The Need for Stars

[Dantés]

As I see it, this year's Packers had two major problems:

1) Jordan Love wasn't right for much of the year and played like it. Hopefully he can maintain health/consistency in 2025.

2) Gutekunst has constructed a roster that is chock full of B level players but has almost no game-tilting stars. It's the youngest team in the NFL, so that can change quickly, but it's the reality at the moment.

-Jordan Love looked like an emerging star down the stretch in 2023, but he never found consistency this season.

-Josh Jacobs is probably on that level, but he's more of a grinder than a guy who is going to create explosive plays.

-Tucker Kraft is on his way and should get there, but it hasn't happened yet.

-The receiving corps, the offensive line, and the defensive line embody this dynamic to a T-- lots of above-average NFL players; no one who takes games over.

-At linebacker, Edgerrin Cooper looks like a great candidate to become a star but he isn't one at the moment.

-McKinley is the clearest, bonafide "A+" level player on the roster.

-The corners stink out loud. The only good one, Jaire, has become completely unreliable.

The goal/hope for 2025 must be helping Love find consistency AND finding/developing more star level players.

 

[tynimiller]

As I see it, this year's Packers had two major problems:

1) Jordan Love wasn't right for much of the year and played like it. Hopefully he can maintain health/consistency in 2025.

2) Gutekunst has constructed a roster that is chock full of B level players but has almost no game-tilting stars. It's the youngest team in the NFL, so that can change quickly, but it's the reality at the moment.

-Jordan Love looked like an emerging star down the stretch in 2023, but he never found consistency this season.

-Josh Jacobs is probably on that level, but he's more of a grinder than a guy who is going to create explosive plays.

-Tucker Kraft is on his way and should get there, but it hasn't happened yet.

-The receiving corps, the offensive line, and the defensive line embody this dynamic to a T-- lots of above-average NFL players; no one who takes games over.

-At linebacker, Edgerrin Cooper looks like a great candidate to become a star but he isn't one at the moment.

-McKinley is the clearest, bonafide "A+" level player on the roster.

-The corners stink out loud. The only good one, Jaire, has become completely unreliable.

The goal/hope for 2025 must be helping Love find consistency AND finding/developing more star level players.

#2 is 100% playing out to be the case, and primarily a lot of that IMO is due to B level prospects or C level prospects just not advancing further...Wicks took only the smallest of steps forward, Reed at best was stagnant from rookie year, Doubs appeared to have progressed in many aspects but injuries (and he still doesn't seem to be more than a solid WR2 in all likely.

The one thing majority of Packer fans are going to have to be okay with is in order to flip a B level constructed team is arguably letting go of some of those guys in favor of different ones which there are no guarantees they are better...and you can do this dance and fail much easier than do that dance and push it further.

What you presented is one reason why I think you cannot offer Myers money in the offseason. Centers are, I may be stretching it, a dime a dozen - ONLY the special ones really separate themselves and impact things. I'm fully okay with an aging veteran or a mid draft pick or even just saying Monk its yours plan on it.

I think Slaton is also another guy you let walk in the off season...again a big plugger like him is not easy to replace persay but he was NEVER special enough to justify us not rolling towards someone else.

Does this mean we move a guy like Jaire or even Jenkins a year early rather than a year late....possibly...is the risk worth it.

These are just a few of the items Gute is facing and many of these don't happen because it is always safer for a GM in Gutes' position to keep his job with what he has than risk becoming special or bust and likely lose it...

 

[El Guapo]

I agree that we don't have any Justin Jeffersons, but IMO what this team lacks is the kind of team leaders that encourage young players to be their best. Trash Rodgers as you please, but he pushed WRs to be great.

McKinney appears to be our best leader. I'm not sure that we have one on offense. We need more.

 

[Magooch]

Yep, that's pretty much exactly how I would put it.

Jacobs is a great back but he's generally not a "home run" type of guy. And unfortunately can end up getting scripted out of the game based on situation/circumstance, at times.

We have a lot of passcatchers with promise/potential, but with the exception of Kraft, pretty much none of them took the step that we expected/hoped for this season.

Investment in the DL has not panned out as expected at all. At corner we find ourselves in an awkward position where we have an elite shutdown corner but his availability is so limited at this point that it's basically impossible to account for when it comes to roster construction/planning (save for the cash considerations)

And I really just don't know still what we have in Love. Was late-2023 an anomaly? Did defenses get enough tape on him and adjust accordingly? Was 2024 due to inconsistency/injuries to those around him (be it OL, WR, etc)? Was he carrying nagging injuries all season? He's not going anywhere, so not much to do about it at the moment, but if nothing else I'm a little concerned that after 5 years in the league and 2 as a starter it still feels like a total mystery as to what we have in him.

I guess in short it feels like at the moment - specifically with regards to Love - it feels like we have constructed a roster that really needs an elite QB who can elevate everyone around him. And right now I am not sure if Love is (or will be?) the type of player who can take an average- to above-average squad and elevate it to the level of a championship contender. That's not to say he's awful or that we can't win games with him but it's really unclear to me as of yet as to if he'll be able to raise the level of play around him...and if he can't do that, I don't think this roster is good enough (as it stands) to make much noise.

 

[El Guapo]

Let's be realistic about LaFleur, in relation to Love.

I'll give LaFleur some props before I tear him down. He took on a problematic Aaron Rodgers and went made him great again. He then took an inexperienced Jordan Love into the second round of the playoffs last season. At times LaFleur is innovative and creative.

Unfortunately, the team seems to follow his lead - or lack there of. LaFleur doesn't have an identity on offense. We all know Dan Campbell's identity. What is LaFleur's? One week we feature Josh Jacobs and other weeks we don't. A good coach rides the hot hand but has several plans B, C, D, E, F, & G in case the opponent is able to stop you at what you do best. LaFleur is always searching without finding good answers. Where are the double tight end sets when all of your WRs are injured? Why aren't we using more TE's to take the heat off of Love?

LaFleur has also really struggled with time management and challenge flags. He's wasted timeouts challenging calls with marginal upside. Time management is atrocious in virtually all phases. We never have urgency when down by more than one score in the fourth quarter. We don't use time outs effectively. Most importantly, Matt rarely uses no-huddle or up-tempo offense to spark his team. This can be advantageous when the team needs a shot in the arm or at the end of games.

LaFleur brought in Robert Saleh to help scout his offense and make it better. Inexplicably, I think that the Packers offense got worse from that point on. Gutekunst for sure has a lot of work to do this offseason, but Matt LaFleur needs to figure out what he does best and find others to handle the things that he is substandard at performing. That will help unlock Jordan Love.

 

[Magooch]

LaFleur HAS to figure out our slow starts too. To give some credit (wherever exactly it is due, I'm not 100% sure) we have generally adjusted fairly well, and have often been able to fight our way back into games (To be fair though, I do think there is some debate regarding the context for these comebacks and whether or not we made it close against the same defenses that had previously stymied us, if you know what I mean). I've lost count of the times where there's been what should be a "big" game and it's felt like we've came out flat, undisciplined, unprepared and end up in a big hole early. Yeah, it's great that you don't just roll over and die, but continually starting games that way just isn't a recipe for success.

In six games against Philly, Minnesota, and Detroit this season, we were outscored 102-39 in the first half.
Heading into the fourth quarter of these games, the combined score had us down 150-73. Only two of those six were one-score games heading into 4Q.

I mean, take a really generic description of yesterday's game: "The Packers make early mistakes and dig themselves into a hole. They fight back and make it interesting - competitive even - but ultimately can't overcome their mistakes and get out of their own way and end up losing."

How many more games of ours could you affix that same description to?