The defensive line group text quickly started buzzing last Tuesday afternoon. Soon, everyone was chiming in.
It all had started when one of Kingsley Enagbare’s buddies sent him a social media post from one of the NFL insiders, reporting that the Green Bay Packers had just shipped veteran defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the trade deadline for a 2025 seventh-round draft pick.
Enagbare couldn’t believe it.
“I had to double-check,” Enagbare told reporters inside the Packers’ locker room at Lambeau Field on Monday, as the team returned to work after its bye week. “A guy like ‘P,’ he’s been here all my three years here, and was a big part of my success and growth as a player, as a man and as a teammate.
“Losing him has definitely hit us close to the heart, but we got guys in here in our room who are ready to take advantage of the opportunity that’s about to come.”
The Packers (6-3) are counting on that. They enter this Sunday’s matchup with the Chicago Bears (4-5) at Soldier Field having struggled to put consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and despite Smith’s experience, his production had cratered.
After registering 2.5 sacks and eight pressures in the Packers’ first five games this season, Smith had no sacks and just two pressures while his snap counts dwindled over the last four games.
Although Smith told reporters in Pittsburgh that he had requested a trade from the Packers a few weeks before the deadline because he felt miscast in new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s 4-3 system, his former teammates who spoke Monday said they weren’t aware of Smith’s discontent.
It’s also unclear if Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was truly willing to accommodate Smith’s request, or that he took the Steelers’ call because the team was eager to give some of the younger defensive linemen — Enagbare, Lukas Van Ness, Aaron Mosby, Brenton Cox — more opportunities.
“We’re all going to play a role; everyone's getting more rotations,” said Mosby, who has played just seven defensive snaps all season — but registered a half-sack in the Packers’ 24-14 pre-bye loss to the Detroit Lions on Nov. 3, and did it against right tackle Penei Sewell, one of the league’s top tackles.
“(It’s) everyone just together, I feel like now you don't expect who's going to get most of the credit — more younger guys, more bodies, more speed, playing together. Everyone should play a greater role.”
That said, Gutekunst also acknowledged in the wake of the trade that the team needs more from 2019 first-round pick Rashan Gary, whose production this season (2.5 sacks, 20 total pressures) has not matched the four-year, $96 million extension he signed in October 2023, during the season’s second half.
“I think for that entire group, we need more from those guys as we move forward into the second half of the season,” Gutekunst said last week, after the trade deadline. “And I think we’ll get that.
“That group, I like the way they work. They’ve got to continue to keep pushing, and I think the addition of some of these guys getting more snaps will help them.”
Gutekunst also admitted the trade comes with a risk — “Whenever you move off a player like Preston Smith, you’re a couple injuries away from, ‘Man, that may not have been the best thing,’” he confessed — but it was one he was willing to take.
Heading into Monday night’s Miami Dolphins-Los Angeles Rams matchup, the Packers ranked 14th in the 32-team NFL in sack percentage (7.8%) and in a five-way tie for 18th in sacks (22).
“The numbers are going to come,” Gary said. “Numbers, people get misconstrued. Put on the tape, see how we’re playing, see how we’re setting edges, see how we’re putting pressure on quarterbacks. The numbers are going to come if we keep playing our fashion of ball.”
The Bears may be just the antidote for the Packers’ sickly pass rush.
The Bears allowed rookie No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams to be sacked nine times in their 19-3 home loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday, and Williams has now been sacked an NFL-high 38 times in nine games this season.
Mired in a three-game losing streak, Bears coach Matt Eberflus told Chicago-area reporters Monday morning that he was mulling changes to an offense that has gone 23 straight possessions without scoring a touchdown.
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron could be fired or be stripped of play-calling duties, Eberflus acknowledged. Eberflus, a defensive-minded head coach, fired his previous offensive coordinator, ex-Packers assistant Luke Getsy, after last season ended.
Now, he’s poised to make more changes on that side of the ball.
“We’ve lost three in a row and there’s an urgency there and there’s changes that are necessary in that process because it hasn’t worked the last three weeks. And I’m fully aware of that,” Eberflus said.
Later, Eberflus added that the Bears offense “has not been where we need it to be in the last three weeks. We are finding answers for that, and we will make the necessary adjustments needed to do that.”
The Packers defensive line will make its own adjustments without Smith, of course, and Sunday’s matchup with the Bears will be the starting point.
Asked what he told his younger teammates now that he’s the most experienced player in the group, Gary replied, “Step up. Step up. Plain and simple. There’s a big opportunity.
“Everybody prays and asks for opportunities like this, so (now that) the opportunity is out there, let’s make the most of it and finish the season how we want to finish it.”
