Which Packers Position Change Ranks Among NFL’s Best?

Somewhere in Miami on March 11, former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry must have been shaking his head in dismay. On April 26, Barry might have had to stifle an incredulous laugh.

On Day 1 of NFL free agency, his former team signed Xavier McKinney, the top safety on the veteran market. In the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Packers selected Javon Bullard, one of the top safeties in the draft. A day later, they added two more safeties, Evan Williams and Kitan Oladapo.

Just like that, general manager Brian Gutekunst might have turned overwhelming weakness into strength.

In listing the four “biggest position unit upgrades” of the offseason, The 33rd Team’s Dan Pizzuta listed the Packers dropping a bomb on their safety corps.

“Combining the improvement in player quality at the position and a new defensive scheme that should get the most out of those players (including more tight and aggressive coverage from cornerbacks),” Pizzuta wrote, “the Packers should be much better on the back end of the defense in 2024.”

It’s hard to overstate how poorly the Packers’ safeties played last year.

- Former first-round pick Darnell Savage started all 10 appearances and played 558 snaps. It almost defies belief that he had one pass defensed the entire season. He had a monumental interception-return touchdown in the playoff romp at Dallas. A week later against San Francisco, he dropped what might have been a pick-six, gave up a long touchdown catch to George Kittle and missed a tackle on Christian McCaffrey’s long touchdown run.

Savage not only didn’t make many plays on the ball, but he didn’t tackle, either.

As usual.

Of 84 safeties to play at least 400 snaps last year, Savage ranked 76th with a missed-tackle rate of 18.5 percent. That was on the heels of 78th out of 81 in 2022, 66th out of 83 in 2021, 70th out of 77 in 2020 and 68th out of 72 in 2019.

- The team’s lone free-agent addition, Jonathan Owens, started 11 games and played a unit-high 775 snaps. He had zero interceptions and three passes defensed. He tackled well, ranking 26th with a missed-tackle percentage of 9.2, but gave up three touchdowns and a 115.8 passer rating, according to PFF.

- Rudy Ford started nine games and played 626 snaps. Really, he was the least of the defense’s problems. He played all but five defensive snaps in the first seven games but ultimately fell behind Owens, for some reason. He was the best playmaker (two interceptions, six passes defensed) and top tackler (13th with a missed-tackle percentage of 8.1) among the safeties.

- Seventh-round rookie Anthony Johnson started four games and played 302 snaps. He had one interception and three passes defensed. However, of 95 safeties to play at least 300 defensive snaps, he had a league-worst missed-tackle rate of 28.1 percent.

Enter McKinney and Bullard.

McKinney started 17 games and played all 1,128 defensive snaps for the Giants last year. He had the best year of his career with 116 tackles, three interceptions and 11 passes defensed. Not only was he excellent in coverage, but he ranked fifth with a missed-tackle rate of 5.7 percent. In fact, McKinney’s tackling has been as consistently strong as it has been consistently weak for Savage.

Combined, Green Bay’s top four safeties played 2,261 defensive snaps – or about twice as many as McKinney. The ball production was about equal with three interceptions and 13 passes defensed, and they missed almost five times as many tackles (34 vs. seven).

Bullard, meanwhile, was brilliant as Georgia’s nickel defender in 2022 and a standout in his move to safety in 2023.

According to PFF, 97 safeties in the draft class played at least 400 snaps last year. Bullard was fourth in passer rating allowed (35.3) and second in forced-incompletion percentage. Plus, he was 22nd in missed-tackle percentage (10.9; six misses).

In the slot in 2022, he was tied for first in the nation (regardless of draft class) with 0.55 yards allowed per snap.

Along with the additions of Williams and Oladapo (and a year of seasoning for Johnson), the Packers should have better playmaking, better coverage, better tackling and better depth than a year ago, providing new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley the production and consistency that Barry could only have dreamed about.