Five Predictions for Green Bay Packers in 2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The winds of change blew in 2023 for the Green Bay Packers.
Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets, helping give way to the Jordan Love era.
Love's first campaign as a starter, regardless of whether or not they make the playoffs, cannot be seen as anything other than a success.
After a midseason slump, Love has been red hot since the calendar turned to November. His performance can give the team confidence that it’s found its quarterback of the future, meaning it can use its draft and free-agent capital to build around him instead of trying to replace him.
With the calendar set to move to 2024, here are five predictions for how the Packers will move forward.
Matt LaFleur Fires Joe Barry, Hires Brandon Staley
Here's the biggest storyline that most of you are looking for.
Yes, the Packers are going to replace their defensive coordinator at the end of the season.
They have to.
Maybe coach Matt LaFleur wanted to give Joe Barry a chance to win his job back after they lost 34-20 at Lambeau Field to Tampa Bay.
Barry's second chance in Carolina ended up being a giant dud. Bryce Young had the best game of his young career. Carolina piled up more than 390 yards and would have had a chance to tie the game if there were 1 more second on the clock.
Barry has run out of chances. The question then becomes who LaFleur will choose as the replacement.
The guess here, however, is that LaFleur will want someone that he is comfortable with.
LaFleur and ousted Chargers coach Brandon Staley don't have direct history with each other but they have a mutual friendship. Staley was on Rams coach Sean McVay's staff as defensive coordinator in 2020. McVay and LaFleur have a long-standing relationship.
LaFleur likes the defensive style that Staley runs, which was part of the motivation to hire Barry.
When LaFleur was asked last offseason if he was keeping Barry, he pointed to continuity as a big reason why.
"I think continuity is a big part of success in this league. "When you feel good about the people, then you’ve just got to work hard to improve," LaFleur said.
The only coach from the disappointing 2022 season that did not return for 2023 was defensive backs coach Jerry Gray, whose contract expired.
With a desire for continuity and an emphasis on relationships in the NFL, the guess is LaFleur will lean that direction and hope Staley can recapture the magic from his 2020 Rams team.
Packers Keep David Bakhtiari
David Bakhtiari's return to the field this year lasted all of one game.
Bakhtiari was excellent in the season opener against the Chicago Bears before missing two games and being placed on injured reserve.
Bakhtiari admitted at the time he knew there was a business side to the game and that he could have played his last game in Green Bay.
While the Packers could save some money on the salary cap, the guess here is they will see more value in having him around the team than paying him to play against them.
Rasheed Walker has improved down the stretch of the season, but keeping Bakhtiari could allow them to move Walker to right tackle and kick Zach Tom inside to center. They also could use Walker as the swing tackle to serve as insurance in case Bakhtiari’s latest surgery fails to revive his career.
As we've seen around the league, there's no such thing as too many quality offensive linemen. The Packers rostered 10 this season. They paid Yosh Njiman more than $4 million this season, and he's been mostly a backup.
If Bakhtiari is agreeable, and publicly at least, he's said he is, the Packers and Bakhtiari could find common ground to keep him in the fold for at least one more season.
Jordan Love Gets Contract Extension
Jordan Love and the Packers made a compromise on his contract situation this past offseason.
With the deadline for his fifth-year option on his rookie contract looming, the Packers and Love agreed to a deal that got Love more money upfront and bought the Packers time.
The Packers could just let Love play out his final season on his contract and choose to extend him after another season of play, but that seems unlikely for two reasons.
1.) Teams don't typically operate with a quarterback that is essentially a lame-duck.
2.) It's hard to envision GM Brian Gutekunst, who put his career on the line to draft Love, not being convinced that he's the guy after this strong stretch of play.
Gutekunst and the Packers have their guy, and they'll reward him with an extension as soon as the rules permit them to do so. That would be May 2, 2024.
Packers Trade for Old Friend
Perhaps the boldest of these predictions will be what the Packers will do to augment their offense.
Sure, there are rumblings that the New York Jets will pursue Davante Adams this offseason to reunite him with Aaron Rodgers.
Those rumblings have existed since Rodgers was traded.
What if, however, Adams felt as if he wanted to make amends for a mistake he made two years ago?
Adams was traded to the Raiders for a litany of reasons, mostly that he wanted stability at the quarterback position.
The Jets do not offer that, even with Rodgers. He may only play for a season or two.
The Raiders did not offer that as they released Derek Carr after Adams' first season in Las Vegas.
A Davante Adams reunion in 2024?
Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images
The Packers, armed with two second-round picks, could see an opportunity to add a superstar to a receiving corps that has had to learn on the fly in 2023.
My guess is Anders Carlson would be willing to give Adams his old number.
Packers Draft Defense in First Round
With the Packers' defense plummeting toward the bottom of the league once again, the question isn't what side of the ball they'll spend their first-round pick on, but which position?
The Packers could use help on defense almost anywhere.
Their pass rush isn't good enough. The defensive line looks like Swiss cheese against the run. The secondary, thought to be a strength, is in shambles.
The guess here is with Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes' injury issues, and only Anthony Johnson being under contract in the safety room, it'll be another defensive back when Green Bay is on the clock in April.
