Five Reasons To Believe In 2023 Packers

The Green Bay Packers are coming off an 8-9 season and traded four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Nonetheless, here are five reasons to believe in 2023.

Author:
Jacob Westendorf
Publish date:
Jul 10, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers enter 2023 in a transition year. After more than a decade of certainty at the game’s most important position, they enter a year with a complete unknown under center.

For all the discussion about how the team is excited about Jordan Love, none of that really matters until the games are played.

At this time last year, the team was incredibly excited about its defense, and thought it’d have enough on offense to maintain the pace it had for the first three seasons under coach Matt LaFleur.

None of that excitement came to fruition after a clunky 3-1 start led to a five-game losing streak that put it in a deep hole it couldn’t quite dig out of.

Aaron Rodgers was playing with a broken thumb, which caused the offense to sputter.

The defense, for all the hype, was a disappointment before spearheading a late-season resurgence that left the team one game short of the playoffs.

All of the Packers’ fatal flaws were on display during the final game of the season against Detroit.

With a trip to the playoffs at stake, the offense had its moments but wasn’t good enough. The defense had stretches of dominance but, ultimately was unable to get a stop in a key situation to give the offense one more chance.

The performance led the front office to change quarterbacks and turn the team over to Love, and with it bring the uncertainty that faces the team in 2023.

Even with the uncertainty, here are five reasons to be excited about the Packers in 2023.

Elite Ground Game

AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones (Photo by Samantha Madar/USA Today Sports Images)

Aaron Jones is back. He may not get the attention that bigger names like Jonathan Taylor or Derrick Henry might garner. He has, however, been nearly as effective during his tenure in Green Bay.

Jones has averaged 5.1 yards per carry since entering the NFL in 2017. He ran for more than 1,100 yards last season and caught an additional 59 passes.

Some of the Packers’ best games under LaFleur have come when Jones was the focal point of the offense.

With Rodgers out the door, there is no better time to make Jones their primary focus. A young quarterback’s best friend is a good ground game. That rushing attack is what LaFleur’s offense is built around.

The modern NFL requires more than one runner capable of carrying the load. The Packers have limited Jones’ usage in past years to try and preserve him for postseason play.

That may not be a luxury they have this year, but when they do turn to another back, AJ Dillon is more than capable.

He didn’t have the year that he was hoping for last year, thanks in large part to a slow start. By the end of the year, however, he looked more like the 2021 version of Dillon that made defenders think twice about how badly they wanted to tackle him.

He enters 2023 in a contract year. He should be motivated to earn a new contract with a team that has shown a willingness to pay running backs in the recent past.

If you’re looking at one-two punches in the NFL, you won’t find many better than what the Packers’ backfield boasts.

Healthy Offensive Line

The best offensive line the Packers have had in the last decade came in Aaron Rodgers’ 2014 MVP campaign.

David Bakhtiari, Josh Sitton, Corey Linsley, T.J. Lang, and Bryan Bulaga started 15 of 16 games together, with only Bulaga missing a game. The Packers would boast the best offense in the NFL that season and should have played on Super Bowl Sunday.

The 2022 group was the direct opposite.

Their opening day lineup consisted of Yosh Njiman at left tackle, Jon Runyan Jr. at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Jake Hanson at right guard and Royce Newman at right tackle.

Elgton Jenkins would return to knock Hanson out of the lineup the following week.

By the midpoint of the season, Jenkins was no longer playing tackle, finding a home at his more natural guard position.

Zach Tom played everywhere except for center last season. David Bakhtiari was in and out of the lineup with a knee injury that requires constant monitoring along with an appendectomy that cost him three games late in the year.

Health is never a guarantee on the offensive line, but the Packers at least are starting with their top six preferred linemen healthy and ready to play.

Tom and Njiman will battle for the starting right tackle job. Both players are better equipped for that job than last year’s opening day starter, Newman.

Beyond that, Bakhtiari and Jenkins form one of the best left sides of the offensive line in football. The coaching staff has been high on Myers. Runyan has been as solid as they come since taking over as a full-time starter in 2021.

There are no guarantees when it comes to availability, but the Packers are starting in a much better spot than a year ago.

Christian Watson

If you had paused Christian Watson’s rookie season in the first quarter of a Nov. 13 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, it would have gone down as a complete disaster.

Watson’s first play of his career would have been the lasting image from the 2022 season.

His rookie season would have been plagued by injuries starting in training camp and extending throughout the first half of the season.

Then, perhaps by necessity, the Packers continued to go to him. He scored three touchdowns against Dallas, including one that tied the game at 28.

From there, Watson took off. After not scoring a touchdown in the first half of the season, Watson scored seven in the second half. He finished with the third-most touchdown receptions by a rookie in the team’s illustrious history.

By the end of the year, Watson was the team’s best receiver. A focal point of its offense.

Now, with the benefit of a healthy offseason, Watson has a chance to build on a second half of the season that had him looking like the Packers’ next great second-round receiver.

Talented Defense

Joe Barry’s defense was supposed to carry the day as the Packers tried to find their way on offense after trading Davante Adams.

It had its moments early in the season, including shutting down Tom Brady for a 14-12 win at Tampa Bay. Through an up-and-down season, the unit rarely played to its talent level on a consistent basis.

After making some adjustments, Barry’s crew led the way for a four-game winning streak that put the Packers on the brink of playoff berth. Its shining moment came in shutting down Justin Jefferson and a high-powered Minnesota Vikings offense for the last win on that streak.

The quarterbacks it faced in that stretch weren’t exactly murderer’s row – Justin Fields, Baker Mayfield, Tua Tagovailoa and Kirk Cousins – but the defense held up its end of the bargain by forcing 12 turnovers and giving up 17 points per game.

That defense will return eight of 11 preferred starters from a season ago. It added another first-round pick with Iowa pass rusher Lukas Van Ness coming aboard.

Rashan Gary is one of the top edge rushers in football and could be ready early in the season. Preston Smith has been rock solid since signing in Green Bay in 2019. Kenny Clark is still a premier player.

Eric Stokes missed the majority of last season but could give a secondary that boasts Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas a boost and key depth.

With first-round picks Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt entering their second year, there’s talent all over the place on Green Bay’s defense.

Barry is likely coaching for his job in 2023, which could lead to a greater focus for the entire unit.

The defense is not short on talent. If it can play close to its talent, it can finish in the top-10.

Keisean Nixon

Rex Grossman is often tossed around as a punchline for quarterbacks that have made a Super Bowl appearance. One of the biggest reasons he was able to play in that Super Bowl was the presence of the greatest return man the NFL has ever seen.

Devin Hester, combined with Lovie Smith’s great defense, helped lead the Chicago Bears in 2006 to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1985.

Nobody is expecting Keisean Nixon to be in-his-prime Hester. In fact, the Packers weren’t even expecting him to be their returner when they signed him last offseason. Instead, he was blocking for Amari Rodgers.

As Rodgers fumbled the job away, Nixon was thrown into the fire and never looked back.

Despite not having the job for a full season, Nixon earned first-team All-Pro honors, averaged 28.8 yards per kickoff return and amassed more than 1,000 yards as a kickoff returner. That includes a 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the Vikings.

Nixon had as much of an impact as you can have as a returner in today’s NFL.

With Nixon, the Packers have the ability to shorten fields for an offense that could be inconsistent throughout the year. It’s a weapon few teams have, putting the Packers ahead of the curve in that phase of the game.