Former Pro Bowl Linebacker on Packers’ Radar

The Green Bay Packers have a three-alarm need a linebacker.

As they transition to a 4-3 base defense, they have only two starting linebackers following the release of De’Vondre Campbell. Who will be the third?

One possibility is 2021 Pro Bowler Denzel Perryman. The Packers and Los Angeles Chargers are among the suitors.

A second-round pick by the San Diego Chargers in 2015, the 31-year-old in 12 games (11 starts) for the Houston Texans last season tallied 76 tackles, including six for losses, along with three passes defensed.

His three best seasons from a tackles perspective came the past three seasons. With the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021, he had a career-high 154 tackles to earn Pro Bowl honors. With the Raiders in 2022, he had 83 tackles and a career-high 14 tackles for losses. And he might have hit 100 tackles again last season if not for missing five games.

The Packers have only four linebackers under contract: Presumptive starters Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie, special-teams standout Kristian Welch and practice-squad player Christian Young. So, the Packers will be looking to free agency and the draft to find a third starter and depth.

Perryman would add a physical presence and a proven run stopper to a defense that ranks last in the NFL in yards allowed per carry during coach Matt LaFleur’s five years on the job.

In free agency in 2021, Perryman signed with the Carolina Panthers. However, Perryman lost his grasp on a starting job during training camp. The Raiders, meanwhile, needed a starter after Nicholas Morrow suffered a broken foot. So, the Raiders sent a sixth-round pick to Carolina and were rewarded with a Pro Bowl season.

“For all the people that tweet at me and tell me I’m garbage in pass coverage, maybe in my offseason, all those people that are bashing me about pass coverage can come teach me how to cover receivers and tight ends,” Perryman said via The Las Vegas Sun.

The 5-foot-11, 240-pounder instantly impressed the Raiders’ face of the franchise, defensive end Maxx Crosby.

“Denzel is a special cat, man,” Crosby said. “The way he plays, you can tell it matters to him. The way he hits people, I would not want to be hit by that man. It doesn’t matter how small he is. He puts a dent in everybody. He’s a different type of player. He’s relentless, brings leadership and he’s a guy you can trust back there.”

Last season, 66 linebackers played at least 500 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. Perryman ranked 63rd in passer rating allowed (121.4) – Campbell was last – and 54th in missed-tackle percentage (14.4 percent; 13 misses).

However, his missed-tackle rates were 8.3 percent in 2021 and 6.1 percent in 2020. His passer rating allowed was less than 100 in five of the previous six seasons.

Last season, Perryman was suspended for two games for repeated violations of NFL safety rules for helmet-to-helmet hits.

“When players violate the rules intended to protect player safety on a repeated basis, and particularly when the violations carry with them a significant risk of injury to an opposing player, it is appropriate to impose substantially greater penalties,” NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan Sr. wrote in his suspension letter to Perryman.

J.J. Watt ripped the NFL for the decision.

At the University of Miami, Perryman was a third-team All-American in 2014. At the 2015 Scouting Combine, he measured 5-foot-10 3/4 and 236 pounds. He ran his 40 in 4.78 seconds.