I’m not really into all that, how people are looking at me. I’m into whatever I’ve got to do for this team so we can bring back the ring.”

The Packers are 3-6, their season going nowhere, but the injury is a devastating blow. He is one of the most irreplaceable players on the roster. Gary will play next season under the fifth-year option of a fully guaranteed $10.892 million, then is scheduled to hit free agency after the 2023 season.

Green Bay has a solid starter in Preston Smith. From there, promising rookie fifth-round pick Kingsley Enagbare – who had sacks in Week 6 against the Jets and Week 7 against the Commanders and would have had another on Sunday if not for a bogus roughing-the-passer penalty – figures to move into the starting lineup. Jonathan Garvin, a healthy scratch the previous two weeks but active against Detroit, and La’Darius Hamilton, a practice-squad player who was ahead of Garvin on the depth chart at Washington, will provide the depth.

“He’s been getting better week in and week out,” Gary said of Enagbare on Thursday. “He’s starting to understand the standard of our room and being an outside linebacker here and understanding what it means to be a Packer. I’m just happy that, the more reps that he gets, that he’s taking full advantage. You see him getting better on the practice field, and what he does on the practice field translates to the game field. I’m just happy for his success. He’s a hungry player.”

Inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, who suffered a relatively minor knee injury at Buffalo last week, took to Twitter to blame artificial-turf fields.

Gary was one of several key players to drop out of the game. Receiver Romeo Doubs (ankle), cornerback Eric Stokes (ankle/knee) and running back Aaron Jones (ankle) joined Gary in leaving Ford Field with the aid of crutches and/or wearing walking boots.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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