The Green Bay Packers’ defense looked abysmal in the embarrassing 38-3 Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints. And it might only get worse from there, as the Packers are preparing for life without their 2020’s sacks leader Za’Darius Smith.
Smith has been dealing with a back injury thorough the better part of the offseason and was limited in practice before the season opener. The 29-year-old star managed to take the field against the Saints regardless, but it looks like this return to action didn’t end well for the Pro Bowl outside linebacker.
According to Green Bay’s head coach Matt LaFleur, Smith’s injury was made worse, and he is being placed on the injured reserve list.
“Why not try to get him as healthy as possible so we can have him more readily available, hopefully?”, LaFleur said while revealing that the team also considered keeping him on the roster and managing his snaps.
It appears that the Packers are taking a long-term approach, believing they will benefit more from a healthy Za’Darius Smith in the second part of the season than a player who isn’t 100 percent ready but plays early in the campaign. In the meantime, the team picked up the second-year OLB LaDarius Hamilton off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad.
Za’Darius Smith joined the Packers in 2019 and since emerged as one of the best linebackers in the league. He had 13.5 sacks in his first season with the team and followed that up with 12.5 sacks in 2020. Smith is the only player besides Aaron Donald (Los Angeles Rams) and T.J. Watt (Pittsburgh Steelers) to have 12 or more sacks in each of the past two years.
