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Revisiting the Burning Questions of the Offseason We are now officially a quarter of the way through the NFL season (23.5% through technically, thanks to the seventeenth game) and the 2025 version of the Green Bay Packers is a confusing one. Through the first two weeks, the Packers defeated the Detroit Lions in resounding, convincing fashion. The defense stole the show with an extremely high level of play, the offense was looking well-oiled behind a healthy Jordan Love, and the special teams… hadn’t screwed anything up yet? Fast forward another two weeks. In back to back games, the offense and defense took turns: one looking completely inept while the other looked like a world-beater. As the Packers enter their bye week with more than a few wounds to lick, it’s time to take a complete look at the first month of football as a whole. Offense How would a healthy Jordan Love perform? It’s well known that Love was dealing with one injury or another throughout almost the entirety of 2024. An MCL injury in Brazil, a groin injury suffered in Jacksonville, and a right elbow injury right before the wildcard game and we still don’t really know the extent of how much that injury was affecting him in that matchup. It was an odd situation, because if you consider 2023 to be Love’s “rookie” season, his sophomore season was certainly a slump, but seemingly due to circumstances outside of his control. It left the football world still a bit confused about exactly what Jordan Love was. Fairly or not, 2024 left Love with a bit of a “turnover prone” moniker, and I personally heard numerous national analysts stating that Love took a step back that year. All of this set up 2025 to be a major year for the narrative of Jordan Love, and so far he has responded in a major fashion. Through four games, he’s produced 1,000 yards, eight touchdowns, and one interception. So far, Love ranks top-5 in the following categories: passer rating (3rd), yards per game (5th), yards per completion (4th), touchdowns (tied for 3rd), touchdown percentage (4th), interceptions (tied for 3rd), touchdown to interception ratio (5th), and explosive passes (1st). Beyond the raw stats, he’s been in complete and total command of the offense. What we’ve seen from Jordan this season is a willingness to combine his aggressive style of big shot hunting with a willingness to take what the defense is giving him. A huge missing component of the pass game last season was the struggle to get a rhythm going on the intermediate passes, on which Love has been automatic this year, to the tune of 16/21 for a 76.2%, 262 yards and five touchdowns. Lastly, a really underrated issue for Love going into the season was his lack of running threat he presented to defenses. Obviously, this is linked back to those lower body injuries Love was dealing with last season, but he’s taken a conscious step forward in this area so far in 2025. This is a goal that Love had for himself this season, and the results show. How would the receivers bounce back from a disappointing 2024? We all know exactly what the problems were with the receivers in 2024. Let’s say it all together: drops. There was also much ado about a lack of WR1 among the receivers in Green Bay, an issue seemingly addressed in April when the team surprisingly drafted two receivers in the top 100. While both Golden and Savion Williams are waiting for their true “breakout” moment, it turns out we may have had WR1 all along? Romeo Doubs has taken a major step forward, and his connection with Jordan (while not quite at the level of Rodgers-Adams) is fantastic. Meanwhile, Dontayvion Wicks is having an absolutely stellar season, and Tucker Kraft looks like a breakout star. Christian Watson’s return is on the horizon, and the team has (so far) weathered the loss of Jayden Reed well. I’m also not concerned about the lack of statistical production from the likes of Matthew Golden and Savion Williams. We know that Matt LaFleur likes to bring rookies into the rotation as slowly as possible, no matter where they play or where they were taken in the draft. Something to keep in mind concerning the “WR1” discussion is that while fans, media, and even players have been searching for an alpha receiver to emerge, there’s no evidence that the coaching staff has changed their tune on this. Remember last season, when Matt LaFleur said he wanted to vomit every time he heard a question about it? I’d guarantee that he’d say the same thing now. The Packers want to spread the ball around. They don’t want the defense to know where the ball is going. Sure, in those gotta have it moments, it’s an advantage to have “the guy” for Jordan to look for (which is undeniably Romeo Doubs right now). But in a game of inches like the NFL, you’ve got to take every advantage you can, and the Packers’ plethora of options is something that opponents need to take into account, every single week. How would