Loss to Lions Finalizes Packers’ 2023 Schedule

The Green Bay Packers will play the third-place teams from the NFC East, NFC West and AFC North to round out their schedule.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 9, 2023 1:16 AM EST

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will play six games in 2023 against teams who qualified for this year’s NFL playoffs.

The loss to the Detroit Lions, and a few other outcomes on Sunday, tied up the loose ends on Green Bay’s 2023 schedule.

A 17-game schedule includes 14 predetermined games. For the Packers, that’s the home-and-away matchups against the NFC North for a total of six games and the eight matchups as part of the divisional scheduling rotation. For next season, that means games against each team from the NFC South and AFC West.

By losing to Detroit, Green Bay finished in third place in the NFC North. That means matchups against the third-place teams from the other NFC divisions (East and West) and Game 17 (AFC North). For the NFC East, it’s the playoff-bound New York Giants. For the NFC West, it’s last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams. For the AFC North, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers, who missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.

Green Bay’s 17 opponents posted a combined 137-151-1 record this year, a winning percentage of .476. Broken down home vs. away, Green Bay’s home slate will be much more demanding. Those eight opponents went 69-67, highlighted by the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs and the Justin Herbert-led Los Angeles Chargers.

The nine road opponents went 68-84-1. Only the Vikings and Giants qualified for the playoffs. The road slate is highlighted by a game against the Los Vegas Raiders and receiver Davante Adams.

A long offseason awaits a team that lost nine games this season after losing nine games the last three seasons combined.

“I want to make sure that we cover everything with a fine-tooth comb and look at every facet of our program and what we’re doing and what we’re asking guys to do,” coach Matt LaFleur said after the game. “And not only that, but the standards and the expectations that we have in each area. I think that a lot of times when you have success, certain things can get covered up by winning games, and I think everything has pretty much been exposed right now. So, we’ll take a look at everything in terms of how we operate and it’s just, it’s evident that whatever we did this year was not good enough.”