Green Bay Packers By Position: Kirksey Could Lift Linebacking Unit To New Heights

This is the sixth story in a series examining Green Bay’s positional groups. Previously, I’ve looked at the running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks, offensive line and defensive line.

At a recent Green Bay Packers’ practice, speedy running back Aaron Jones ran a wheel route deep down the left sideline.

Inside linebacker Christian Kirksey, signed this offseason, ran stride for stride with Jones. Then at the last second, Kirksey reached up and deflected a perfect pass from Aaron Rodgers.

Granted, it was just one play from a training camp practice that no one will remember a month from now. At the same time, it was a play Green Bay’s inside linebackers have rarely made in recent seasons.

Kirksey was released by Cleveland on March 10 following two injury-plagued seasons. Six days later, Green Bay gave Kirksey a two-year, $16 million deal to take over for Blake Martinez.

Less than a week into training camp, Kirksey is showing that if healthy, he could be a bargain.

“Well Christian’s a very proven player,” Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst said of Kirksey. “He had some really outstanding years in Cleveland. Last couple years he’s obviously been hit by the injury bug.

“We didn’t feel coming into this that those were the kinds of things that were going to hold him back from being the kind of player he was when he was healthy. He’s got a natural way about him, leadership, and again he’s a proven player in this league. So far — and again it’s very, very early — but he seems to have taken off where he always has been.”

A few years back Kirksey was a rising star at the position.

Kirksey, who turns 28 later this month, was a third-round draft pick by the Browns in 2014. He was a part-time starter his first two years, then had a breakout 2016 campaign when he notched 148 tackles, 2.5 sacks and three passes defensed.

Kirksey signed a four-year, $38 million contract extension in May, 2017, that included $20 million in guaranteed money and a $6 million signing bonus. Kirksey then went out and had another terrific year in 2017, posting 138 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 2.5 passes defensed.

Kirksey’s career began heading south in 2018, though, when he played in just seven games before going on the injured reserve list with a hamstring injury. Kirksey then played in just two games in 2019, before suffering a torn pectoral tendon that required surgery and once again ended his season.

The Browns had seen enough, and released Kirksey. Less than a week later, Green Bay struck.

“Once I ended up departing from Cleveland and coming to Green Bay, I was all in,” Kirksey said. “So, the guys, they welcomed me in, the coaches welcomed me in, and I was fully focused on being a Green Bay Packer and I was fully invested in being a Green Bay Packer. So, I think the transition for me was pretty easy.”

Now, the Packers are hoping the transition on the field is just as smooth.

Kirksey ran the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds before the 2014 NFL Draft and still seems to move extremely well. He’ll be replacing a player in Martinez who was a tackling machine, but ran the 40 in 4.71 seconds before the 2016 draft and always struggled in coverage.

Kirksey (6-2, 236) is slightly undersized for the position. But he’s extremely versatile, changes direction well and diagnoses plays quickly.

The Packers have one of the NFL’s most dynamic duos at outside linebacker in Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith. And if Kirksey can return to his past form, Green Bay’s linebacking unit could be outstanding.

“We’re excited to have him,” Gutekunst said of Kirksey. “I think he can be a very productive player for us and as he grows into the leader of that defense as far as making the calls and doing different things and not coming off the field, I think his impact will continue to grow.”

There’s no question both Smiths — a pair of free agent acquisitions — had a remarkable impact in 2019.

Za’Darius Smith (13.5 sacks) and Preston Smith (12.0 sacks) became just the second pair of Packers to record double digit sack totals in the same year. Hall of Famer Reggie White and Bryce Paup did it in 1993.

Za’Darius Smith signed a four-year, $66 million free agent deal with Green Bay in March, 2019. Then he earned every cent by finishing sixth in the league in sacks.

Smith led the NFL with 93 pressures and tied for the league lead with 37 quarterback hits. He also added 17 tackles for loss and became the focal point for opposing defenses as the year went on.

In a late-season win at Minnesota that wrapped up the NFC North title for Green Bay, Smith had a memorable performance with 3.5 sacks, five quarterback hits and five tackles for loss. That prompted left tackle David Bakhtiari to call Smith “the best player on our team.”

Still just 27, that could be the case for the next few years.

“When I first got here, coach was like, ‘We’re going to need you to be a leader and a captain,’ ” Za’Darius Smith said. “One of the things I told him when I first stepped in the door was, ‘Coach, I’m all about being a captain and helping lead this team.’

“I had a lot of great leadership from where I previously came from, from Baltimore, with Terrell Suggs and people like C.J. Mosley. I had that built in me from the jump, so I’m just happy that everything worked out.”

Things worked out extremely well for Preston Smith, too.

The Packers gave Preston Smith a four-year, $52 million contract in free agency that included a $16 million signing bonus and $27.5 million in guarantees over the first two years. He then had a career year, finishing eighth in the NFL in sacks.

Preston Smith had four games with at least 1.5 sacks. He then tied a career-high with seven pressures in Green Bay’s NFC Divisional playoff win over Seattle.

The Smith Brothers are close on and off the field and play extremely well in tandem, making it tough for foes to decide who to gameplan around.

“In this system, guys like me and Z are allowed to be ourselves,” Preston Smith said. “It caters to our abilities and our biggest assets, and that’s pass rushing and being used in multiple ways instead of being one-dimensional standing here and doing this. It keeps a lot of offenses on their toes because they don’t know what we’re going to do when they see us.”

The Packers still must settle on a second inside linebacker and find out if 2019 first-round draft pick Rashan Gary is ready for more.

Gary, taken with the 12^th overall pick in 2019, was one of the NFL’s more disappointing rookies a year ago.

Gary finished the year with 21 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for loss, and three quarterback hits. Gary was Green Bay’s fourth outside linebacker all year and played just 23.46% of the snaps.

Gary played a season-high 26 snaps in Week 3. By the end of the year, though, his stock had dropped so dramatically that defensive coordinator Mike Pettine gave him just three snaps in the NFC Championship Game.

Gary’s effort was solid, but he rarely finished when he came close to quarterbacks. That’s been a problem for Gary dating back to his college career at Michigan.

“Everything I did on the offseason coming up in to this point is about being the best me, coming back and being an impact player,” Gary said. “You know that’s what I want to be and that’s what I will be. So that’s just been my whole mindset and I’m just down and grinding.”

Oren Burks, a non-factor since entering the league as a third-round pick in 2018, might be the frontrunner to line up inside next to Kirksey. If that happens, though, it will be based strictly on potential, not production.

Burks (6-3, 233) was a safety at Vanderbilt and was lauded for his coverage abilities. But those haven’t been evident yet, and he’s been a major liability against the run.

Burks played just 57 snaps in 2019 and had only six tackles, giving him a paltry two-year total of 30 tackles and 179 defensive snaps.

If Burks struggles again, 2019 seventh round pick Ty Summers and 2020 fifth-rounder Kamal Martin will both get a look.

“I think all three of those guys are going to have a chance to be really good linebackers in the National Football League,” Gutekunst said. “But none of them have had to line up and do it, week in and week out. But that competition, I’m eager to see how that unfolds.”