10 Most Important Packers for Potential Bounce-Back Game at Giants

This is a bounce-back game for the Green Bay Packers.

Or at least it should be when they play at the New York Giants on Sunday.

The reality is pretty simple. The Packers need a win badly.

“Like I told the team today,” coach Matt LaFleur said, “I don’t care if we win 3-0 or 49-48.”

With two consecutive losses at home against NFC opponents, the Packers should not care this week. With three consecutive games coming up against division rivals, here are the 10 most important Packers going into what could be considered a must-win game against the Giants.

10. WR Matthew Golden

If you came out of Monday’s loss against the Eagles thinking Green Bay’s passing game needed a little more juice, you were not wrong.

Jordan Love and Green Bay’s passing offense sputtered with Tucker Kraft out of the lineup, and Love was held without a touchdown pass for a second consecutive game.

Matthew Golden missed that game with a shoulder injury, and is listed as questionable for this week’s game against the Giants. It appears he’s trending toward playing, and Green Bay needs him.

Golden’s numbers are not going to blow anyone away at this stage of his rookie season, but his talent has been evident when he’s been on the field.

“He’s good. He’s definitely been even-keeled from what I’ve seen,” fellow receiver Christian Watson said. “You could ask any wide receiver in here and they’re all going to tell you that they’d be happy getting the ball more. I wouldn’t say he doesn’t want to get the ball more. I know he does, but he’s still the same confident guy that we saw walking in here.”

While Golden may want the ball more, he said he’s not sweating the lack of opportunities.

“I just expect to do what I need to do,” he said. “Just be where my feet are and, whenever my number, is called I know I’m going to be ready and, whenever the ball is in the air, do my best to make a play. Run game, I’m going to block as hard as I can and just try to contribute to the team whenever I don’t have the ball in my hands.”

Against the Giants, the Packers would be well served to get the ball in the hands of their talented rookie, not just for this game but to get him going for the stretch run.

As an honorable mention, it’s receiver Romeo Doubs, who not only leads the team in receptions but is the punt returner. He’ll have to make key plays in the passing game and handle the left-footed punting of Jamie Gillan, whose variety of kicks have given returners fits.

9. DT Devonte Wyatt

There’s a troubling trend starting to develop in Devonte Wyatt’s career. He starts the season red hot before suffering an injury that either slows him down or knocks him out for a few weeks. When he returns from the injury, he has not been as impactful.

Wyatt started the 2024 season with three sacks and six TFLs to combine with nine pressures in the first three games. After missing three games with an ankle injury, he had zero sacks or tackles for losses and nine pressures in his next seven games.

This season, Wyatt started with 11 pressures in the first two games before suffering a knee injury against Cleveland in Week 3. Since then, Wyatt has just seven pressures in five games.

Green Bay’s got plenty of juice on the edge with Micah Parsons remaining a terror, but they need someone to push the pocket on the interior. Wyatt is their best interior rusher, and needs to play like it for the defense to become the dominant group Jeff Hafley envisions them being.

8. DE Rashan Gary

Micah Parsons is a Texas tornado rushing the passer. While he did not have a sack in Monday’s loss to the Eagles, he pressured Jalen Hurts seven times. Rashan Gary, Parsons’ running-mate, had just two. He had three against Carolina the week prior.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) is stopped by the Packers' Rashan Gary in 2022. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

That’s not bad output from Gary, but with Green Bay’s secondary being inconsistent they need more from their front. You know what you’re getting from Parsons on a weekly basis. He’s a superstar, and he’s going to garner a lot of attention.

Gary is going to get more one-on-one matchups than he has throughout his career. With him returning to his home state this weekend, the Packers need a big game for his homecoming. It won’t be easy. The Giants have excellent bookend tackles in Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor.

7. QB Jordan Love

Gene Hackman’s character in The Replacements once told his quarterback, Shane Falco, that winners always want the ball when the game is on the line.

Jordan Love won’t come out and say that he wants to be more aggressive throwing the football, but having that burden is something he relishes.

The other reality is that in the last two games, Green Bay’s offense has scored 20 points, and some of that rests on the shoulders of the quarterback. Love in particular had two really bad turnovers the last two weeks, one of which took three points off the board.

“I think for me personally, it’s always any time you have a turnover. The turnover, the fumble, that’s definitely the hardest part for me,” Love said this week. “Knowing the situation we were in right there, needing points and just looking back on it is tough. You’ve got to be smarter in those situations and take care of the ball at all times.”

Green Bay’s offense needs to dig out of the slump it is in. When we last saw the Packers’ offense humming, it was the second half against Pittsburgh, where Love was brilliant, completing 20 consecutive passes en route to a 35-point eruption against the Steelers’ defense.

The Giants’ defense is not good – it ranks 20th in opponent passer rating – and something elite quarterbacks do is beat up on bad defenses. The Packers are going to follow their leader on offense, and that needs to be Love.

6. RB Josh Jacobs

Green Bay so badly wants to be able to establish its run game.

So far, that’s been an exercise in futility.

