Grading on Salary-Cap Curve: Defensive Line

Kenny Clark had an excellent season but nobody else stepped forward on the defensive line.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Player grades have long been a staple of postseason analysis. Ours are different. So much of building a team is doing it within the constraints of the salary cap. Teams need their big-money players to come up big and some bargain players to outplay their contracts. Thus, our annual grades are done on a salary-cap curve.

DEFENSIVE LINE

DEAN LOWRY

Cap: $3.646 million (41st among interior defensive linemen, according to OverTheCap.com)

Season: Just before the start of training camp, the Packers released veteran stalwart Mike Daniels and handed Lowry a three-year contract extension through the 2022 season worth $20.325 million. The Packers were right to get rid of Daniels, whose career has been derailed by injuries. The jury is out on whether they were right to cast their lot with Lowry. It wasn’t as if he had a bad year. Lowry finished seventh on the team with 62 tackles, by the coaches’ count. Having played 637 snaps, that equates to 10.27 snaps per tackle. He had eight stuffs on running plays, with a stuff being a tackle at or behind the line of scrimmage vs. the run, compared to seven last year. His average tackle limited the gain to a career-worst 2.6 yards, according to Sports Info Solutions. But he finished 11th in ProFootballFocus.com’s run-stop percentage, a stat that measures impact tackles (such as a first-and-10 tackle that holds the play to 3 yards or less). After recording seven sacks in his first three seasons, he didn’t have any in 2019. His pressure count fell from 29 to 20, according to Pro Football Focus. SIS charged him with three missed tackles.

Grade: C-minus.

KENNY CLARK

Cap: $2.979 million (49th at position)

Season: After a Pro Bowl season, a long-term and lucrative extension seems only a matter of time. Clark finished second on the team with 89 tackles. Having played 869 snaps, that equates to 9.76 snaps per tackle. He had a team-high 11 stuffs, up from eight last year. His average tackle limited the gain to 1.8 yards, according to Sports Info Solutions, by far the best on the team. SIS charged him with five missed tackles, more than everyone else on the line combined. That’s really the only blemish, though. Clark matched his career high with six sacks. Among the 82 defensive linemen who rushed the passer at least 200 times, Clark finished sixth in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity. His 62 total pressures trailed only Aaron Donald’s 80 and were only 15 less than Clark posted the last two years combined. Among the 63 defensive linemen who played at least 200 snaps of run defense, Clark finished seven in PFF’s run-stop percentage. Clark was the only interior defensive lineman in the NFL to finish in the top 16 in both stats. At just age 24, Clark is an accomplished player with many quality seasons in his future. He’s scheduled to play this season under the fifth-year team option of $7.69 million. “Kenny is a big part of what we do, very important to our defense,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said last week when asked about getting a deal done with Clark during the offseason. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to come to some agreement at some point. These things don’t happen quickly, usually. But I think the idea was always sometime this offseason we would start to approach that, and we will.”

Grade: A.

MONTRAVIUS ADAMS

Cap: $872,194 (93rd at position)

Season: A third-round pick in 2017 with huge athletic upside, Adams has been a colossal disappointment. He finished 17th on the team with 19 tackles. Having played 187 snaps, that equates to 9.94 snaps per tackle. While he was active with that snaps-per-tackle count, his average tackle was 3.8 yards downfield. He missed one tackle. Adams just hasn’t gotten better. In 2018, Adams had 26 tackles (coaches’ count), five stuffs (league stats) and six pressures (PFF). In 2019, he had the 19 tackles, one stuff and one pressure. That’s why he played only 31 snaps in the final six regular-season games, including one each against Minnesota and Detroit.

Grade: F.

KINGSLEY KEKE

Cap: $573,316 (136th at position)

Season: A fifth-round pick in 2019, Keke showed just enough potential and explosion during training camp and his limited playing time to make you think he could take a big second-year jump. Keke finished 19th on the team with 11 tackles. Having played 94 snaps, that equates to 9.55 snaps per tackle. However, his average tackle was 3.9 yards downfield, he recorded only one pressure and he failed to record a stuff on a running play. He didn’t miss any tackles.

Grade: D.

TYLER LANCASTER

Cap: $570,000 (139th at position)

Season: An undrafted free agent in 2018, Lancaster had a surprisingly strong rookie year. In 2019, he quickly surpassed Adams as the No. 3 on the defensive line but the role seemed a little too big. Lancaster finished 12th on the team with 36 tackles. Having played 381 snaps, that equates to 10.58 snaps per tackle. He had four stuffs. Last year, he opened the season on the practice squad and wound up with 32 tackles (8.47 snaps per tackle) and three stuffs in 12 games. His average tackle limited the gain to 2.0 yards, according to Sports Info Solutions. He didn’t miss any tackles and recorded the first 1.5 sacks of his career. Among the 63 defensive linemen who played at least 200 snaps of run defense, he finished 22nd in PFF’s run-stop percentage. Last year, he was second only to all-time run-stopper Damon Harrison.

Grade: C.

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