After quietly productive season, Packers trade Gilbert to Titans

Will GM Brian Gutekunst go with only his Big Four or will one of four undrafted rookies make the roster?

Kyler Fackrell is the last man standing from last year’s Green Bay Packers outside linebacker corps following Wednesday’s trade of Reggie Gilbert to the Tennessee Titans.

According to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter, the Packers will receive a seventh-round pick in return.

Gilbert went undrafted in 2016 after starting 47 games as a defensive lineman at the University of Arizona. He spent his rookie season and most of the 2017 campaign on the Packers’ practice squad while turning himself into an outside linebacker. Promoted to the active roster for a Week 16 game against Minnesota, Gilbert had a rousing debut with four quarterback pressures. A week later against Detroit, he recorded his first NFL sack.

Gilbert’s production last season wasn’t quite as dramatic but he was quietly productive. While he had only 2.5 sacks in 16 games, he had 21 quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. That was the same number as Fackrell, though Fackrell turned his pressures into 10.5 sacks. Gilbert added 44 tackles. Only Fackrell (51) had more tackles among the outside linebackers. On a per-snap basis, Gilbert’s rate of 11.0 snaps per tackle was better than Fackrell (12.0), Nick Perry (12.1) and Clay Matthews (18.4).

General manager Brian Gutekunst blew up the outside linebacker group in the offseason with the free-agent additions of Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith and a first-round pick used on Rashan Gary to replace the past-their-prime duo of Matthews and Perry. The Smiths, Gary and Fackrell are the new faces of the position group. The only question is whether the Packers will keep a fifth, with that player coming from the undrafted free-agent group of Randy Ramsey, Markus Jones, Greg Roberts and recently added James Folston.

Gilbert outplayed all of them throughout the offseason and, with two sacks, into the preseason but he’s probably maximized his potential. With a solid and potentially formidable four players atop the depth chart, perhaps Gutekunst is going with upside over proven commodity. Or, maybe Gutekunst will simply go with his Big Four and stash a player or two on the practice squad.

Ramsey (6-3, 238) is short on size but long on quickness. He had 19 sacks in his final three seasons at Arkansas and one in the preseason. Roberts (6-5, 258) had $70,000 of his base salary guaranteed – an unprecedented move by the Packers for an undrafted rookie – but he missed almost all of the offseason and the entire training camp and preseason with a core-muscle injury. He had 15.5 sacks his final three seasons at Baylor. Folston (6-3, 233) had just 1.5 sacks for his career at Pittsburgh; he is the son of eight-year NFL veteran James Folston Sr. Jones (6-3, 249) was the Division II Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 after a staggering 17.5 sacks and 36.5 tackles for losses. Folston was signed initially by the Cardinals while Jones originally signed with the Ravens.

In the video above, Gutekunst mentioned Ramsey when asked about the impact of this year’s undrafted class, perhaps giving a hint of which direction he’s leaning if he keeps a fifth outside linebacker on the roster.