Acme Packing Company
In a game that Green Bay Packers fans will quickly forget, rookie defensive end Barryn Sorrell showed enough flashes to suggest that he’ll have a real role for this team in the coming weeks and years.
Despite the 16-3 loss, Sorrell filled the stat sheet for the Packers, finishing the game with eight total tackles, five solo, one sack, one tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, and a fumble recovery. Preliminary PFF data also credited Sorrell with three pressures.
That kind of performance is something that the Packers coaching staff will likely be evaluating heavily this week to see if the fourth-round rookie could be a legitimate contributor in the playoffs.
Even with the return of Lukas Van Ness, the Packers have had few pass-rushing answers since Micah Parsons tore his ACL against the Denver Broncos. In fact, Sorrell’s sack was a rarity for the Packers defense lately, as Quay Walker’s zero-yard sack was the only other one that Green Bay has generated since the December 7th win over the Chicago Bears.
Sorrell has earned the opportunity to get snaps for this Packers defense, especially with how poorly Rashan Gary has played in recent months. Acme Packing Company’s own rcon14 laid out why the Packers should make Gary a healthy scratch for the playoffs, and Sorrell now having more sacks than Gary since November is further evidence that a change needs to be made with the team’s pass-rush rotation.
Beyond the playoffs, Sorrell might end up being a key rotational EDGE for the Packers in 2026 and beyond. Parsons and Van Ness are likely to be their starting EDGEs going forward, with Gary almost certainly being a cap casualty this offseason. According to Over the Cap, the Packers would save nearly $11 million in cap space by cutting Gary before June 1.
Sorrell may have been a Day 3 pick, but the former Texas pass rusher has flashed enough in 2025 that he should see an uptick in snaps in the playoffs and become a real contributor for the defense in 2026 and beyond.
