GREEN BAY – If Warren Brinson can get his motor revving this high for a practice, the Green Bay Packers might want to make sure he’s on the field when the games start.
Brinson, a sixth-round pick in 2025, will reduce the Packers’ angst about not having Micah Parsons for the first month or so of the season if he can replicate what he’s been doing on the practice field since training camp began.
In front of a big crowd for Packers Family Night on Aug. 7 inside Lambeau Field, Brinson turned up the volume on his pass rush and showed he’s ready to pick up where he left off last season when he helped fill the void top defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt left during an injury-abbreviated season.
The 6-foot-5, 315-pound Brinson has a golden opportunity to carve out a big role with Wyatt still not taking part in team drills due to his recovery from torn ligaments and a fracture he suffered in his ankle Nov. 27.
Brinson hasn’t wasted it but has decided he needs to do more to stand out.
“I had the plan to come out here and just play hard and just try to be the best on the field,” Brinson said of the Family Night practice. “My goal was just go out there and dominate. Honestly, like the coaches always tell me I could be as good as I want to be, so I was just trying to prove it.”
There are no official stats to cite from a practice, but the night started out well when he beat Jacob Monk in the one-on-one pass-rush drill with a burst off the line of scrimmage in his first rep. There wasn’t any live tackling when he was on the field, but he was active throughout the 11-on-11 drives and then saved his best for the 2-minute drill.
He and fellow defensive tackle Karl Brooks dominated the first drive, combining for at least one sack and making life difficult for quarterback Jordan Love.
“I was talking [expletive] to the O-line,” Brinson said. “Like, ‘C’mon, bring that [expletive]. And [center] Sean Rhyan brought it. We were looking at each other like, ‘Bro, let’s go.’ Like trying to get after it.
“The first play of 2-minute was a sack. But, yeah, we were just trying to keep the energy high. Like even though it’s the last period of practice, you have got to try to push that guy so he can push me. It’s iron sharpens iron. So, if I’m talking [expletive] to you, it’s just to get us going.’”
It took some time for Brinson to get going last year. He didn’t play on defense six of the first eight games of the season, and then, after filling in while Wyatt was nursing a different injury, he played only 15 snaps in Weeks 10 and 11.
But over the final seven weeks and the playoffs, he averaged 28 snaps a game and contributed a half sack, three quarterback hits and eight pressures. Considering he started just eight of 59 games at Georgia and was a late-round pick, his finish to the season was encouraging.
Brinson took his training to another level during the offseason. He said he worked with baseball star Aaron Judge’s performance coach, Tom Bender, working primarily on strengthening his core.
“I was up in Tennessee with him for the whole spring, this whole summer,” Brinson said. “It’s a lot of different stuff that he saw that I needed to work on, and I just poured into it. I listened to him. I took it serious.
“I mean, I’ve got a long way to go. He always tells me that I’m only like 70% of what I can be at. So, I’ve just got to keep getting better, keep working. He was just up here like two days ago working on me. So, I’ve just got to keep my body straight, keep believing in the goals he has for me and I have for myself.”
The Packers believe in Brinson or they wouldn’t have put him in the starting lineup while Wyatt and free agent Javon Hargrave (knee) recover. The front three consists of Brinson, rookie Chris McClellan and Brooks.
Wyatt will take one of those spots. Hargrave may take another, although it’s possible he’ll come off the bench. Brinson has the perfect size to line up at one of the end positions and can also fill the three-technique tackle spot in the base, giving coordinator Jonathan Gannon a bigger option than Brooks or McClellan.
The Packers know they can’t replace Parsons, but if they can get a better inside pass rush than they had last year, they won’t miss him as much. Brinson still has to take his practice performance into the regular season, but he’s doing the most with the opportunity he received.
“I knew since I came in there that I could be one of the best and I was just waiting on my time to prove it,” he said. “I’m trying to take that step forward to prove that right now. So, every time I get to go on the field with the ones [starters], it’s my opportunity to prove that I belong there, that I should be out there first snap, first defensive play.
“And that’s my goal. That’s why I’m playing so hard now.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Packers defensive lineman Warren Brinson lights up Family Night
Reporting by Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
