Happy Birthday to Packers Dynasty That Never Happened

Twelve years ago today, the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. They haven’t been back.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Feb 6, 2023 1:31 PM EST

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Exactly 12 years ago, the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. With one of the NFL’s elite young quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers, a great defense that finished second in the NFL in points allowed and one of the best coaches in the business, the Packers weren’t just NFL champions.

They were a budding dynasty.

“If Green Bay doesn’t win three titles in the next five or six seasons, I think it will have underachieved,” The Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami wrote that night. “That’s a high bar, but the Packers are worthy to aim for it.”

That was Rodgers’ intention.

At the welcome-home celebration at Lambeau Field, Rodgers basked in the MVP chants from a sold-out crowd of 56,000.

“I’ll tell you what, Green Bay: We’re going to be right here next year doing this exact same thing,” Rodgers said.

Why not? Rodgers and McCarthy were at the height of their powers. The offensive firepower surrounding Rodgers was superior. Charles Woodson, Clay Matthews and B.J. Raji were studs on defense. The team was incomprehensibly deep, with backup upon backup stepping in for the 11 Week 1 starters who missed a combined 86 games due to injuries.

“I really like our team,” coach Mike McCarthy said a day after the game and two days after he got the players fitted for their Super Bowl rings in one of the great motivational moves of all-time.

“I really like our structure, our program. We draft players, we develop them. We’ve been successful in doing that. We need to continue to do that because every year is a new year. This year for us is a great example of that.

“There are challenges out there in front of you that you don’t know that you’re going to hit, and when they hit, you have to be prepared and you have to fight through the adversity of every season because it’s always different. Every team is different, every season is different. I think the future is bright for our football team.”

Having successfully found his way out of Brett Favre’s enormous shadow, Rodgers knew what was ahead. Quarterbacks are judged on championships. A lot of quarterbacks had one championship. The list of two-time and three-time and more-time champions was shorter.

“I guess I ran out of motivations, huh?” Rodgers said with a smile the day after the game. “I always look for challenges. I think the challenge now goes to repeating, scrutinizing this season, finding ways to get better. …

“As far as where I compare to other quarterbacks in the league, that’s for you guys to determine and talk about. As a kid, I always wanted to obviously win a Super Bowl. Now that I’ve got one, it’s like, ‘Now what?’ Let’s go get another one.”

It’s almost impossible to believe that on Feb. 6, 2023, the Packers still haven’t got "another one" since that momentous night of Feb. 6, 2011.

The last vestiges of that team are Rodgers, who could be traded, and kicker Mason Crosby, who will be a free agent.

If Rodgers never plays another snap for the Packers, he will leave Titletown with an incredibly complicated legacy. Did he let down the team in clutch moments? Yes, at times. Did the team let him down, too? Yes.

This isn’t limited to the defense giving up about 600 rushing yards in playoff losses to the 49ers in 2012 and 2019, or all-time special teams meltdowns in 2014 and 2020.

Rodgers rose to his legendary greatness while surrounded by a star-studded receiver corps. In 2011, Randall Cobb was the team’s fifth receiver. In 2022, Allen Lazard was his No. 1.

What if the Packers had drafted Tee Higgins instead of Jordan Love in 2020? Or Deebo Samuel instead of Darnell Savage in 2019? Or Christian Kirk instead of Josh Jackson in 2018? Or JuJu Smith-Schuster instead of Josh Jones in 2017? Or Tyler Lockett instead of Quinten Rollins in 2015.

It goes beyond receivers. The late Ted Thompson believed in his draft-and-develop style to his core. It worked great when there were drafted players worthy of being developed. It failed when his drafts went bust and he didn't even consider filling in the gaps.

Oddly, the Packers might have won another championship had Thompson done as his successor, Brian Gutekunst, did this past offseason when he signed Jarran Reed, Rudy Ford, Keisean Nixon and Dallin Leavitt – four budget signings who provided hundreds of quality snaps. Had the Packers won 12 or 13 games again this season, he might have been up for Executive of the Year for those moves.

For years, Rodgers begged for a special teams that would at least play even with the opponent. He didn’t get even a decent third phase until 2022.

While Tom Brady made it look easy, winning the Super Bowl is hard. From 2008 through 2021, 14 Super Bowl champions have been crowned. Brady won four – three with New England and one with Tampa Bay. No other team has more than one, though that will change on Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles (champions of 2017) and the Kansas City Chiefs (champions of 2019) meet in Super Bowl LVII.

All those one-hit wonders probably felt like they could win another, too. They didn’t. So, Green Bay isn’t unique in that regard, but the combined two Super Bowl triumphs piloted by Brett Favre and Rodgers will haunt this franchise until they finally get back.

Regardless of whether it’s Rodgers or Love, getting back looks as insurmountable as climbing Mount Everest in a pair of Crocs, as difficult as digging a hole to China with a sandbox shovel. The team’s credit-card approach to keeping the roster together was the right one by Gutekunst but, at some point, the bill has to be paid.

Perhaps the right thing will be trading Rodgers, eventually getting back on the right side of the cap carousel and reloading with Love.

Then again, that's assuming Love is the man for the job. As was the case with Favre and Rodgers when they got their shots, who knows? Can the Packers really get three championship quarterbacks in a row? Or are they about to embark on an endless search and fade into the type of irrelevancy that has defined the likes of the Bears, Jets and Commanders?

For now, following a season in which the Packers failed to even get into the playoffs, all that’s left are the bittersweet memories of one of the great teams in NFL history becoming one of its greatest disappointments, as well.