Following on from the analysis of the 13 Green Bay Packers who improved as the season went on in 2024 and could be trending up ahead of the new season, it is time to look at the players whose performances dipped later in the year.

Fortunately for Green Bay, this is a much shorter list. Here are the four players who did not play their best ball in the back half of the 2024 season and will be looking to rebound, in order of the biggest drop in their average PFF game-by-game grade:

S Evan Williams

There is a consensus opinion that Williams took full control of a starting safety spot as a rookie and that the competition is all but over. That might be a dangerous assumption to make.

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Williams stormed out of the gate in his first season, posting a 71.9 average PFF grade in his first six appearances, including a three-game stretch where he averaged a grade of 85.2.

However, he came back down to earth somewhat from there, averaging a grade of 58.3 in his final seven games, a decline of nearly 19%.

There is context to be added here, namely that he was banged up in the second half of the season, dealing with multiple injuries. Simply hitting the “rookie wall” could also have been a factor.

But looking at his rookie year as a whole, Williams essentially had three fantastic games, and the rest were just fine.

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For a fourth-round pick, he exceeded expectations, and there is no reason to believe he will not improve as he gets more experience, but the body of work he put together in year one has been somewhat romanticized, and he will still need to earn his starting place again in 2025.

Xavier McKinney

Williams’ safety partner McKinney also struggled to maintain his early-season form as the year wore on.

He started the season on an absolute heater, averaging a 78.9 grade in the first five weeks and registering an interception in each game, but McKinney’s PFF grade fell from 73.9 in the first eight weeks to a 65.2 in the last ten, a decrease of almost 12%.

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The assumption would be that after learning the dangers of throwing at McKinney, teams avoided him later in the season, reducing his impact, but that is not the case. He was only targeted in coverage 12 times in the first eight weeks, compared to 25 times in the last ten.

It is worth noting that while McKinney’s play declined in the back half of the season, he was still playing well, just not to the insane level he did early on.

McKinney was Green Bay’s second-highest graded defensive player on the season, behind only Edgerrin Cooper. There is no reason for concern.

Kingsley Enagbare

Enagbare’s average PFF grade dropped by 10.5% from 61.4 to 55 between the first nine weeks and the last nine.

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His dip in form coincided exactly with him becoming the starter across from Rashan Gary after the Packers traded Preston Smith away, which is some important context.

It is not unusual for a player to see a drop in their grades when they become a more regular player, which can be an adjustment from being a rotational guy.

He also could have been impacted later in the year by the knee injury which he suffered at the end of the 2023 season and did not get surgery on, opting to rehab instead so he would not miss the 2024 campaign.

There is a possibility he hit something of a wall late in the year, as Gary did when returning from his ACL injury the previous year.

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Enagbare’s season as a whole was not as strong as the previous year though, with his average grade in 2023 being 60.9, barely lower than his best stretch of 2024.

With the Packers clearly wanting Lukas Van Ness to win the starting job, and two pass rushers added in the draft, Enagbare needs to kick back into gear this summer to avoid not only losing his place in the starting lineup, but possibly even his roster spot.

Colby Wooden

Wooden is another player who should not feel his place on the team is secure in 2025. He had some flashes as a rookie, earning an average PFF grade of 60.8, but had a much tougher sophomore season.

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During his best stretch in 2024, Wooden averaged a 57.2 grade across the first seven games he played in, and this declined to 53 in the final six, a decrease of more than 7%.

After the Packers drafted Warren Brinson and signed UDFA Nazir Stackhouse, both of whom are bigger bodies who could provide a valuable skill set on early downs, Wooden, who is much more of a pass rusher but is still arguably the team’s fourth-best in that regard, is on notice.

This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: 4 Packers trending down: Several defensive players faded late in 2024