2016 Team Needs: NFC North
By jonfox
Inside LB. The Pack played the hokey pokey with Clay Matthews between the inside and outside linebacker spots in 2015 and their defense suffered because of it. It’s understandable why they did this, after AJ Hawk was let go they thought that they had much more talent on the outside than in the inside.
The problem is that Matthews’ skill set didn’t translate and since they didn’t get much from Dantone Jones and Nick Perry, the pass rush suffered and the play in the inside did as well.
This needs to be the top priority for the Pack in the offseason. Unless they reinforce, they’l lbe trapped in the same bad decision that they were in 2015.
Three names to consider: Kentrell Brothers(day 2 of the draft), Scooby Wright III(Day 3 of the draft), Jordan Jenkins(day 3 of the draft).
Defensive line. Connected to the linebacker issues is that the Pack will need to make some changes up front in their defense as well. Mike Daniels, a very underrated player, was extended at a decent amount of cash. It’s likely that BJ Raji will be headed elsewhere in free agency.
Jones and Josh Boyd are far too inconsistent to be trusted now, so they’ll be looking for at least one guy who can move between the 0(nose tackle) and the 3/5(more like an end).
If they can get something from Boyd, then their needs become simpler: they just need a potential starter at end(5 tech).
Three names to consider: Chris Jones(day 2 of the draft), Adolphus Washington(day 2 of the draft), Carl Nassib(day 2 of the draft).
Offensive line depth. No team can be expected to be two deep at every offensive line position, but there’s no reason that they can’t have functional depth. The Packers don’t really have that right now. When David Bakhtiari went down late in the season, their entire offense basically folded until they faced the Redskins’ poorly coached defense.
Because Bakhtiari’s backup was so poor, the Pack had to play a backup center at left tackle for their wild card game. This is simply an unacceptable state of affairs. And with Bryan Bulaga’s inability to stay healthy and make 16 starts on a season, the Packers will have to invest some resources into backups at tackle.
With so many defensive spots to fill in the draft, they might have to do something that they rarely do: sign march free agents. They certainly won’t splurge for backup material, but they should be looking for functional backups to go with a young project tackle.
Three names to consider: Rob Havenstein(free agency), Le’Raven Clark(day 3 of the draft), Tyler Johnstone(day 3 of the draft).
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