Packers aren’t the only team paying the price for an outdated NFL rule that refuses to go away
It doesn’t make any sense.
The Green Bay Packers wanted to keep linebacker Quay Walker, but not everything is easy and goes as planned in the NFL. And thanks to an outdated and obsolete league rule, the Packers are not the only team affected by an unfortunate situation. Now, the Jacksonville Jaguars are going through the same reality with Devin Lloyd — and the effects may be even bigger.
Positional designations
Both the Packers and the Jaguars declined the fifth-year options for Walker and Lloyd, respectively, the two off-ball linebackers taken in the first round back in 2022. The problem is not only performance or future expectations, but a market reality.
The fifth-year options are based on the players’ positions, but off-ball linebackers are not separated from edge defenders listed as outside linebackers. That creates an anomaly, where true off-ball linebackers’ numbers are artificially inflated.
“The linebacker for the fifth-year option is a little wonky, because there’s so many edge guys that are part of that, which drives up that number, which probably isn’t great,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said during the NFL Combine. “But yeah, we’d like to find a way to keep Quay around here long-term, whether that be an extension or something.”
That’s why linebacker is one of the positions with the lowest rate of options picked up — and you can argue that it’s a good reason to avoid taking players from that position in the first round whatsoever to a certain extent.
Now, Devin Lloyd has played at an elite level under former Packers’ linebackers coach and current Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. He is slated to hit free agency, and a new deal without the fifth-year option in place might make it much more expensive for the Jaguars.
Quay Walker hasn’t been as impactful for the Packers, but he has still shown signs of improvement to a point where Green Bay wants an extension.
How to easily solve it
This is just an outdated and weird classification by the NFL. With how the league works nowadays, it would be much more precise and smart to group players by modern standards: Interior defensive linemen, edge defenders, and off-ball linebackers.
That would avoid unfair differences between edge defenders who are listed as defensive ends and outside linebackers, but also would reflect the distinction between edge defenders and true linebackers.
It’s not a new concept, but it’s been over a decade since nickel defense has been the primary defensive personnel in football. The differences between 4-3 and 3-4 aren’t nearly as pronounced as they were in the past, and these contract tools have to mirror these changes.
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