Eliminated by 49ers, Packers Lay Foundation for Next Run of Greatness
GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the 13th consecutive year, the Green Bay Packers failed in their quest to win a 14th NFL championship. While the 2023 season ended with a crushing divisional-round playoff loss at the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night, the stage has been set for another prolonged run of being perennial Super Bowl contenders.
In a city called Titletown, the Packers don’t hang banners for wild-card playoff victories. There are no parades for progress. No bouquets are thrown for 10-9 overall records.
But this season was never about this season. With the momentous change at quarterback and enormous salary-cap problems to navigate, this season was always about laying the foundation for future seasons.
The foundation has been laid by general manager Brian Gutekunst. And it is strong. One team executive from an NFC team, who was not high on Love before the 2020 NFL Draft, predicted the Packers would win multiple Super Bowls with Love.
The youngest team in the NFL this season probably wasn’t supposed to become the youngest team to win a playoff game since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. But they got to the playoffs, and even won a game, and accumulated a bunch of big-game experience in the process. Those experiences should make the team better in the long run.
The most important of those foundational bricks was determining whether Jordan Love was capable of replacing Aaron Rodgers. And by replacing, it wasn’t about the simple act of stepping into the starting lineup. It wasn’t about being competent. It was about being the centerpiece of the next generation.
Remember, as one of the greatest players in NFL history, Rodgers gave the Packers a chance every season. While he failed to get back to the Super Bowl after winning it all in 2010, Rodgers got the team to the threshold with NFC Championship Game appearances in 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020.
With 83 career passing attempts and one failed start under his belt, was Love going to be bad, great or somewhere in between?
The first half of the season, when the Packers dropped four consecutive games to tumble to 2-5 and Love was last in the NFL in completion percentage, wasn’t encouraging.
“We’ve got 10 games left,” Gutekunst said at the time. “These are going to be very important 10 games, and I think he’s done a lot of really good things. Really like the way he’s responded to the adversity, how he’s led the team. We’ve got to be better as a unit, and I expect that to happen over the next 10 games.
“I think that we’re going through some things that we knew we would go through. We haven’t had the results that we want, but I do like the way guys are responding to things.”
When Love failed to deliver a signature drive for the third time this season in a loss at Pittsburgh, the Packers were 3-6. At that point, there was a good chance the Packers would have a top-10 draft pick, maybe even a top-five pick. It seemed possible Love would be one-and-done.
Instead, starting with a come-from-behind victory over the Chargers, Love got hot. If the first goal this season was to determine whether Love was the guy – and he is – then the second goal was getting Love hundreds of game reps with an impossibly young group of receivers and tight ends.
Gutekunst took a massive gamble by not giving Love a bit of veteran support in the passing game this offseason. The focus was on building a road for the future rather than making for a smoother road now.
Love was great down the stretch, thanks in no small part to the rapid development of rookie receivers Jayden Reed and Donayvion Wicks and rookie tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft. Maybe the Packers don’t have a Davante Adams – or maybe they do – but there appears to be an overwhelming amount of firepower with the four rookies, Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson and Bo Melton.
“I think nobody had a lot of expectations coming into it,” Love said before Week 18. “We know every week, we’re trying to put our best foot forward, go out there and win every game, and put ourselves in position to get in the playoffs. As the season’s gone on, there’s been highs, there’s been lows, and we’ve been able to learn a little bit about what the team’s all about. There’s been a lot of lessons throughout the season, but I’m happy to say we’re in position to get in the playoffs if we win this last game.”
With the launch pad built, the Love-led passing game should be ready for liftoff in 2024.
“I can’t say enough great things about him,” LaFleur said after the Week 17 victory at the Vikings. “Just his ability to hang in there vs. some tough looks, drifting away from pressure, putting the ball in play, allowing his guys to go make plays. I think he’s playing at an incredibly high level. Super-happy for him because he’s put in a ton of work to get to this point. I really think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s just showing a glimpse of what he can ultimately be.”
A few days later, with the Packers getting ready for Week 18 at the Bears, LaFleur heaped more praise on Love.
“He’s a tough-minded sucker. His family did a hell of a job raising him just in terms of what he’s all about. I think you guys would all agree, the ones that know him in here: He’s about the right shit. He’s about all the right things. The guy just comes to work every day, has a great attitude, is one of the guys, has really improved over the course of four years. I’m just super-happy for him. He’s earned it.”
A win over Chicago got the Packers into the playoffs, where they destroyed the Dallas Cowboys. Love’s 157.3 passer rating was the highest ever for a visiting quarterback in a playoff game.
There are enormous challenges coming. It’s a lot easier for a team to go from out of the playoffs one year to in the playoffs the next, like the Packers accomplished this year, than it is to take the big step to the Super Bowl.
What will the Packers do with defensive coordinator Joe Barry? Is the defensive roster equipped to stop the run? Assuming he wants to be in Green Bay, can Jaire Alexander return to form? With or without Alexander, the Packers need another cornerback. Is the offensive line good enough? Who will be the running backs? Can Watson get past his hamstring injuries? The salary cap will be a challenge again, as well.
However, by winning four consecutive must-win games to get to San Francisco, a young team got a lot of big-game experience that should pay dividends.
With a great quarterback, anything is possible. The Packers, impossibly, might have another great quarterback. There should be a Super Bowl – or Super Bowls – in their future.
“I think any time you go through a struggle and you can come out the other side, you’re usually better for it,” LaFleur said. “We’ve certainly faced our fair share of adversity in all phases and our guys continue to fight. They continue to battle. They continue to show up on a daily basis with a great attitude and the willingness to work and, when you do that, good things happen.”