the reshuffling along the offensive line shake out? In the offseason, Packers fans everywhere were more than happy to see starting center Josh Myers shown the door, considering his reputation as one of the worst offensive starters in the entire league. The team’s plan to replace him was made obvious when the team announced the move of Elgton Jenkins to center, along with the FA signing of Aaron Banks. It seemed like the easiest move in the world. Jenkins had already played some center for the Packers in the past, and simple addition by subtraction seemed to point to an improved unit. The offensive line, and its depth, was pointed to as a major strength for the Packers as they entered 2025. A month later? Oof. Point to any numbers of factors that you want. Obviously, losing Zach Tom and the aforementioned Aaron Banks to injury hurts, and was felt most in Cleveland. But beyond that, the unit just hasn’t played very well. Rasheed Walker is struggling in a contract year, Elgton Jenkins looks uncomfortable at center, Jordan Morgan looks like a rookie and is probably being moved around too much. The return of Zach Tom to the lineup is a major factor in righting the ship, but it can’t be the only plan. After all, players get hurt all the time, and you never know who will be the next to go down. Defense How would the secondary hold up without any major additions? It’s now obvious that the Packers moving on from Jaire Alexander was 100% the right call. He’s been a complete non-factor in Baltimore, even being declared a healthy inactive for the Ravens in a couple of games. And as obvious as the end of the Alexander - Green Bay relationship was to most people, it was still a head scratching move to not add a rookie into the mix for reinforcements. Instead, the team chose to add Nate Hobbs in free agency. Just like our discussion about the offensive line, replacing Eric Stokes with Nate Hobbs seemed like a simple addition by subtraction that would improve the unit. In three games out of four, the cornerbacks looked fantastic. Keisean Nixon is having a career year after calling his shot to be CB1 for the Packers, particularly in the Commanders game. As the team moves into its bye, the question will be whether or not the horrible performance in Dallas was more a product of the cornerbacks themselves, or an absolutely nuclear performance from Dak Prescott (or both?). Remember, Jeff Hafley’s background is the secondary. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being able to re-work the cornerback room, and respond to the deficiencies that the Cowboys exposed. Or, could the team look for outside reinforcements? How would the interior DL hold up without TJ Slaton (and Kenny Clark)? For me, this was actually the #1 question about the defense heading into 2025, particularly following the draft. TJ Slaton leaving in free agency was a big loss (literally, at 6’ 4” 340lbs), and the Packers were left without a true “nose tackle” type body. The two rookies Nazir Stackhouse and Warren Brinson come close at 6’ 4” 326 and 6’ 5” 315 respectively, and Colby Wooden put in lots of extra work to adjust his body closer to that of a nose tackle over the offseason as well. But it was clear that the majority of the interior work would have to come from an aging Kenny Clark. Until he was gone too. Now so far through the season, the interior DL has looked up for the challenge. The Colby Wooden weight experiment has paid off, and he looks like a player who is completely revitalized in that different role. But the real story has been Devonte Wyatt, who’s been stellar to start off the season, up until his injury in Dallas. Without Wyatt, the defense looked completely different against the Cowboys, and his absence long term (if it does end up that way, Matt Lafeur recently called him “week to week”) will mean a completely different test for the interior depth. They’d be tasked with increased roles in run support and pass rushing, a tall task, and an area where linebackers Quay Walker and Edgerrin Cooper will likely need to step up to support the big boys in front of them. How would the team generate Pass Rush? We all know how this was addressed this offseason. At the eleventh hour of the preseason, a deal was struck to bring superstar Micah Parsons to Green Bay. He’s been absolutely electric for the Packers, though the box score might not show it all. His presence allows Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness and everyone else along the defensive line to face 1 on 1 matchups at a higher clip, and they’ve made the most of it. Even Kingsley Enagbare and Barryn Sorrell have been positives in some rotational playing time. Through four games, the unit has been disruptive, with (sacks, pressures and hurries). The Packers present a unique challenge for opposing offensive lines: with so many avenues of attack, how do you devote your own resources in order to protect your quarterback. Three teams have failed to answer