2021 Packers Stock Report: Week 9

Take a look at the stock report for the Green Bay Packers after a 13-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 9 at Arrowhead Stadium.

Take a breath Packers fans, the past week has been a whirlwind.

First, there’s the Aaron Rodgers conundrum. Then, everybody and their mother had a hot take about Jordan Love. And now, rumors are swirling about free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

But, for the sake of this article, let’s take a look at strictly Sunday – when the Packers took a 13-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Here’s the stock report for Week 9.

BUY

Krys Barnes- Last week, I had Krys Barnes in the ‘hold’ category. He played one of his worst games in the win over the Arizona Cardinals, but I knew the Packers would still count on him as the ILB2. Barnes proved me right. He was all over the field on Sunday. On a 3rd & goal late in the first half, Barnes made a stop at the goal line to hold the Chiefs to a field goal. He was also solid against the run on multiple occasions. Barnes will continue to be relied on, and he’ll only get better this season.

A.J. Dillon- Speaking of getting better throughout the season, A.J. Dillon has been stellar in the past couple weeks. As the secondary running back in the Packers offense, he’s split the carries with Aaron Jones and has made the most of his opportunities all season. Dillon averaged 5.8 yards per carry on just eight carries on Sunday. He also has made big improvements, mentioned by the coaching staff and Rodgers, in the pass game. He caught a big pass for 21 yards backed up in near the Packers end zone. After stacking multiple solid performances, it wouldn’t shock me to see even more Dillon in the game plan.

Kevin King- *DUCKS* Hear me out on this one. I know not all of us are big fans of Kevin King. But don’t look now, he’s played really well in the past two games that he’s been healthy. On Sunday, he allowed just three catches on six targets for 21 yards. On top of that, he was the highest-graded defender from the game. Love it or hate it, he will continue to be an important player for this defense moving forward, especially since the Packers are a bit depleted at the cornerback position.

SELL

Royce Newman- Royce Newman has had his ups and downs this season. Recently, there have been more downs than ups, though. Newman is good for a couple mental mistakes in almost every game, which, at this point in the season, isn’t acceptable for this offense. He is also in the bottom five at the guard position for sacks allowed out of the entire league. It would not shock me to see Jon Runyan Jr. start at the guard position and for Newman roll to the bench when Elgton Jenkins is bumped back inside when David Bakhtiari returns at left tackle.

Amari Rodgers- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not confident in Amari Rodgers the punt returner. I’m not sure he’s very confident in himself back there, either. Don’t get me wrong, Rodgers has talent and potential. I just think that talent and potential is better utilized in certain packages on offense – not at the punt returner position. Rodgers’ uncertainty and inexperience reared its ugly head again on Sunday, which ended up costing the Packers three points after last-second deciding he wouldn’t field a punt. Every time he was back for a punt return, I just crossed my fingers and prayed. The Packers can’t have that moving forward. Wouldn’t be shocked to see his time as a returner come to an end soon.

Field goal unit- This unit has not been great all season long. On Sunday, it was at its worst. After a long snapper change in the middle of the week, Mason Crosby missed one field goal, and another was blocked. Six points would have made a big difference in a 13-7 loss. Actually, that was an understatement. Six points would’ve made a HUGE difference. This unit needs to figure it out, and figure it out fast.

HOLD

Jordan Love- Here’s my hot take on Jordan Love: He’s going to be okay. If you bought stock in Jordan Love before the game, I would suggest holding on to it for the long-haul instead of selling right away. He didn’t play well for the majority of the game, but the Chiefs were sending the house and it was so, so loud in that stadium (trust me, I was there). But the kid showed potential, I think. I see a lot of people saying that Love will never be good, just because his first start on the road against a team that’s been in the Super Bowl the last two seasons didn’t go well. There are a lot of Hall of Fame quarterbacks whose first game in the NFL didn’t go well. So let’s chill out a bit. It’s still not entirely out of the question that Love will be the Packers quarterback of the future. Hold.

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Gunnar Davis is a lifelong Packers fan and a recent graduate of Simpson College, where he was a 3-year letterwinner on the offensive line and graduated with a degree in multimedia communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @Gunnar57Davis.

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PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHEESEHEAD NATION WEEKLY NEWSLETTER HERE.

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6 points
 

Comments (15)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
SwedeBayPacker's picture

November 10, 2021 at 12:20 pm

Sell: MLF. Adjustment? Never heard of her.

Buy: Joe Barry. Who'd have thunk?

Burn it with fire: whoever is the ST coach. God, what an abysmal trainwreck.

10 points
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splitpea1's picture

November 10, 2021 at 02:48 pm

Hold: Love. Everyone is overwhelmed with curiosity to see how he performs when he's not facing a jailbreak half the time; on the other hand, he was inaccurate with a few throws in the first part of the game when he had time. Even though his first start was rough, I thought he played with a cool head at least.

Hold: AR. Like him or not, the more time he misses, the more our "all in" hopes wither.

Buy: Barry. Amazing job considering he has been missing key players for substantial stretches of time.

Hold: MLF. Despite his sterling record, he seems awfully slow to make adjustments when needed over the course of his Packers tenure.

