It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the Green Bay Packers. To be clear, it’s been great the whole time. The Packers have routinely been the best team in the NFC North and have had a wide-open Super Bowl window for the last three decades. Sure, the team only has two rings between Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers‘ career spans, but I’d like to think that sports are about more than just the Americanized groupthink of winning championships.
To clarify my earlier statement, it’s a great time to be a Packers fan because the Rodgers-led offense isn’t even the team’s strongest point anymore. Rather, second-year defensive coordinator Joe Barry has led a unit that has greatly exceeded expectations and made the most out of a highly talented personnel group. The floor for the offense is extremely high under Rodgers, and the ceiling for Barry’s defense is sky-high after a 2021 season that saw the collective unit rank ninth in the league in yards against (5579) and sixth in interceptions (18).
Continuity is the key to building on this success. Barry enters his second year on the job, and only two new starters are projected to be on the defense (Jarran Reed and Quay Walker). The vaunted secondary will enter the new season at full strength while retaining every starter. Much has been made about Jaire Alexander, Eric Stokes, Rasul Douglas, and Adrian Amos‘ expectations. Those four anchored the pass defense last year and are slated to be the primary faces of a fearsome unit this coming season.
All of this speculation has also caused concerns regarding Darnell Savage‘s play. Zone Coverage’s own Brandon Virk outlined Savage’s notable decline early last month. His PFF coverage score went down from 76.7 to 63.6, and he had half as many interceptions. Savage also had fewer tackles last season than the one before, going from 75 combined in 2020 to 63 in 2021.
The efficacy of PFF’s grades may be up for debate. One could view Savage’s statistical decline through the lens of improvement in other areas of the defense. For example, Amos had 10 more tackles in 2021 than he did the season before. Douglas came out of nowhere to reel in five interceptions in 2021.
These two nuggets of information alone could potentially account for the drop off in Savage’s stats last year. Stats have to go somewhere. It is also fair to wonder whether or not Amos and Douglas’ NFL experience factored into how quickly they were able to adapt to a new defensive scheme. Amos and Douglas are 29 and 27 years old, respectively, and they also have a combined 12 years of NFL experience. They are tried-and-true professionals that are well-adjusted to the speed of the game. At no disservice to him, Savage just completed his third season in the league. At 24 years old, he has not approached his prime yet.
Despite this decline, Savage still had plenty of opportune moments in the 2021 season. The biggest benefactor to his case was his health, as Savage played in all 17 games for the first fully healthy season of his career. In a year where Alexander and Douglas missed multiple games, Savage’s reliability — alongside Amos, who also played all 17 games — provided more of a steadying defensive presence than the stat sheets indicate.
It is easy to forget that general manager Brian Gutekunst traded up to snag Savage in the 2019 draft. Savage ran a blistering 4.36 at the combine and still showcases that agility in every game. He is still a player that the franchise believes in wholeheartedly. The Packers picked up Savage’s fifth-year option, tying him to the team through at least the 2023 season.
While critiques are easier to conjure than praises, pump the brakes on ruling out Savage’s long-term viability in Green Bay. The fanbase is still reeling from the disappointment of safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, another 21st-overall pick by the Packers. Still, it is important to remember that Clinton-Dix is more akin to a strong safety role like Amos than playing free safety like Savage does. Savage may not have the third-season Pro Bowl honors like Clinton-Dix did, but he is still an integral part of one of the league’s finest defensive units.
As Savage becomes more comfortable in Barry’s system, coupled with Alexander’s impending return, he should return to form in the 2022 season. Expectations for the unit are sky-high, and a tough NFC North should shape up to see plenty of passing throughout the year. Opportunity knocks, as it does every year, and Savage will be motivated to nail down an extension beyond his fifth-year option. Look out for a motivated and effective player in 2022 after a “down” year in 2021.