that question adequately, and the Cowboys avoided the issue by way of Dak Prescott going absolutely nuclear (cough cough and a lot of holding cough). In doing so, the Cowboys were also able to take advantage of things that the pass rush may have been helping to cover up in recent weeks, such as the secondary. On the Packers side of things, the challenge for Jeff Hafley and the linemen will be keeping their attacks varied and fresh. Refusing to adjust one’s scheme as the season goes on is inviting your opponents to innovate in your stead. My theory is that this will come in the form of playing Parsons along different spots on the line, more often. It’s no surprise that he’s been playing mostly defensive end since arriving in Green Bay, but as he learns the playbook and how to play with his new teammates, there’s advantages to moving him to DT and linebacker, if the matchups there are advantageous. General Could the Special Teams even out to league average? Over the last fifteen years, the only special teams units for the Packers have been a 15th ranked unit in 2015. Now, heroic songs and deeds are told of that team, as no unit has come even close since. A revolving door at every single point on the special teams depth chart has left fans dizzy, from kicker/punter, to returners and most importantly, the special teams coordinator itself. Four years into the Rich Bisaccia era, you might think the highest paid special teams coordinator in the league would be able to produce some results. You’ve got a great pair of players at kicker/punter, stability at long snapper, a deep pool of young athletic players to draw upon for the returner spots, and maybe most importantly, permission from the head coach to use starters on special teams units. So what’s the result? Two blocked kicks, penalties, and chaos at the returner spots. No innovation in the new kickoff rules. A revolving door at specialist roles. In the offseason, I was optimistic that this could be the year that the special teams could pull their own weight. Now, we just have to hope there won’t be a special teams disaster late in the year, ala 2021. Could the team learn to limit its self-inflicted wounds? Being the youngest team in the league has pros and cons. One of the heaviest drawbacks to that strategy of roster building is inexperience in every facet of play. That includes the mental side. In 2025, the Packers had a hard time getting out of their own way. Turnovers, penalties, and simple mental mistakes were headliners almost every week. The team struggled to turn games around when they weren’t necessarily going in Green Bay’s favor, and couldn’t get over the hump against elite opponents. Now, all of those issues are multi-faceted, but inexperience is a common throughline. A year later, have those issues improved? Maybe? Looking game by game: in week one the team had four penalties, zero turnovers, and one dropped pass. Week two: ten penalties, zero turnovers, and one drop. Week three: eight penalties, one turnover, and one drop. And in week four: seven penalties, one turnover, and two drops. Penalties are still the major killer, and the team ranks third highest in the league in this regard. It’s been the sloppiest thing about the 2025 Packers, without a doubt. However, the other issues at hand have actually been much improved, especially in the dreaded dropped passes category. Conclusion If I had to sum up the 2025 season to this point, there’s only one word that comes to mind: "volatile". We’ve seen the highest of upsides from both sides of the ball, and the supreme lows. We’ve also seen what they are capable of when both the offense and defense show up to play. This is a moniker that the team needs to grow past, however. How many times in the past few years have we heard the same song and dance? The insane upside, always just out of reach. The team being hampered by mental mistakes. When Brian Gutekunst spoke on “urgency” at the beginning of the offseason, he issued a challenge to himself and the team as a whole. Time is running out for this team to keep using youth and inexperience as an excuse to not put it all together, on both sides of the ball. My money is on the team figuring it all out, and going on a deep playoff run in the winter. When you look at these burning questions, it paints a picture of a team that could be the best in the league. They’ve got every opportunity to do so for the next thirteen weeks before the playoffs begin. Filed Under: FeaturedKalani Jones PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHEESEHEAD NATION WEEKLY NEWSLETTER HERE. __________________________ Co-Owner of the thirteen time world champion Green Bay Packers. Sometimes I write about them. Follow me on Twitter at https://x.com/kjones_in_co and on Substack for film breakdowns! __________________________ NFL Categories: Green Bay PackersTags: Green Bay PackersNFC NorthMatt LaFleurJordan LovePackers Bye Week Like 0 points http://dlvr.it/TNPdyG