Inexperienced Bay was a type of groups who have been getting hyped to the moon earlier than they traded for Micah Parsons. An 11-6 season a yr in the past, paired with sensible upgrades on offense, and an NFC North with all their rivals rebuilding or retooling, the Packers appeared poised to make noise in 2025. It was acceptable to throw a little bit doubt on all this, as a result of whereas the crew did make incremental enhancements, there was nothing that made main noise.
On Thursday night time the Packers simply dispatched the Washington Commanders, holding among the best offenses within the convention to a few factors coming into the fourth quarter, earlier than a little bit complacency snuck in and a rubbish time landing late within the sport made the field rating look infinitely nearer than the sport actually was. Inexperienced Bay is now 2-0 after two weeks, simply coasting previous two of the opposite greatest groups within the convention. The hype isn’t simply deserved, it’s been earned — and now the Packers hit a a lot simpler stretch of their schedule which may simply see this crew at 4-0 coming into the bye week, and even 7-0 earlier than Halloween.
There are some core components to why Inexperienced Bay is trying like among the best crew within the NFC proper now, and a few pitfalls they should look ahead to shifting ahead.
The place the Packers are going proper
Micah Parsons has remodeled the protection
The wildest half about what Parsons has added to the Packers’ protection is that he’s doing it whereas nonetheless being injured. Parsons remains to be coping with a lingering again situation he introduced with him to Inexperienced Bay, taking part in restricted snaps within the first sport and never totally collaborating in follow since arriving.
Regardless of all this he’s nonetheless completely dominating on go rush, notably in producing stress up the center.
Not solely has Parsons forcing unhealthy performs from usually unflappable quarterbacks in Jared Goff and Jayden Daniels, however the specter of him on each down is opening up performs for different key gamers on the defensive entrance. Lukas Van Ness, Rashan Gary, and Devonte Wyatt are all thriving because the Parsons addition, and if you mesh this quartet of stress up entrance with run-stopping linebackers, and a stable secondary it’s very tough to discover a constant solution to assault the Packers’ protection
Life could be very simple for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley proper now. Moderately than needing to attract up difficult blitz packages or schemes to work round his weaknesses, primarily all Inexperienced Bay is doing is thrashing their opponents at a number of positions utilizing pretty vanilla scheme variety.
What this implies is that the Packers have lots of latitude so as to add wrinkles sooner or later. In two weeks they’ve given away little or no about what unique packages they could possibly be saving of their again pocket, just because they haven’t wanted to do something powerful proper now.
Jordan Love is coming into his personal
An eye fixed-popping stat on Thursday night time was the historical past of Packers QBs to take a serious leap ahead once they’re 26 or 27 years outdated. Bart Starr handed for two,000+ yards for the primary time in 1961 when he was 26. Brett Favre gained his first NFL MVP at 26. Aaron Rodgers made his first Professional Bowl at 26. Jordan Love, effectively, he’s 26 proper now.
That could be a enjoyable apart, however the actuality is that Love is taking part in the very best soccer of his profession proper now. By means of two video games he has a passer score of 120.0, a career-high completion proportion of 66%, and has thrown 4 touchdowns with out an interception or fumble. On high of all this he’s additionally producing extra yards-per-attempt than at any level in his profession.
There are quite a few causes for this. The aforementioned protection is making life a lot simpler for hin in 2025, placing Inexperienced Bay able the place they don’t must play from behind. As well as the every-present menace of Josh Jacons within the backfield is obstructing numerous groups from working dangerous blitz packages in opposition to the offense.
We’re seeing a rising tide elevate all ships on the offense, and Love is taking part in so effectively that he may have an MVP-worthy season in 2025.
Tucker Kraft has emerged as a difference-maker
Up so far in his profession Kraft has been a stable, however largely unremarkable tight finish for the Packers. Usually used as an extension of the offensive line, the crew didn’t actually make the most of him as go catcher. Nevertheless, this season — or extra aptly in opposition to Washington, Kraft remodeled into the crew’s largest receiving menace.
Jayden Reed’s damage has put stress on gamers like Kraft to step up and fill the void, which he’s accomplished in a severe means as a receicer. It’s simply one other potential layer to Love’s passing offense, and one which had constructed a redundancy for Love. Reed was his security web on numerous performs, however the tight finish taking over an even bigger function within the offense isn’t one thing we noticed coming and it modifications the outlook of this crew.
What the Packers must be careful for
Lack of run sport effectivity
A number of what has allowed Like to succeed to this point is groups having to respect Josh Jacobs within the backfield, however that may put on off if the crew can’t discover methods to make Jacobs’ carries extra profitable. Up so far the crew has not used another working again, and Jacobs isn’t speeding the ball at an efficient charge, averaging simply 3.6 yards-per-carry.
The depth at RB is atrocious proper now. In two video games Jacobs has carried the ball 42 instances, with Chris Brooks and Emmanuel Wilson solely getting a single speeding try every. If this crew can’t choose up constant yards on the bottom the mystique of the offense is buried, and groups will be capable of focus in on Love extra with zero blitzes — one thing he hasn’t actually confronted this season.
It’s removed from a panic button second, however one thing the Packers offense might want to regulate for.
The Packers are as full a crew as you’ll discover within the NFL proper now. It’s early, however popping out 2-0 in opposition to the Lions and Commanders is a press release. Over the subsequent few weeks they face the likes of the Browns, Cowboys, Bengals, and Cardinals — all a lot simpler than the video games they’d had thus far.
It’s okay to purchase into the hype. This crew is for actual.
