In a recent write up for SI, Bill Huber asked whether Jordan Love can capitalize on his supporting cast. It’s an interesting question because so much of the national conversation assumes Green Bay’s offense has gotten worse. Has it?
Let’s walk through just a few examples.
The Packers lost productivity in the receiver room. This is objectively true, but is sometimes employed in an intellectually dishonest way. Sure, Doubs is gone. Wicks is gone. They were productive. There were also way too many cooks
in the receiver kitchen last year. Players knew it. The head coach has since admitted it. If you look back at last year, I think it’s fair to come away thinking Matthew Golden would have been roughly twice as productive if it weren’t for a crowded room and the mistakes of others (cough Wicks cough). His role should be greatly expanded this year, which we should all be really excited about. Also Watson is really good.
The Packers don’t have an elite tight end. I mean, this is proveably false, or false-adjacent. I’ve heard multiple NFL generalist types seem pretty lukewarm on Tucker Kraft. I don’t have much to say in rebuttal, because it’s clear the people saying that didn’t actually watch the Packers last year. Once he gets back up to speed, he’s a top 5 (sometimes top 3) pass catching tight end. Period.
The offensive line is a mess. Correction: it WAS a mess! Some of that was injuries, some of that was how the roster shook out, and some was probably coaching. But the Packers are entering training camp with a much more solid plan for their starting 5 than they’ve had in a few years. There’s every reason to believe that the unit will perform better than last year (and last year wasn’t terrible, just far below the typical Packers standard).
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of love going around for the Bears (who are pretty well coached but also were very lucky last year) and the Lions (who actually got noticeably worse down the stretch last year – though, don’t tell the national folks that).
Look, this is peak offseason content. So, thanks for clicking. I’m just anxious to get to meaningful ball so the Packers can prove folks wrong. I’m cautiously optimistic that the end product will be better than last year, not worse. What do you think? Let me hear it in the comments below.
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