There is so much wrong with this team, but I will LIMIT my comments to just 6 observations/comments - mostly negative, but some positive:
1) Sadly, after making a commitment to drafting offensive lineman over a number of drafts (which I believe is they key to football success), it turns out that, unfortunately, a number of poor picks were made. Additionally, sadly, Bakhtiari's and Jenkins' injuries have clearly left them as not the players they were, but the fact is, that no one can play forever. Still, watching that loss to the Giants in London was painful. The Packers O-Line coach, Butkis, made absolutely no adjustments against the Giant's twists. The Offensive line was utterly befuddled and collapsed.
2) I fundamentally really like Matt Lafleur, but his defense of Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry is downright painful all the time. Quite frankly, it is hard to believe they could stoop lower than Dom Capers or Mike Pettine, but somehow they managed. An NFL team giving up roughly 400 yards rushing is utterly unprecedented. Either your coordinator is inept, or your players are hopeless, or both. But it can't be neither. LaFleur can insist we're all in this together. Well ok, but then we will all LOSE together. From what I can gather, Joe Barry believes he wins if he doesn't give up 60-yard TD passes. However, he is very content to give up 4, 15-yard passes, or let his run defense give up 5-10 yards at a clip and stay on the field for 10 minutes per drive. That works real well later in the game when the other team's offensive has such a time on the field advantage, by Q3, Q4, the defense can barely stand.
3) Green Bay apparently only cares about how fast DBs are in the 40 when they make draft picks, coverage skills are irrelevant . That said, the fact is none of the the guys they have ever look at the QB/ball. In the end, the QB is either running down field 10 or 20 yards before any of them even realize it's not a pass, or they are committing pass interference at the last second because they have no idea what's going on. They have wasted so many early round picks on DBs over the last 5-10 years, it is ridiculous. Two, three years later, these guys are out of football, and the team is scrambling to pick up guys off the waiver wire. I admit there is a systemic coaching issue with DBs, probably from HS on, that favors speed overfootbal acumen, so the fact is, DBs are a complete crapshoot in the draft, more so than most other positions. It's a waste to draft them early. GB has made this mistake over and over.
4) Since his injury, Tonyan is clearly no longer the player he was. Dequara, though he never proved himself like Tonyan, sadly, also after his injury, is clearly not an NFL calibre player. Lewis is finished.
5) Gary's injury was a very tough, and a sad loss. This guy was really developing into a star. Before he got hurt, his 2022 motor simply did not stop!
6) Knew the moment I saw Christian Watson college highlights, this guy had big potential. Very happy how things are developing with him.
I could go on, but will stop here.
For many years now, having almost always been "in it," Packer fans have been spoiled.
There may have to be many lean years ahead to correct the deficiencies. That said, the head coach, or the management for that matter, has to at least recognize that there are issues.
It can happen. We have gone through this before.
Thanks
Good post.
I disagree that there have been a number of bad picks on the offensive line, with one exception. Josh Myers is mediocre, and if you take a center in round 2, the standard is that he's good. It's particularly galling because they passed on Creed Humphrey to take Myers, who was considered a better prospect, and Humphrey has been elite for KC ever since. But other than that, the drafting at OL has been fine/good. Newman is a backup caliber player, but he was a 4th round pick. Runyan as a solid starter in round 6 is a homerun. The biggest problem on the OL this season has been that the two players who should elevate the unit-- Bakh and Jenkins-- have been inconsistent while they recover from injury.
I agree that Barry has proven himself to be incapable of coordinating a successful defense. I fully expect him to be let go after the season is over. LaFleur can coach up an offense, but if he can't figure out how to build his defensive staff, it might prove to be an achilles heel.
The defensive backs are a mixed bag. Stokes might fit your description, but he was also better last year. Alexander and Douglas certainly have ball skills. Savage just plain stinks, and Amos has lost a step. I think the safeties are bad because they're in decline and the corners are bad because they're being mismanaged.
Tonyan was never a guy who was going to win against man coverage and create opportunities for himself. He needs to be schemed open. That was true before the injury as well. The Packers are doing a terrible job this year of running the offense as designed, and that has hurt Tonyan's production as much as anything. Deguara is in a similar boat. He's an H-back-- his value will come as a lead blocker and receiver when the team is playing under center. Rodgers won't/can't play under center, so Deguara is largely a non-factor. Lewis is just a Y who blocks in-line and he's still capable in that regard, but he's close to the end.
Gary has been a star for some time for those who are paying attention. It's telling how badly the defense fell apart without him.
My opinion-- this season has essentially been doomed by a trifecta of main problems:
1) The defense was loaded with talent and terribly mishandled. They were supposed to carry the team while the offense got in order, and they just couldn't.
2) Rodgers, in some combination, wouldn't or couldn't run the offense as designed and leveraged LaFleur into going back to some of his old ********-- static 11 personnel, no motion, no under-center PA, less condensed sets, etc. That was the case for most of the first half of the season. It obviously didn't work-- it's the same tired old style of offense that led to Rodgers' steep decline in 2015-18. But he has sway in the organization, so they tried it and it failed miserably. In more recent weeks, they've gone back to more of LaFleur's offense and the production has ticked back up. For people who disagree with this take, I would direct your attention to New York where a similar dynamic is unfolding. Mike LaFleur's offense has looked inoperable with Zach Wilson. Wilson obviously isn't anywhere near Rodgers overall, but he's similar in that his calling cards are second reaction plays and arm talent. Wilson doesn't want to run the design of the offense, and it's a disaster. Mike White, hardly some QB phenom, comes in, runs the offense as designed, and it's suddenly effective. That's not an accident.
3) Injuries on the offensive line at times have made the offense unworkable.
On the bright side, I don't think the Packers are
necessarily staring down the barrel of a long stretch of bad seasons. If (and this is clearly still an *if*) Love can play, they could rebuild around him relatively quickly. LaFleur can create effective offense without elite personnel if the QB is willing to run it.
What's beyond frustrating to me about this whole season is that Gutekunst didn't stick with his plan. He drafted Love despite all the blowback that can with the move. He sat him for two seasons to develop behind Rodgers. Last off-season was the time-- trade Rodgers for a haul and use a ton of draft capital to build around a new QB. He chickened out, gave Rodgers an extension and continued to sit Love. That's inexcusable. The Packers could have done what the Seahawks did, but they failed in the moment of testing. Drives me insane.
