There are a shitload of people in this sub who don’t watch other teams and it shows.
Two things can be true at the same time.
I’m an absolute psycho who watches weird small conference football games and had seen Karl Brooks in college. Looked like a man among boys. I thought it was interesting when the Packers took him in the 6th round… But there’s a reason he’s a 6th round pick. Never expected this. So far so good for a late round pick
Every team deserves credit for every win they get. They’re all hard. No matter what.
Buffalo is a really talented team and they deserve credit for getting to a +101 point differential, but they’re 6-6. The Bengals would absolutely deserve to be in that next tier if their QB wasn’t on IR for the rest of the season.
Every season is a version of this. Some very good teams. Some very bad teams. And the rest in the middle to some degree, so “luck” of the schedule isn’t really a factor. Strength of schedule is relative. Like… Do we think the Chiefs would have liked to play the Packers a month ago vs playing them next week? Yeah, they probably would have. If the Packers continue to play as they have, that’s a much harder game than it was 4 weeks ago.
Every year is a series of “woulda shoulda coulda” and it tends to even out. The Lions are good, but they’re flawed and their strength (offensive line) has taken hits because of injuries. There have been 50 different QBs to start a game this year. It’s a hard league. Even shitty teams usually win a few games.
As it relates to the Packers, they’re growing. In a league where mistakes lose games, they’re making fewer and starting to win some of these close games. It’s probably too early to make grand statements about anyone on the offense, bust or not, but it looks better. That’s good.
Honestly, the Vikings (even with Cousins) and the Lions are pretty mediocre too. Detroit’s best win is at Kansas City (which is a good win), but Chris Jones and Travis Kelce didn’t play. They definitely could have lost to the Chargers and should have lost to the Bears. Minnesota doesn’t really have a win worth hanging their hat on either.
The Eagles are the class of the league. There’s a next group of Kansas City, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas, Baltimore and maybe Jacksonville. There’s a bottom tier of the Patriots, Giants, Panthers, Cardinals and Bears. Everyone else is kind of in the mediocre group who is capable of winning against another on any given week.
The reality is that there’s so much parody in the NFL that all of these teams are super mediocre and the Packers have been too. So mediocre teams playing mediocre team have close games. The Packers winning the last two feels as much like positive regression as much as anything else.
Preseason, the general consensus was that the Packers were an 8 to 10 win team. That seems to be right where they are. I’d be pretty pumped if they made the playoffs, but that’s a cherry on top of this season. I just want to see them continue to get better and let the chips fall where they land.
I think only Matt LaFleur is the only one who really knows. Last time, his first choice was Jim Leonhard, who is currently, functionally, unemployed. If Matt wants the kind of defense that comes with Leonhard, it’s a pretty easy call to make.
That said, considering the injuries the Packers have had defensively and the defense not being an absolute disaster, Joe Barry should be considered the betting favorite to be here next year regardless of who is available.
It’s interesting to me how McCarthy got the blame for everything that went wrong.
“Too conservative” in 2015 NFCCG. Nevermind Rodgers could barely walk (calf injury) and they had been stuffed by one of the great defenses the league has seen the last 25 years.
“Scheme”… Which, say what you want, was largely dictated by who the quarterback was. No presnap motions, 1 on 1 iso shots, and throwing out of runs are absolute staples of Aaron Rodgers QB play. When it worked, “Rodgers!!!” When it didn’t “Fucking McCarthy!!” We saw a lot of the same when Matt LaFleur showed up. Interesting enough, the Cowboys today are motioning and throwing the ball all over the yard and nobody can say, “Yeah but it’s all Kellan Moore”.
“Didn’t adapt” is actually silly because McCarthy, more than most old coaches, has been willing to tinker with practice schedules and how things go through the week leading to the game. Hell, he handed over play calling in 2015 after the Packers led the league in scoring. It didn’t go well and when he took it back they jumped right back in the top 5.
Where McCarthy deserves some blame is that he’s too loyal at times. Dom Capers was the right hire in 2009 but he should have been replaced before 2016. Sometimes, continuity isn’t always good.
He had a tremendous run in Green Bay. And he’s a huge reason why Aaron Rodgers became what he is. He deserves a place in the Packers Hall of Fame. Shit, he should get inducted the night Aaron Rodgers does.
And since I didn’t shit all over Big Mike, let the downvotes commence!
Honestly, he’s never been as bad as some on this sub have said. My biggest issue has always been his complete disregard for personnel in the run game, allowing his defenses to just get road grated over.
So long as his run defenses are solid, his defenses are pretty good because the pass game is fine and they’re solid on third down and in the red zone.
Spectacular? Nope. Definitely could be worse though.
I know the thread here is titled after the video, but it isn’t much more clear today whether or not J Love is the guy than it was a month ago. Hell, he should have a good day against the Chargers because it’s the same defensive philosophy the Packers employ (Barry was on Staley’s staff in LA with both the Rams and would have been with the Chargers).That said…
One of the consistent markers between these analysts is his decision making is strong. He knows his progression, makes good reads, and executes the offense. That’s great news. And should be the absolute minimum for determining his future as a 4th year player.
It seems like the biggest issues he’s had is his feet, which might be because he got some bad habits watching Aaron Rodgers. A Rod is 1 of 1, so cleaning up Love’s emulation probably goes a long way.
We’re getting what we should have realistically wanted entering the season: growth. Growth from Jordan. Growth around him. If it continues, it’s totally fine to go into 2024 (and beyond )with him as QB1
Brian Gutekunst departs from Ted Thompson here quite a bit. Gutey is definitely willing to swing big early in the draft and grab someone with rare athleticism on the chance that player becomes an absolute superstar. Those guys are usually less refined because they’re able to win in college on their athletic abilities alone.
Ted was far more likely to take a lesser athlete who was more “league ready” even if it meant they weren’t necessarily grade A athletes in the league. Like AJ Hawk, Bryan Bulaga Iowa, and he lived on solid athletes who were technically sound on offense (Davante Adams, Greg Jennings, Nick Collins, Randall Cobb) to compliment his laser precise QB.
Interestingly, when Ted did swing big, he hit pretty successfully (Jordy Nelson, trading back into the first round for Clay Matthews).
Gutey is definitely more willing to find the technician types on day three and he’s done a pretty decent job of it.
There are different philosophies on the draft. Both of these have proven to be pretty successful, overall. Taking the big swing on a freak athlete is definitely more worthwhile when you have veteran depth ahead of it, but when those players hit, they become megastars. When they don’t, they usually “bust”
He’d be a waiver claim on his rookie contract, so it’s worth a shot. They could probably pass Wilson through waivers to the practice squad.
The Green Bay Packers are currently 15th in 3rd down defense conversion rate. They are 31st in 4th down defense conversion rate.
I would imagine Jordan Love would be ecstatic to be throwing to prime Davante Adams this year like Hundley was.
This is an important point. The defense is designed to play from the front. So when the offense wasn’t scoring, this defense isn’t necessarily equipped to handle that. It’s not too dissimilar to what the Colts did with Peyton Manning’s teams. This is a much better “2021 defense” where the offense hums than it is for the last two years.