What Bright Spots Can the Packers Build On Heading Into 2025?

What Positives Can Packers Build On Entering 2025?

 

Jan 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) throws a pass against the Philadelphia Eagles during the first half in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

What Positives Can Packers Build On Entering 2025?

Originally posted on Green Bay Packers on SI

By Joey Van Zummeren | Last updated Jan 13, 2025 12:49 AM ET

In the NFL, you’re either getting better or getting worse.

For the Green Bay Packers, Jordan Love at least believes his team isn’t heading in the wrong direction after being eliminated in the wild-card round against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

“I don’t know if I’d say it’s pointing down,” Love said of the Packers’ trajectory after the 22-10 loss.

Green Bay’s loss to Philadelphia was another piece of evidence that the Packers are too young and undisciplined and still a few pieces away from being a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Losing three starters on the offense and another on defense due to injuries during the game didn’t help. But neither did a missed field goal, three interceptions, a fumble on the opening kickoff return and two avoidable unnecessary-roughness penalties.

Green Bay will have to do some real soul searching this offseason. A 2023 season that ended with a competitive performance in the divisional round against the eventual NFC champions provided higher expectations for 2024.

Ultimately, 2024 was not a season in which Green Bay continued to grow off what was sprouted the year before.

Next season will be an important year for it to all come together if Green Bay hopes to win in the current window.

Only one starter will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, center Josh Myers. However, after the 2025 season, core pieces of the team such as Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker will become unrestricted free agents.

The Packers will have to overhaul some position groups in the upcoming offseason, but there is a nucleus on the roster that can push this team to the next level.

Here are the areas where the Packers can hang their hat on and build off moving forward.

Improved Run Defense

The addition of Jeff Hafley as defensive coordinator led to Green Bay’s run defense allowing 3.96 yards per carry, the third-lowest mark in the NFL.

Run defense was one of the Packers’ biggest weaknesses in the years before Hafley’s arrival. With Joe Barry as defensive coordinator, the Packers from 2021 through 2023 ranked 30th with 4.72 yards allowed per carry. They ranked 31st in 2021, 29th in 2022 and 23rd in 2023.

The unit didn’t have its best showing against the Eagles, allowing Saquon Barkley to rush for 119 yards on 25 carries.

But it was just the fifth time Green Bay allowed a rusher to surpass 100 yards in a game, with Barkley also doing so in Week 1. Over the last seven games of the regular season, Green Bay allowed an average of 70.4 rushing yards per game.

Hafley’s unit isn’t complete. For all the shutdown performances from the run defense, the pass rush has been ineffective in multiple key games, only recording one sack against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17 and the Chicago Bears in Week 18. And after Jaire Alexander’s injury, the secondary was clearly in need of repair.

But, for the first time in a long while, Green Bay can enter the next season counting on a reliable run defense.

Duo of Defensive Playmakers

From a one-year sample size, general manager Brian Gutekunst made one of his best free-agent signings and one of his best draft selections in the 2024 offseason.

The signing of safety Xavier McKinney and the selection of linebacker Edgerrin Cooper in the second round of the draft proved to be two significant additions to the Green Bay defense.

Cooper was the Packers’ most disruptive linebacker in recent history. His 13 tackles for losses led all off-the-ball linebackers, and he racked up 86 tackle, one interception and one forced fumble.

Fortunately for the Packers, he still seems to have a lot of room to grow.

“I think he’s so talented, and I think the sky’s the limit for him,” LaFleur said on Dec. 30. “I love having him, but it’s just the consistency of which you play. … I think there’s another level there that he can continue to take his game to.”

McKinney, who was named a first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career, grabbed eight interceptions in 2024, the most for any Packers defender since Charles Woodson grabbed nine in 2009 en route to being named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Expecting McKinney to duplicate his interception numbers might be unrealistic. But a second year under Hafley’s system for McKinney, along with another year of development for the raw linebacker, should be significant.

Stability Along the Offensive Line

For the most part, the Green Bay offense took a step back in 2024.

The efficient passing attack that hit its stride in the second half of the 2023 season was a shadow of itself for most of 2024 due to drops and an inexplicable drop-off in timing between Love and his receivers.

But Green Bay did take a step in the right direction on the offensive line with five young starters in Walker, Elgton Jenkins, Myers, Sean Rhyan and Tom. The group allowed 151 pressures, tied for seventh-lowest in the league, according to Pro Football Focus.

Myers, who had to be carted off after suffering a leg injury in Philadelphia, is set to become an unrestricted free agent. But the trio of Walker, Rhyan and Tom are only finishing their third years in the league. There’s more to be desired with the group when it comes to run blocking, but the Packers seemed to have built a solid protection unit for Love for years to come.

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