SI Picks Every Game; How Many Wins for Packers?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ over/under win total for the 2023 NFL season is 7.5 at FanDuel Sportsbook.
If he were a betting man, Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr would take the over.
“If I had to do this exercise over again, I would probably have the Packers win the division,” Orr wrote.
As he does every year, Orr picks the outcome for all 272 games. Orr came up with a robust record of 10-7 for Green Bay. That would be four more wins in Year 1 of the Jordan Love era than the Packers earned in Year 1 of the Aaron Rodgers era.
At sportsbooks, Green Bay’s total hasn’t budged off 7.5 wins. However, the odds have changed. Green Bay has gone from +100 to win 7.5 to -150.
With Jordan Love’s strong preseason and the promise of a more aggressive defense, Orr sees the Packers challenging the Detroit Lions for the NFC North title and finishing well ahead of the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings.
A strong season for the Packers isn’t farfetched. The early-season schedule appears soft. Through the first eight games, the Packers are set to face only one team that reached last year’s postseason. The three toughest opponents during that opening stretch have to come to Lambeau Field.
The Packers could have plenty to celebrate (Photo by Kareem Elgazzar/USA Today Sports Images)
However, Orr didn’t envision the Packers feasting on the relative cupcakes. In fact, with back-to-back losses at the Raiders and Broncos on either side of the bye, the Packers were just 3-3 in his projection. However, the Packers got rolling from there with a four-game winning streak against the Vikings, Rams, Steelers and Chargers.
After a skid, Orr had the Packers winning three of their last four games. That includes the Week 18 home game against the Chicago Bears.
As he tries to maintain ownership over the Bears, Love isn’t the only fresh face. The Packers emerged from the 53-man cutdown with the youngest roster in the NFL. That might not be a bad thing after the middle-aged Packers finished just 8-9 last year.
“Sometimes, youth can be a benefit,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said. “It’s a young man’s game and you need the legs, you need the speed. Certainly, there’s an experience factor these guys are going to go through. For me, the expectation’s to go out and try to win every game that we play. You’re not going to win them all. In my lifetime, nobody has. At the same time, you’ve got to learn and grow from every situation, whether we win or lose.
“The teams that have a chance to win a championship are the teams that are getting better each week and, toward the end of the season, are when they’re at their best. That’s what I expect, that’s my expectations. Hopefully, that will lead us to accomplish the goals that we want to accomplish. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the youth and all that, but it’s no excuse. These guys were brought in for us to be better – better than we were last year.”
Click here for all of Orr’s projections.
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