GREEN BAY – The Packers’ relentless pass rush with the addition of Micah Parsons has been a key storyline through the first two games.
This statistic will help put it in perspective: The Packers recorded 12 quarterback hits against Washington QB Jayden Daniels. An even dozen.
That’s a lot of punishment for any QB to absorb, but it’s not as though that number in particular has been unreachable for the Packers. It’s posting that number against a QB like Daniels that really stands out.
To illustrate, last season the Packers recorded a dozen QB hits in a game twice, but those efforts came against struggling Tennessee QB Will Levis and the Seattle QB duo of an injured Geno Smith and his backup replacement Sam Howell.
The year before, the Packers got 12 QB hits against Detroit’s immobile Jared Goff on Thanksgiving and then 14 against Minnesota’s pair of overmatched backups, Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall.
But Daniels is another sort of beast. He’s as mobile as QBs get, having finished second in the league last year in rushing yards among quarterbacks, behind only two-time MVP Lamar Jackson. He used his scrambling and running prowess to help capture NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors last season, taking the Commanders to the NFC title game.
So Daniels isn’t exactly easy to track down, let alone hit, and over the past couple of years, the Packers certainly had their trouble getting to QBs of Daniels’ type.
Here are the numbers from the past couple of seasons against quarterbacks who would classify as elusive, with the QB hits in parentheses:
From 2024, Philly’s Jalen Hurts (5 & 5), Indy’s Anthony Richardson (3), Arizona’s Kyler Murray (1), Houston’s C.J. Stroud (7), Chicago’s Caleb Williams (6 & 2), Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa (6).
From 2023, Denver’s Russell Wilson (3), Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes (7), New York Giants’ Tommy DeVito (remember him? 2), Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield (4), Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett (4).
You get the picture. The only mobile QB over the past two years the Packers had any real success getting to was Carolina rookie Bryce Young in 2023. Green Bay hit him 10 times, yet he still put up 30 points against the Packers in a down-to-the-wire game.
So the 12 QB hits on Daniels is quite the performance. Listed above from the 2023-24 seasons are 14 games against mobile QBs, and the Packers’ average QB hits in those contests was 4.6.
The effort against Daniels nearly tripled that figure, as eight different defenders hit him at least once, showing just how different Green Bay’s pass rush is in the early stages of this season.
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