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- Mar 19, 2019
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A veteran playmaker up front like Kenny Clark, along with a rising star at cornerback in Jaire Alexander, also are among the returnees who can recognize and process a lot more variables in Year 2 and hopefully take advantage. Getting to use their own film as teaching tape, rather than film from Pettine’s previous teams, will help, too.
“I tell the position coaches to learn your learners,” Pettine said. “If a guy can handle the additional information and handle those details and use it to make him better, that’s great, let him do it. But if a guy can’t, for whatever reason … I never want to slow a guy down.”
Pettine sees no issues with the three free-agent additions getting up to speed quickly. Safety Adrian Amos and outside linebackers Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith are all fifth-year veterans who aren’t strangers to concepts in Pettine’s defense. They just need to translate them in a new language.
Amos, coming over from Chicago, will serve as a key communicator Pettine hopes will stabilize a safety position that was a revolving door last year, with multiple midseason pickups filling in adequately but not having gone through the basic scheme installations. Along with Martinez, Pettine envisions Amos acting as a “nerve center” for the entire defense.
“We’re just looking forward to his veteran presence on the back end,” he said. “He’s just a solid, solid player. Didn’t make a ton of spectacular plays, but he was always around the ball, always doing his job.
“That’s the kind of presence you need back there. You don’t need a guy that’s going to be feast or famine. You want a guy that’s steady.”
With the Smiths, Pettine sees two pieces that are versatile but in different ways. Za’Darius, from Baltimore, can line up anywhere across the defensive front and be effective as a pass rusher. Preston, from Washington, can attack off the edge or drop into coverage.
Pettine was on the Rex Ryan defensive staff with the Ravens in the mid-2000s that developed the system. Those roots remain in Baltimore, and Za’Darius Smith cut his NFL teeth there. New inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti also comes to Green Bay from Washington knowing what Preston Smith does best.
“For Za’Darius, a lot of it with him is his mentality,” Pettine said. “All you have to do is put on his film. He’s relentless.
“We like having guys that can play multiple positions and move them around, to take advantage of a potential mismatch.”
Two first-round picks are getting added to the mix as well in Michigan outside linebacker Rashan Gary and Maryland safety Darnell Savage.
Gary is pegged as an immediate contributor who’s explosive off the ball and a disrupter against both run and pass. Pettine loves his passion for the game.
“I think he’s the total package,” Pettine said. “He doesn’t have to play every snap. He can give you more quality than quantity.”