Packers Training Camp Preview: Outside Linebackers

In Part 7 of a series of Green Bay Packers training camp positional previews, it’s a look at the potentially powerful outside linebackers.

Preston Smith and Rashan Gary (Photo by Mike De Sisti/USA Today Sports Images)

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Just imagine the Green Bay Packers stopping the run and getting the opponent into third-and-8.

Rashan Gary is rushing from one edge and Preston Smith from the other. Lukas Van Ness, the talented first-round pick, is lurking in the middle. The quarterback is going to have to deal the ball quickly against Green Bay’s high-quality cornerbacks.

The potential is tantalizing but there are questions. In the seventh of a series of positional previews in advance of Packers training camp, here is a look at the outside linebackers.

Projected Opening Depth Chart

Starters: Preston Smith and Justin Hollins.

Backups: Kingsley Enagbare, La’Darius Hamilton, Lukas Van Ness, Jonathan Garvin, Brenton Cox, Keshawn Banks, Kenneth Odumegwu.

Physically unable to perform list: Rashan Gary.

Related Story: Projecting 2023 Training Camp Depth Charts

Position Group Ranking (out of 11)

Second.

Strength

Potentially overwhelming talent. Rashan Gary had six sacks in nine games while Preston Smith beat the even-year-jinx with 8.5 sacks. Had Gary not suffered his torn ACL, it’s easy to project them combining for 20 sacks.

Now, add in the first-round pick used on Lukas Van Ness, Justin Hollins’ surprise production as a midseason addition and a potential second-year jump from Kingsley Enagbare. With those three added to the mix, you’re talking about a productive five-man group that might be unrivaled in the NFL.

Weakness

The talent is only potentially overwhelming. Gary may or may not be on the field for Week 1. Regardless, an ACL often is a two-year injury – one year to get back on the field and another year to return to 100 percent. Smith will turn 31 in November. Van Ness has an elite combination of size and athleticism but will be playing a new role and was drafted because of potential as much as anything. Hollins has 9.5 sacks in four seasons and Enagbare had just one sack following Gary’s injury despite starting seven of the final eight games.

If Gary returns to anything approaching the form that had him collecting five sacks in the first four games of last season, this group will be a powerhouse. However, as the man who makes things go, the unit’s production might depend on Gary setting the tone.

Key Questions

Rashan Gary (Photo by Wm. Glasheen/USA Today Sports Images)

1. Will Rashan Gary be ready for Week 1 and when will he return to form?

2. When will Rashan Gary get his contract extension?

3. When will Lukas Van Ness become an impact player? Van Ness has an enormous amount of potential. When will he put it all together?

Over the last five drafts, only eight edge defenders had more than six sacks as a rookie. The Cowboys’ Micah Parsons (13), the Broncos’ Bradley Chubb (12), the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby (10), the 49ers’ Nick Bosa (9) and the Commanders’ Chase Young (7.5) were much more polished coming out of college than Van Ness.

“It takes time to establish and be a pass rusher in this league,” position coach Jason Rebrovich said at the start of OTAs. “As you guys have seen in college right now, there’s less and less passes. It’s a lot more quarterback movement [crap]. It’s just different. It takes time to understand how I set up a tackle, how do I go through a pass rush in my progression. So, there is a learning curve. You just don’t run around a block and, all of a sudden, ‘Holy cow, this happened.’”

4. Can Preston Smith deliver one more big season? At the ripe old age of 30, he is the oldest player on the defense.

“I think about it all the time,” Smith said during OTAs. “Like, dang. I wake up and I’m like, ‘I’m really old.’ I remember being that young kid walking in and you hear somebody say, ‘I’m on Year 8 or 9,’ you be like, ‘Damn, you’re old.’ Now, it’s like looking in the mirror. I’m like, ‘Damn, you’re old.’ It’s like looking back on my 22-year-old self, telling me I’m as old as hell in this league.”

Smith had a solid season with 8.5 sacks. Bigger things could be in store with the return of Gary and the addition of Van Ness.

5. Will Brenton Cox make the 53? Cox is one of the most intriguing undrafted players to join the Packers in years. He was a high school All-American who was good enough to start in the Sugar Bowl as a true freshman at Georgia. However, he was dismissed from Georgia after the 2018 season and Florida during the 2022 season.

