The Green Bay Packers appear to be stuck in limbo entering the 2025 NFL season.
Sports Illustrated’s Bill Huber raised the alarm that the Packers roster may be good, but not great.
Noting that safety Xavier McKinney was the only Packers player to make Pro Football Network’s top 100 players in the NFL list, Huber argued that Green Bay’s lack of difference-makers may make it difficult to go far this season.
“Last season, the Packers finished 11-6 but wound up third in the NFC North because they went 1-5 in division play and 0-6 against the conference’s top teams,” Huber wrote on July 18. “That reality is reflected in PFN’s rankings.”
Huber also noted that the division has pools of remarkably more talented players.
“The Detroit Lions, who won the NFC North the past two seasons, have seven players in the top 100, including five in the top 50. Safeties [Kerby] Joseph and Brian Branch were both ahead of McKinney,” Huber wrote. “The Minnesota Vikings, who joined the Lions in sweeping the past last season, have four players in the top 100, led by receiver Justin Jefferson at No. 15.”
The good news? The Chicago Bears did not have anyone make the list, although the roster is brimming with talent that could be elevated thanks to the addition of All-Pro guard Joe Thuney on the offensive line and head coach Ben Johnson.
However, the onus for Green Bay to surpass last year’s performance will hinge on a collective effort from many players who have yet to prove themselves.
Packers Defense Must Carry the Team
The Packers defense has its work cut out for it with a gauntlet of premier quarterback talent ahead.
Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott and Jared Goff twice are all notable matchups with quarterbacks who made PFN’s top-100 list.
While McKinney, coming off his first Pro Bowl nod, will lead the charge for a borderline top-five Green Bay defense, he admitted it’s going to take all 11 players on the field to truly make a difference.
“That next step I think is to have one of the best defenses in the league,” McKinney said during OTAs. “That’s what we’re aiming for. We’re trying to be a defense that always creates turnovers, that plays with a level of intensity where the offense can’t match us, and I think we got the guys to do that. Obviously, we still got the coaches to do that. I think that’s the next step for us.”
QB Jordan Love Must Prove PFN Wrong
GettyPackers quarterback Jordan Love.
Among 12 quarterbacks listed on PFN’s top-100 list, Jordan Love was nowhere to be found.
To Love’s credit, he played injured last year and upped his efficiency with little drop-off in production.
However, it was far from the step forward many had hoped for after the Packers awarded him a lucrative contract that demands more from the quarterback position.
This season will be telling about Love’s future after Green Bay bucked tradition and spent a first-round pick on Matthew Golden.
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