NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
The Green Bay Packers’ season didn’t end as they had hoped. Despite making it to the playoffs in a wild card capacity, the Pack was quickly bounced by the Los Angeles Rams who finally were healthy enough to come full speed. Looking back on the 2024 season, did Green Bay exceed expectations and thus have fan’s hopes up a bit too high?
Take a step back and look at Green Bay as a whole. They didn’t have to blow teams out of the water or light up the stat sheets to win football games, but that’s the problem. In the regular season, you’re going to win games against teams that are rebuilding or aren’t ready to be considered a playoff-caliber football team. When it comes to the playoffs, the Packers didn’t have that next level they could take it to.
For instance, look at Jordan Love as a whole. He had arguably one of his better seasons but his numbers seems sort of pedestrian, despite being one of the top paid QBs in the league. Yes, he did miss some time but he still played in 15 games this season. He threw for 3389 yards, 25 TDs and just 11 interceptions. Those are respectable numbers but there’s room to grow there.
Then there’s the run game. Josh Jacobs had one heck of a season and led the team in touchdowns with 15 and carried the ball for 1329 yards. He went out and did exactly what the Packers expected of him.
Where the wheels start to come off is the WR position. Not one single receiver for Green Bay hit that 1,000-yard receiving mark. Not only did they not hit that milestone, but The closest receiver was Jayden Reed with 857. The next closest was TE Tucker Craft with 707. Reed had 6 TDs, Craft had 7. For a TE, Craft did his job as you expect your TE to get 750-1,000 yards and 7-10 TDs. However, the fall off from there is a problem. Ideally, your top WR should hit that ~1100 yards mark and double-digit TDs, and your second 800-950 yards with 5-7 TDs.
While there’s no written rule that a team has to hit these benchmarks to be successful, it draws attention to the fact that Green Bay lacked explosiveness. While this type of play carried them through the 2024 regular season, it was exposed when they made it to the postseason. If the Green Bay Packers want to be able to keep up with the rest of their division, let alone the rest of the NFC, they need to find ways to get top 5 play out of more positions than just their running back. If they can’t, then they need to lean harder into a dominating defense in 2025.