Asked what rookies had impressed during the days when reporters weren’t allowed to watch, coach Matt LaFleur mentioned Van Ness, among others, as well as Cox.

“I remember when I got a phone list through this [draft] process,” Rebrovich said. “I called the young man and I said, ‘Hey, man, I don’t want nothing to know about football. I want to know who I’m going to get on a daily basis. Am I going to get this knucklehead that’s gone through this stuff or am I going to get a guy that wants to become a pro and have the opportunity to become a star in this league?’”

Smith sees the potential, as well. “He has a lot of ability, he has a lot of quick twitch. He has a lot of ability out there in the pass rush game. I see him doing some good things in the future.”

Biggest Battle

The next men up. For the sake of this, let’s assume Gary makes the opening roster and is on the field to start the season. Gary, Smith and Van Ness are locks to make the 53, and Enagbare and Hollins are good bets. That’s five. Will the Packers keep those five or is there room for a sixth?

There’s the aforementioned Cox. Jonathan Garvin, a seventh-round pick in 2020, is facing a make-or-break final season under contract after losing playing time in Year 3. La’Darius Hamilton has played in nine games in his two seasons. Undrafted free agent Keshawn Banks was a four-time all-conference player at San Diego State. And, who knows, maybe Nigeria’s Kenneth Odumegwu will be a natural.

Star Search

Lukas Van Ness. Even without a 10-sack season on his resume, Gary is a star. Can Van Ness follow a similar path from elite traits-based prospect to game-wrecker?

That’s obviously the goal for the man with a fun nickname.

“Lukas, we call him Hercules. It’s all in his name, man,” Gary said. “He gives effort, very strong and he’s hungry for knowledge. We see a kid like that that’s young, that’s hungry for knowledge and don’t think they got it made, that’s the type of kid we want and those are the type of kids we’ve been grabbing. Lukas is going to be one hell of a player for us.”

Like Gary at Michigan, Van Ness wasn’t a prolific defender at Iowa – though his 13.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for losses in two seasons were strong given his spot in the rotation. He might have been a top-five pick with another year of seasoning.

At 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds with 4.58 speed in the 40, the elevator is headed to the top floor. How long will it take to get there?

“I think it’s scary when you get a young player like that to kind of close your eyes and think what those guys will be three, four, five years down the road when they are 25, 26 years old,” defensive coordinator Joe Barry said at the start of OTAs.

While Gary and Smith are entrenched as the starters, there should be a road to early playing time for Van Ness. When general manager Brian Gutekunst made the selection, he envisioned a player in the mold of Za’Darius Smith with the ability to rush the passer from here, there and everywhere.

“He’s a big, explosive guy that I think will be able to have some versatility,” Barry said. “Athletic enough that we’ll be able to stand him up and play him on the edge, but also big and physical enough that we’ll be able to kind of move him up and down, all over the line.”

Don’t Forget About

Justin Hollins. Following Gary’s injury, Hollins was a key addition. Nobody could replace Gary’s production, and Hollins certainly did not, but he became a reliable contributor. Claimed off waivers from the Rams, Hollins had six pressures in 10 games for Los Angeles and nine pressures in six games for Green Bay, according to Pro Football Focus.

With Gary rehabbing on the side, it was Hollins and Smith as the No. 1 duo throughout the offseason.

“First and foremost, he’s an unbelievable man,” Rebrovich said. “You talk about a guy that came in here in Week whatever it was in the middle of the season, there’s so much unknown. He don’t know me, I don’t know him. He don’t know the group, they don’t know him.

“As you guys all know, those rooms are a brotherhood. It’s hard to walk into a room and that man has established as one of the leaders of that group. He comes to work every single day with a smile on his face and ready to work and asks questions, he talks to the young men in that group. He’s had a lot of experience at the places he’s been, he knows the National Football League, so he brings a lot of attributes to our room.”

Green Bay Packers Training Camp Previews

Including Darnell Savage, these five #Packers must have good training camps, writes @JacobWestendorf.https://t.co/CkdCQfAUcj

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 19, 2023

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Projected depth charts

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