Jenkins' loss felt in pass rush - JSOnline
Once the terms of Cullen Jenkins's contract with the Eagles (it could be for as little as one-year, $4 million) were announced, I've been thinking the Green Bay Packers made a mistake. Last week, I wrote again about how the departure of Jenkins has bugged me.
On the other hand, what are they really missing without Jenkins? He never provided a lot of help in run support, and now he's part of another lousy run defense in Philadelphia where the Eagles currently rank No. 30 overall according to Football Outsiders. The Eagles have more sacks (22) this season, but the Packers aren't far behind (19).
And those are good points. Overall, the Packer defense is only marginally better with Jenkins. But I really noticed his absence while watching B.J. Raji against the Chargers. Raji didn't record a single stat against Chargers, but it seemed like he was always on the field. Tyler Dunne did a very good job of providing several quotes on Jenkins from Raji because he's the one player who really misses Jenkins. Raji only has 2 sacks on the season, and his sack a couple weeks ago against the Vikings was only a coverage sack. He hasn't made a big impact in a game over the past few weeks.
So the question now is what to do with Raji? He's playing too much, and it seems to be making him less effective. Howard Green and Ryan Pickett aren't better players, but they aren't much worse if Raji's playing on fumes. Maybe instead of having him play on nearly every down, the Packers need to play him less and get more from him when does take the field.