GREEN BAY – If Green Bay Packers training camp practices are any indication, the season opener between the Packers and Minnesota Vikings might feature the most blitzes ever seen in an NFL game.
It’s well-established that Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores hasn’t seen a down he’s not willing to blitz on, but the Packers, under new coordinator Jonathan Gannon, have taken on the personality of a bring-the-heat-whenever-possible defense this summer, too.
“I would say 60% of them [team drills] feel like blitz periods,” center Sean Rhyan said after practice Aug. 10. “JG is [expletive] firing it up.”
In the team’s most recent practice, the offense struggled to move the ball because there always seemed to be a defender running free whenever the quarterback dropped back to pass. And it was rarely the same person.
Several times, it was safety Evan Williams. Other times, it was an inside linebacker like Isaiah McDuffie. Other times, it was slot corner Kitan Oladapo. And other times, it was someone up front who got turned free because a blitzing linebacker or defensive back needed to be picked up.
“You never know what’s going on in JG’s head,” linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said. “Practice is the time to run the stuff, see what you like, see what you don’t like, see who’s good at whatever. Then, once it’s game time, everybody is in the position they’re supposed to be.”
A question that won’t be answered for quite a while is how much of the blitz package Gannon will use in the regular season. There are plenty of defensive coordinators around the league who work on exotic blitzes in training camp and then hardly use them in the regular season.
Early in his career, when he was the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, Gannon was criticized in the media for not blitzing enough. The Eagles went to the Super Bowl in 2022 with the No. 2-ranked defense in the regular season, leading the NFL in sacks with 70.
However, in Super Bowl LVII, Kansas City scored on all four of its second-half drives − three touchdowns and the game-winning field goal in the final seconds. It may be that losing to the Chiefs tainted the work Gannon did in building a Super Bowl-caliber defense.
He didn’t have to blitz that much with the talent he had, ranking 19th in blitz percentage, according to Next Gen Stats. But Gannon moved people around a lot, implementing stunts, twists and varying fronts to create one-on-ones for the pass rushers.
“It’s big, that’s all he kind of preach,” defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, who played on the ’22 team, said of single blocks. “That’s what he lives on. It’s just trying to give us matchups, give everybody one-on-one matchups. And we’ve just got to deliver.”
Gannon’s defenses blitzed more in his three years as coach of the Arizona Cardinals, but last year, for instance, the defense ranked 15th in blitz percentage. The Cardinals ranked 30th in sacks and 24th in quarterback pressures.
He has inherited a much more talented roster in Green Bay, including one of the best pass rushers in the game.
When Micah Parsons returns, it may be that Gannon has enough pass rush upfront that he doesn’t need to employ a lot of blitzes. Parsons draws double- and triple-teams on pass-rushing downs, and there should be plenty of opportunities for someone along the line to win a one-on-one block.
But since Parsons is expected to start the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list for the first month or so, Gannon may be developing some pressure packages to aid the defense while Parsons is out.
Or it could be that Gannon is exploring heavy blitz packages because he wants to keep double- and triple-team blocks off Parsons and his other top pass rushers. As the Packers offense has seen during training camp, it’s hard to know where the blitzers are coming from or if they’re coming at all.
What is certain is that Gannon appears to be establishing an attack mentality during camp, sending a message that he doesn’t intend to sit back and let opposing offenses dictate how he plays defense.
“When you look at the film, it seems like they’re [expletive] gonna bring everybody, and then somehow, they’re still in coverage,” Rhyan said. “So, bullets are flying.”
Gannon has used just about everybody in the back seven to blitz, including his cornerbacks. On one second-and-10 play, he brought Oladapo on a slot blitz, forcing quarterback Jordan Love to dump off the ball for a 6-yard gain.
On third-and-4, the defense showed pressure again, only this time end Dani Dennis-Sutton beat right tackle Anthony Belton and pressured Love into an incompletion.
Blitzing is not a one-man operation and there are times the intended blitzer gets blocked.
“Blitzing especially, requires a lot of trust,” Oladapo said. “You’re trusting this guy is going to hold his gap and I’m going to push my gap. And then one of us is going to come free. So, everyone has to blitz at full speed to get a better look at it.”
It’s highly unlikely Gannon will employ the same percentage of blitzes when the Packers open the preseason against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Aug. 12. He has said he’s not dead set against using more than just a vanilla version of his scheme during the games that don’t count, but how much he’s going to blitz this year will be a mystery to opponents until the regular season begins.
It’s even a mystery to his own players.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt said. “I’ll say anything you do in practice, I don’t think you’ll do all that [in the regular season]. But I can’t say for sure. I know we’re going to do some things. There might be some blitzes and games. I’m not sure.”
For now, Gannon is trying to find out who has a knack for beating a block, who knows how to time his rush right to hit an open gap, and who can hold his position long enough not to give the quarterback an idea of whether he’s blitzing.
He also must find out whether he has the cornerbacks to defend receivers in single coverage because, if a blitz gets picked up, there’s a wide receiver with a lot of green space around him waiting to make the defense pay.
“We have players who can make plays,” Bullard said. “You want to put them in position to do that. Now’s the time to see that.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon going blitz-happy in camp
Reporting by Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
