Mike Pettine deserves a ton of credit for what he’s been able to do with a defense that is completely devoid of playmakers and top end talent. The cupboard on defense right now is incredibly bare, and it has showed throughout the course of this season and once again this past Sunday.

Yes Green Bay’s defense has performed well for stretches and has had some pretty impressive success with a variety of blitz packages, but those are plays that are predominantly generated by scheme, basically the inverse of the Packers on offense. Give the players credit, they’ve taken to the scheme well and it takes players being in the right spots on defense when bringing pressure for it to work, but this is not a team right now who can consistently win against top teams with the talent they have on defense.

The issue become even more dire when players like Kevin King and Mike Daniels are out of the lineup. Right now, this defense has one high end Pro Bowl type player in Kenny Clark. The next two players who consistently play well and are knocking on that Pro Bowl door (when healthy) are Mike Daniels and Jaire Alexander. After that it’s a plethora of rookies, jags, and has-beens.

On Sunday against the Vikings the issues were once again apparent. Kenny Clark played great, Jaire Alexander was really good, a bunch of players were hurt, and the rest of the defense was average or worse. I consider anything from about +0.2 to -0.2 a neutral grade, and if you consider it that way then only four players on defense graded as true positives, Clark, Alexander, Adams, and Campbell.

The lack of talent has been the major issue when it comes to Green Bay not being able to generate turnovers as well. Couple it with edge rushers who can’t get to the quarterback and you’re forced to gamble and blitz with regularity. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; but unlike the offense, give Mike Pettine credit for coming up with a scheme that generally puts his players in positions to succeed; creating a unit that is far better than the sum of its parts.

Top 3 Defensive Players

Kenny Clark +1.15
Jaire Alexander +0.65
Montravius Adams +0.40

Bottom 3 Defensive Players

Josh Jones -1.70
Blake Martinez -1.00
Antonio Morrison -0.75

Defensive Line

Kenny Clark +1.15
Montravius Adams +0.40
Tyler Lancaster -0.20
Dean Lowry -0.50

I talked last week about how Montravius Adams was starting to come into his own a little bit. After never grading in the positive, he had three weeks where he was net-neutral. Then this week he put up a solid +0.40 score. He’s not exactly lighting the world on fire but his play has been markedly improved. He’s done more than an admirable job in filling in for Daniels and you can see that he and Clark are gaining more and more of a rapport together. That’s a great sign for the second year, third-round draft pick.

Saw good snaps from #Packers DT & former Auburn Tiger Montravius Adams vs MIN... Getting to that point of the season to evaluate the young players and see where they fit into the roster equation moving forward... Adams role should increase each weekhttps://t.co/MdHz8HvEQw pic.twitter.com/4HWkOyTgwY

— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) November 30, 2018

Edge Rusher

Clay Matthews +0.10
Kyler Fackrell +0.05
Reggie Gilbert -0.35

Clay Matthews had his best game since week four against the Bills. That said it still wasn’t anything to really write home about. He was one of the few players who made some plays behind the line of scrimmage and showed some flash, but he also had plays that left a lot to be desired from an effort standpoint.

Great play here by Clay. Tackle blocks down so he's closing the gap. Technique read and finish on 3rd and short. pic.twitter.com/hPKaJym4Qb

— Packers Film Room (@PTTF_ChalkTalk) November 27, 2018

Overall this was by far the best cumulative grade for the edge rushers, which again isn’t saying much, but they mostly held up on the edge in the running game and did provide a modicum of pressure which I guess is an improvement.

Linebacker

Oren Burks +0.10
Antonio Morrison -0.75
Blake Martinez -1.00

Every once and a while I will tell you to ignore a grade on a player. That’s the case this week with Antonio Morrison. Honestly when the numbers were tabulated I was surprised it was so low. Don’t get me wrong, I stick with the grade and his inability to get sideline to sideline coupled with his lack of coverage ability is what gets him into trouble. But man when he plays in the box as a run defender he is a breath of fresh air in comparison to Blake Martinez. Morrison will attack the line of scrimmage and show the ability to stack and shed which is a welcome sight.

The issue is that they haven’t found a great platoon player for Morrison and he ends up being on the field far too often on passing downs. If they can limit him to more obvious run situations, he can be somebody who helps this team.

Cornerback

Jaire Alexander +0.65
Tony Brown -0.05
Josh Jackson -0.15
Tramon Williams -0.60

I labeled Williams as a corner but he was definitely between corner and safety throughout the game. Tramon has been up and down in his transition to safety, and moving him back and forth between the two hasn’t helped either. Hopefully King and Breeland can be back soon and Tramon can stick to safety full time.

Jaire had a few plays here and there that I’m sure he’d like to have back but man is he an intense and welcome addition to this football team. He’s a joy to watch and as Joe Whitt mentioned this week, he can be as good as any corner in this league. He’s great already and still getting better!

Sometimes you just tip your cap. Really good coverage from Alexander here, just an outstanding play by Thielen. pic.twitter.com/jnuK2g5Ln9

— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) November 27, 2018

Safety

Ibraheim Campbell +0.25
Kentrell Brice -0.25
Josh Jones -1.70

I was terrible tonight!! Period

— J. Jones (@JoshJones11_) November 26, 2018

There’s a reason that Josh Jones has been on the bench and he really showed why this week. He had two plays back to back in which he was completely misaligned and had no idea what he was supposed to do on the play. In one instance he was playing man while everyone else was playing zone. He also struggled tackling and after the game admitted himself that he needs to play much better.

Ibraheim Campbell was asked to play a big role on Sunday night. 53 snaps on defense and another 25 on special teams...

When was the last time the #Packers had a safety fly downhill and wrap up a ball carrier with a form tackle? https://t.co/MdHz8HNgf6 pic.twitter.com/yB6NjKxC6R

— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) November 28, 2018

On the flip side it was a solid performance by Ibraheim Campbell and he could be somebody that pairs well with Tramon. Tramon’s coverage ability paired with Campbells more traditional box safety mentality could work well together and ultimately be a tandem that gets more of an opportunity if Josh Jones continues to play like he did on Sunday.

You can find the offense’s grades from yesterday’s article here: https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/grading-the-pack-week-12-packers-vs-vikings-offense-413

2018 Grades: https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/grading-the-pack-2018-regular-season-totals-547

How I Grade

• Each player starts by getting a zero or neutral grade on a play. If they performed as expected on a play, their grade stays at zero.
• For a slightly above or below average play, the player gets graded -0.1 or +0.1. The vast majority of grades on the vast majority of plays are graded -0.1, 0, or +0.1.
• The highest and lowest grades on an individual play are +2.0 and -2.0 respectively. These would be large, game-changing plays.
• I won’t grade a play negatively if I cannot tell which player was at fault.
• Most of the time it’s difficult to tell the play, so I’m not grading on the execution of the play call as an NFL coach would.
• The goal of this exercise is to grade every snap over the course of the season to get a long-term view of which performers are performing well and which are not meeting expectations. This is very similar to what Pro Football Focus tries to achieve. Is it perfect? No. But what you are getting is a consistent grader who is watching specifically Packer games and putting multiple hours into every week to breakdown film and assign grades.
• Grades are for offense and defense only (including two point conversions). Special teams does not factor in.