Strong sell: Special teams. There's almost not enough fingers to plug the holes in the dike: no reliable kick returner or holder; leaky protection formations; confusion; low kicks or kickoffs not deep enough; no gunner....In the off-season, the Packers are going to have to go far, far outside the organization to fix their special teams problems with better coaching and competent returners; make a special effort and don't skimp. Make an earnest pitch to the best possible candidates and throw in a bouquet of roses if you need to.

6 points
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jont's picture

November 10, 2021 at 12:58 pm

When Cobb was signed my bold prediction was that he'd have a decent first half of the season and Amari would grow into the role and become the more important slot receiver in the second half.

Part 1: Cobb has 20 catches (3rd on the team) for 244 yards (second), four TDs (first), and 15 first downs (second) through nine games. Not great but productive.

Part 2 remains to be seen, but I share some of the concern expressed by others in these discussions about Amari's performance so far. During a recent game the announcers said he's doing great during the week but on Sunday he comes out flat. I'm hoping to see a break through game really soon.

The confidence question is a tough one for me to grasp. With coaches helping him, Cobb mentoring, and the internal drive that's got him this far, I would think he'd more likely to fight all the more in the face of adversity. And he's got MVS as an example; Rodgers said over an over last year that MVS needed only to be confident to be a star, and now he can help guide Amari. Let's hope he gets it together.

3 points
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Duneslick's picture

November 10, 2021 at 01:12 pm

Chiefs have one of the worst defenses in the nfl 31st i think before the game. 7 pts max 13 if you make 100 percent of your fgs. Tell me again how well love played

0 points
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Coldworld's picture

November 10, 2021 at 03:35 pm

Chiefs masked their deficiencies by dicing up our O line assisted by being given 9 points advantage and LaFleur making poor use of a dominant run option. Love may not be great but neither is that analysis and he may yet improve.

2 points
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Starrbrite's picture

November 10, 2021 at 02:26 pm

The Amari Rodgers potential superstar punt returner experiment has to end. There has to be better options at this stage.
NO on OBJ.
Perhaps a trade for Evan Engram or Grady Jarrett…dreaming out loud here.
I’m not a fan of Love, but I initially said the same about Rashan Gary and was proved incorrect.
Traveling from out of State to the SeaHawks game. There are a few teams I take greater satisfaction in beating badly, the Hawks and the Broncos, and Cowboys are the top three.

3 points
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WestCoastPackerBacker's picture

November 10, 2021 at 05:15 pm

Sorry NFL trade deadline has come and gone. No help coming by trade for this season

2 points
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Starrbrite's picture

November 10, 2021 at 05:46 pm

Yes—I was dreaming out loud.

1 points
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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

November 11, 2021 at 07:29 am

Detroit released Darren Fells. Not great, but he's played in the NFL and isn't terrible as a real TE. TB signed him to the practice squad.

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Gee's picture

November 11, 2021 at 10:08 am

I like the move by TB, as much as I hate to say that. It provides vet depth even I don't think they need it, and it stops teams like GB and other from doing the exact move TB just did. Now if the team even was thinking about, now they must sign him to 53. I know you of all people know that, I just like gamesmanship.

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jhtobias's picture

November 10, 2021 at 03:39 pm

Hold : barnes he needs to prove that he can be consistent every week not just every 4 games . A great find anyway.

Sell: Are third round picks going foward. Have you seen the list of third round busts the last 8 years.

Buy: Darnell Savage the playmaker is back

3 points
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PatrickGB's picture

November 10, 2021 at 08:04 pm

Yes, King played well. I think that Barry’s defense suits him better than Pettine’s. Letting Linebackers be linebackers and DB’s be DB’s seems to be working.

0 points
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LambeauPlain's picture

November 11, 2021 at 09:12 am

This is always a fun read by Gunnar. Agree with his stock report.

A few additional:

Buy: Jenks. All season long. He is delivering huge capital gains.

Sell: Drayton. He has been the top assistant for both Zook and Mennenga. His career path is the same as theirs...being let go as Packer ST coach. Seems like a great guy but STs have to be disciplined and do all the little things right. They aren't and they do not.

Hold: Douglas. He had some rough plays but also continued to play hard, tackle, and seems to understand Gray and Barry's pass D scheme.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

November 11, 2021 at 09:36 am

"ended up costing the Packers three points after last-second deciding he wouldn’t field a punt."

I'm not saying I like Amari as a returner because I don't, but making it look like you will field a punt and then bailing at the last moment is a legitimate thing that happens in football. Taylor flopping around in the danger zone is not on Rodgers this time.

2 points
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Oppy's picture

November 13, 2021 at 07:24 am

I was good with Newman taking the starts at RG to begin the season- he presumably had a good camp and clearly outplayed the competition in the preseason games.

That said, he has been absolutely horrible the last few weeks. First few games I wrote off the whiffs to learning the ropes of NFL level play. He's getting worked every week, multiple WTF moments each game.

That type of failure can be constructive for a young player if you get them out of the starting roll and give them more time to develop.. but week-in, week-out failure can destroy a young player if it continues too long.

Get Royce out of the starting lineup as soon as viable, let him contribute in spot duty and perhaps STs, and revisit him after another full training camp.

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