Grading the Packers on Salary-Cap Curve: Inside Linebackers

While Christian Kirksey failed to replace Blake Martinez, the Packers received some promising play from rookies Krys Barnes and Kamal Martin.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Player grades are a staple series of stories at the end of every season. Ours are different, as we grade based on their impact compared to the salary cap. That’s because the cap is such a big part of building a roster. Not only must a team’s high-priced players deliver but it must have some of its less-expensive players outperform their contracts. Generally, the Green Bay Packers got those contributions on the way to a second consecutive NFC Championship Game.

Part 8 of this series focuses on the inside linebackers. All salary data is from OverTheCap.com.

Christian Kirksey

No. 26 among off-the-ball linebackers with $4,687,500 cap charge

No linebacker in the NFL had more tackles than former Packers starter Blake Martinez from 2017 through 2019. But, with a fleeting number of impact plays, the Packers let him sign with the Giants on a three-year, $30.75 million contract that is expected to give Green Bay a fourth-round compensatory pick in April.

General manager Brian Gutekunst filled the hole in the lineup by adding Kirksey, who put up some big seasons in Cleveland but had played in only nine of a possible 32 games the previous two seasons.

Martinez had a typical Martinez season with 151 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, one interception, five passes defensed and nine tackles for losses. He had four more TFLs and three more passes defensed than he did with Green Bay in 2019. Kirksey, meanwhile, missed five games due to injury and tied for second on the team with 78 tackles. His tackle rate was one for every 7.03 snaps. He added two sacks, two interceptions and four passes defensed. Of the 100 linebackers to play at least 99 run-defending snaps, he finished 73rd in PFF’s run-stop percentage, a metric that essentially measures impact tackles. He missed 11 tackles, or 12.6 percent of his attempts, according to Sports Info Solutions. In the playoffs, he was limited to part-time duty behind an undrafted free agent with a broken thumb.

Grade: D.

Oren Burks

No. 76 with $980,189 cap charge

In the 2018 draft, Gutekunst sacrificed his fourth- and fifth-round picks to move up 13 spots and into the third round to get Burks. The Packers essentially admitted it screwed up that decision by, A, signing Kirksey, B, moving two rookies ahead of him on the depth chart and, C, giving him some snaps at outside linebacker.

Burks played a measly 96 snaps on defense – giving him a three-year total of just 275 – and contributed 11 tackles, one tackle for loss and one pass breakup. He averaged a tackle for every 8.73 snaps. On special teams, he ranked second on the team with 10 tackles and added another forced fumble. The team would save $945,000 of cap space by cutting its losses.

Grade: F.

Ty Summers

No. 139 with $699,476 cap charge

Summers plays at 100 mph. That was evident in his production. In 176 defensive snaps, he recorded 27 tackles. That’s a tackle rate of one for every 6.52 snaps. For comparison, Martinez averaged one tackle for every 6.50 snaps for the Giants.

Reliability, however, made him more of an option of last resort when injuries struck those ahead of him on the depth chart. When he was in the game, opposing quarterbacks played catch with whatever receiver was in Summers’ zone. According to PFF, he allowed 23-of-24 passing in 112 coverage snaps. Of 109 off-the-ball linebackers to play at least 60 coverage snaps, Summers was right at the bottom with 4.9 snaps per coverage snap. He missed five tackles (11.4 percent), according to SIS.

Summers led the team with 12 tackles on special teams. That’s not a bad return on investment for a seventh-round pick.

Grade: C-minus.

Kamal Martin

No. 153 with $640,706 charge

The Packers grabbed Martin in the fifth round, hoping for a value pick on a prospect who missed a big chunk of his final season at Minnesota due to a knee injury. He was on his way to being a Week 1 starter before a knee injury required surgery and kept him on the sideline to start the season.

In 10 games that included six starts, he had 23 tackles, one sack and three tackles for losses. Having played 190 defensive snaps, his tackle rate was 8.26. Despite the limited action, his six stuffs (a tackle at or behind the line of scrimmage) led the position group and ranked fourth on the team. Of the 100 linebackers to play at least 99 run-defending snaps, he finished 34th in PFF’s run-stop percentage. He missed far too many tackles (five misses or 17.2 percent, according to SIS).

His packages mostly put him on the field on running downs. When he was on the field on passing downs, he frequently was sent on blitzes to varying degrees of success. If he can use his length and instincts to become a quality pass defender, the Packers might have something. The early signs are encouraging.

Grade: C.

Krys Barnes

No. 165 with $610,000 cap charge

Barnes went from not making the opening roster to starting in Week 1. An undrafted free agent from UCLA, it would be Barnes and not first-round pick Jordan Love who would lead the Bakersfield High School contingent in snaps and impact. Barnes tied veteran Christian Kirksey for second on the team with 78 tackles. Considering Barnes played 127 fewer snaps than Kirksey, it was no contest in determining the team’s most impactful linebacker.

The key number is Barnes’ 5.40 snaps per tackle. In 2019, Martinez averaged 6.61 snaps per tackle. The 2020 tackles leader was Zach Cunningham of the Texans, who had 163. His per-snap rate was 5.80.

Barnes’ average tackle came 3.5 yards downfield; Martinez’s average stop was 4.5 yards downfield in 2019 and 4.3 yards for his career. Barnes had four stuffs, five tackles for losses and one huge forced fumble at the goal line against Carolina. Of the 100 linebackers to play at least 99 run-defending snaps, Barnes finished sixth in PFF’s run-stop percentage. (Martinez was 17th.) He missed eight tackles, an acceptable missed-tackle rate of 9.1 percent, according to SIS.

On the other hand, he gave up 32-of-35 passing. Of the 109 linebackers with at last 60 coverage snaps, he ranked 103rd in snaps per reception. Barnes had a knack for breaking up passes in college but didn’t get his hands on a single ball. Amazingly, even with a broken thumb that basically left him playing one-handed for the playoffs, he held onto the every-down role. The future is bright. Just how bright will determine where inside linebacker ranks on the Packers’ offseason to-do list.

Grade: B-plus.