Packers 2020 90-Man Roster Ranking, 5-1: For the first time, there’s a new name on top

The Green Bay Packers, like every other team in the NFL at this point in the offseason, have 90 players on their roster. Those 90 men have varying backgrounds, experience levels, and natural skillsets, but they can be defined into various strata of player.

Each year following the player acquisition phase of the offseason, Acme Packing Company conducts a ranking of the 90-man roster, based purely on the caliber of the players with no attention paid to positional value or value to the team. It’s an attempt to identify who the best players are on the roster regardless of position, and this year six of our contributors submitted rankings, which we have compiled into our master list.

Over the last week-plus, we have revealed the rankings ten at a time. Today we conclude the rankings with the top five.

#5: DT Kenny Clark

Highest ranking: 3
Lowest ranking: 6

Clark enters the fifth and final year of his rookie contract in 2020 coming off back-to-back six-sack seasons. Clark’s 2019 campaign finally earned him his a well-deserved first Pro Bowl appearance, as he finished second among all interior defensive linemen in quarterback pressures (according to Pro Football Focus). Also according to PFF, Clark is one of the NFL’s top 50 players right now, joining two other Packers in our top five.

Clark also rarely leaves the field, posting his excellent production in 2019 while taking the field for a whopping 869 defensive snaps. Described as the league’s prototypical modern nose tackle by Pro Football Focus, extending Clark’s contract remains one of the Packers’ biggest financial priorities this summer.

#4: WR Davante Adams

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 9

Joining Clark in the PFF top 50 list is Adams, who somehow finished three yards short of 1,000 for a second time in his career in 2019. However, this time Adams missed four games due to injury, which caused him to fall short, and he posted the second-highest yards per game of his career en route to a third straight Pro Bowl appearance. Adding to his tremendous stat line was his playoff performance, as Adams caught 17 passes for 298 yards and two scores in the Packers’ two postseason games. He also crossed the century mark in seven of his 13 games in 2019, playoffs included.

A route-running nightmare for defensive backs, Adams is able to create separation early on with his feet rather than relying on pure speed. Furthermore, his rapport with Aaron Rodgers is clearly evident — simply watch his film from the divisional playoff victory over the Seattle Seahawks to see him in his full glory.

#3: QB Aaron Rodgers

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 6

That’s correct — Aaron Rodgers is not number one on our countdown. Predictably, this is the first time this has happened, though he did earn half of the #1 votes. However, overall the voting puts him in third place this year, in part because of his gradually dwindling efficiency.

While Rodgers is still one of the best throwers of the football in the NFL, he had one of the poorest seasons statistically of his career in 2019, in most cases matched only by the 2015 campaign. That year saw his numbers largely fall apart after teams adjusted to his weakened receiving corps, while a young and unproven group of wideouts again affected his performance in 2019.

Rodgers and Packers fans alike are counting on a resurgence in 2020 thanks to better familiarity with Matt LaFleur’s offense, as a second offseason to absorb it should help the overall efficiency of the unit. He caught lightning in a bottle late in the 2016 season, but outside of the nine-game stretch late that year, he has simply not been the constant MVP-caliber player he was from 2009 to 2014. So while he’s still a tremendous football player, he slips two spots in this year’s countdown.

#2: EDGE Za’Darius Smith

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 4

Smith might be criminally underrated by the broader NFL media, but not by Acme Packing Company’s writers. Falling a single point short of tying for the #1 spot, Smith deserves any accolades that come his way after his tremendous 2019 season. In his first year with the Packers, Smith made the Pro Bowl after recording 13.5 sacks in the regular season (plus two more in the playoffs).

Already the straw that stirs the drink for the Packers’ defense, Smith was on the field for 84 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in 2019, a career high by almost 200 plays. In that time, only one player in the NFL recorded more quarterback pressures than Smith’s 66, according to Sports Info Solutions. His efforts helped the Packers finish third in the NFL in overall defensive pressure rate, a significant upgrade from their 15th-place ranking the year before his (and Preston Smith’s) arrival.

When he signed a four-year, $66 million contract last March, the numbers seemed staggering for a man with just 16 starts in four NFL seasons. Z has already proved that he is worth every penny of that deal.

#1: LT David Bakhtiari

Highest ranking: 1
Lowest ranking: 4

Finally, coming in at the top spot is Bakhtiari, making it a pair of former fourth-round draft picks in the top two. Bakh is simply the best pass-blocking tackle in football, but like Smith he still gets overlooked by many in the media. He does have one first-team All-Pro and two second-team honors to his name, and he will readily tell you that that gives him three All-Pro honors against just two Pro Bowl appearances.

As Bakhtiari has progressed in the NFL, he has become more of an effective run-blocker, but it is his pass protection that will always be his greatest strength. Equally adept against speed and power rushers, his skills made him PFF’s 42nd-best player and the top left tackle on their top 50 list. This year, it is Rodgers’ most important protector who takes the top spot away from him on our 90-man countdown.

Here’s the complete 90-man ranking, including total points. This was calculated by awarding a first-ranked player 90 points, second-ranked player 89, etc., then totaling up the points over all six submissions for a maximum possible total of 540.