We’re in the dead zone for football content as we head into late spring, and that means takes must be had, questions must be asked, and with that, comes response content. Welcome to the response content. This first started for me listening to the Football 301 podcast, a podcast I thoroughly enjoy, where the trio of Nate Tice, Matt Harmon, and Charles McDonald were tackling questions they had about various teams after the draft settled. Harmon’s question was innocent enough: Do the Packers have a top-10
unit on either side of the ball?
It’s a reasonable enough question. Fair question. Podcast content must be created even in the vacuum of space we currently occupy in the post-draft period.
But I also kind of think it’s a weird question to ask, particularly with where they landed: that Green Bay is a fringe top-10 unit. Then I saw power rankings with Green Bay ranked 16th in the NFL, which… sure? Again, the content must be created. We needn’t take things so seriously in May. But it also ties into the last part. It’s really hard to have a really good offense and not be a really good team, just by nature of how important offense is to winning.
So where is the Packers pessimism coming from?
It’s probably due to how the 2025 season ended. It sucked. Halfway through the Denver Broncos game, the Packers looked like legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Xavier McKinney drops two relatively easy interception opportunities, Micah Parsons blows his knee out, and the remainder of the season is an exercise in humiliation in one way or another.
But hyper-focusing on the season’s end also misses the forest for the trees, particularly on offense. Per RBSDM.com, the Packers offense was fourth in EPA-per-play in the regular season last year. This was while missing Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson, and Jayden Reed for half of the season apiece, Josh Jacobs playing on one leg for the back half of the season, Zach Tom battling an oblique injury all year, and the offensive line as a whole being so chopped and changed that the starting right guard for much of the season took literally zero reps at the position prior to the week he started there.
Also, Clayton Tune played a game. Clayton Tune will probably never take another regular season NFL snap. If you just remove the Tune game entirely, the Packers were tied for the most efficient offense in the NFL last season. Number one. First. Best.
So why does this narrative exist? What is going on? The Packers offense did lose some pieces. Romeo Doubs left for New England. Dontayvion Wicks was traded to Philadelphia. Rasheed Walker’s agent goofed so bad we don’t even get a cool compensation pick for him, but he’s gone. Elgton Jenkins was let go. The losses at receiver are real. Doubs and Wicks are solid NFL players, and having more useful players is better than fewer useful players, but by Matt LaFleur’s own admission, the glut of talent in the receiving room was beginning to become an issue — too many mouths to feed and only one football.
However, the time lost from Watson and Reed is probably more impactful than those departures. On a per-target basis, few receivers were better than Watson last year, who ranked fifth in yards-per-target and finished tied with teammate Tucker Kraft, who should also return by the start of the season. Returning Kraft will bring the best tight end in the NFL back into the fold, and one who is an absolute monster after the catch. That’s not adding a good player, that’s adding the best player at his position. Matthew Golden is a curious case where the numbers are unimpressive, but the separation numbers are eye-popping. Separation skill is generally the one to bet on long-term, particularly because Golden was in a cramped receiver room and also missed time due to injury last season.
The offensive line is the biggest wildcard on offense. Jordan Morgan will move from the guard spot/swing tackle role to become the starting left tackle. The sample sizes here are small, but Morgan has been quite good at left tackle when he’s played there. Morgan did not allow a single pressure playing there last preseason, and despite what PFF says, he did not allow a pressure when playing there against the Vikings (the pressure given to him is more an aborted play by Tune). Small sample size, though. Maybe it doesn’t work! Thing is, he doesn’t even have to be good to replace Rasheed Walker, one of the league’s worst run blocking offensive tackles, and someone who now may not even be starting in Carolina this season.
Sean Rhyan’s play was, on net, not terribly dissimilar to Elgton Jenkins, though better in the run game and worse in pass pro. This will be Rhyan’s first off-season playing center, though, so upside remains. The Packers also drafted Jager Burton, someone who I am personally a fan of, and so if Rhyan blows up, in the opinion of this author, a quality alternative option remains. Anthony Belton is the big one, both figuratively and literally. He got thrown into playing right guard, which always made sense as his long-term position, after getting literally zero reps at the spot in the off-season. A full off-season at a new position will likely help him there, as he was not good in the spot last year despite some praise coming his way because he can throw someone out of the club once per game.
Of course, the biggest reason why Green Bay will likely just continue to have a really good offense is that they still have Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur. Since Love took his lumps in the first two months of 2023, this duo has just been churning good offenses almost regardless of supporting personnel. This doesn’t mean they are perfect, but if you want to bet on a QB/playcaller combo to get you a top-10 offense, fewer bets have been more reliable than Green Bay’s.
Plenty of questions remain around the team. Can they get over the hump in tight games? Who is playing nose tackle? Can Gannon and the defensive front protect the relatively weak cornerback room? All of these questions are very real and could determine the success of the 2026 Green Bay Packers.
But will they have a great offense? So long as they don’t get completely decimated by injuries, which is a concern for all 32 teams, they probably will.
