Acme Packing Company
To try to accommodate multiple schemes, we’re looking for one more player to help on the front seven.
In our continuing series on the Packers All-Quarter Century Team, we’re picking one more player to help out in the box on defense.
Earlier this week, you helped us define the Green Bay Packers’ top two players from the last 25 years at each of the defensive tackle, edge, and linebacker positions. Accounting for schematic changes on defense makes this exercise a bit challenging, so today we’re adding one more flex player on the front seven to complete our lineup.
In other words, it’s time to pick from the remaining top choices at those spots to fill out our defensive front. Here’s a quick reminder about who has already been selected:
DT: Kenny Clark, B.J. Raji
EDGE: Clay Matthews, Aaron Kampman
LB: Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk
Let’s get to the remaining nominees, pulled from the top vote-getters at each of those three positions in the original polls.
1x Pro Bowl
Regular season stats: 124 games played, 74 starts; 302 total tackles (225 solo, 77 assisted), 74 TFLs, 74.5 sacks, 11 pass defenses, 17 forced fumbles, 7 fumble recoveries, 1 interception (returned for a touchdown)
Postseason stats: 8 games played, 4 starts; 23 total tackles (15 solo, 8 assisted), 7 TFLs, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Few players in the entire NFL over the last 25 years can match the ability and production that KGB had as a pure speed rusher. The 5th-round pick out of San Diego State was a menace to tackles and quarterbacks off the edge with his incredibly quick get-off, bend, and closing ability. He recorded four straight double-digit sack seasons starting in 2001, when he was just a rotational player in his second year. He also posted multiple forced fumbles every year from 2001 to 2007 and missed only two games in that span.
Of course, Gbaja-Biamila gave up quite a bit in run defense. He was lean, measuring in at a shade under 6-foot-4 and weighing in the mid-240s for most of his career, quite undersized for a 4-3 end. Had the Packers played a 3-4 defense during his career, perhaps he could have had an even more impressive set of statistics. Instead, when his speed and elite athleticism (9.41 RAS at DE, despite his small size) started to wane, he was relegated to a situational pass-rusher role.
All told, KGB was a full-time player for the middle five years of his career, flanked by two years each of situational work on the front and back ends. But those years were still productive in the limited role, and even with places like Pro Football Reference going back to credit players for sacks prior to that statistic becoming official in 1982, he still ranks fourth on the Packers’ all-time franchise leaderboard.
1x Pro Bowl
Regular season stats: 48 games played, 43 starts;...