Josh Jacobs has been excellent this season, but the numbers do not show it. He’s only averaging 3.8 yards per carry, with 3.2 of those yards coming after contact, according to Next Gen Stats. It’s hard for any running back to get rolling in the run game if he’s getting hit in the backfield constantly.

“It’s definitely hard,” Jacobs said. “It’s hard for me, man, just in general, not even just a run game. We mess up plays at practice. I kind of get a little frustrated honestly, especially when I do it, you know?

“But I think it’s one of those things where, obviously, you can’t be perfect in this game, but it definitely should look a certain type of way. And that’s the thing that I’ll be trying to preach to the guys. I’m like, ‘Man, we’re not going to be perfect, but at least have the effort and at least have the strain and the intentionality that it looks a certain type of way.’ I think that’s bigger than the mistake, honestly.”

If there were ever a team the Packers should get their run game on track against, it’s the Giants. New York is ranked 31st in rushing yards allowed per game and 32nd in rushing yards allowed per attempt. The Giants are 32nd against the run in almost any situation you can dream up.

Will Jordan Love even attempt a pass on Sunday pic.twitter.com/qoXiqGy8Jn
— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) November 14, 2025

If the Packers are going to get teams out of these shell coverages that have plagued them for most of the season, coach Matt LaFleur insists they have to be able to run those teams out of shell coverages. This week needs to be a start.

5. C Sean Rhyan

A third-round pick in 2022, Sean Rhyan’s never truly been entrenched as a full-time player. However, with Elgton Jenkins going down for what probably will be the rest of the season, Rhyan is the team’s new center.

Breaking in a new center is a tough spot for any team, but especially one that has played musical chairs as much as Green Bay has on the offensive line this season. Entering this season, almost all of Rhyan’s career snaps had come at right guard. However, he played 56 snaps at left guard against Carolina and the final 41 at center against Philadelphia.

After being shuffled through the interior positions throughout the offseason and training camp, he should be more comfortable playing in just one spot.

“Good, because I know where I’ll be,” Rhyan said this week. “It allows me to kind of focus on center technique and doing all that. It’ll help take some off my mental plate a little bit throughout the week, so that’s good.”

Regardless, there could be some challenges with the operation of the offensive line and getting the play off while breaking in someone who has never started at center since getting into the league.

The Packers have enough issues up front, they need Rhyan to be ready to make a relatively seamless transition.

“He’s a very smart, a very smart player,” running back Josh Jacobs said. “When we go to the meetings, really, since I’ve been here, he’s always the one answering all the questions. He gets called on the most and he’s the guy that they know is going to have the right answer every time.

“I have a major respect for a guy like that. And you know he’s going to grind, man. I mean, that’s one thing I know about him. He’s been sore and things like that, but he’s still going to grind. He’s always going to be a guy that I know what I’m going to get out of him. So, I respect him a lot for that.

4. S Xavier McKinney

This week is not quite the return of Micah Parsons to Dallas, but Xavier McKinney will be facing his old team on Sunday.

McKinney spent the first four seasons of his career in New York before being allowed to leave in free agency, when the Packers joyfully signed him to a four-year contract making him the highest paid safety in football at the time.

McKinney rewarded the Packers with an All-Pro season, and defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley thinks that McKinney is the best player at his position.

Revenge game? Must-win game?#Packers All-Pro Xavier McKinney is excited to play against his former team, the Giants, on Sunday. ⬇️https://t.co/a0odhgYStg
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 14, 2025

McKinney does not have the ball production this year with just two interceptions, but this week he could be in line for more opportunities to take the ball away. With starter Jaxson Dart out with a concussion, Jameis Winston will start for the Giants this week. Like a volume shooter in basketball, he has an ability to keep both teams in the game.

Winston joined the rare 30/30 club in 2019, his final season as the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with 33 touchdowns to an eye-popping 30 interceptions.

“He’ll give opportunities, for sure but, at the same time, he could make plays as well,” McKinney said. “We can’t just go out there thinking that the game is just going to be given to us because it’s not. We got to go out there and earn it.”

Green Bay needs to start earning more takeaways. They have just three interceptions this season. McKinney could be the man for the job, and Winston could be the man to give them those opportunities.

3. WR Christian Watson

Watson was a surprise addition to the injury report this week but said he was just “football sore.” He practiced on Friday and isn’t on the final injury report of the week. That was a welcome sight after spending nearly nine months being sore rehabbing from a torn ACL.

Since Watson’s return, he has not put up gaudy numbers, but remains their big-play threat. He leads the team with a career-high 23.5 yards per catch and has at least one reception of more than 20 yards in each game.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson (9) reacts after making a long catch against the Panthers. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

LaFleur has said he’s not going to force-feed his receivers, but he is their biggest big-play threat, and has been since entering the league in 2022.

Watson is someone who should be a focus in the passing game. Not only can he make plays down the field, but his speed pulls defenders toward him, which opens up opportunities for teammates.

“Oh, it’s been great. His explosive plays that he’s made have really been a big step forward with our offense.” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “That’s one thing every game, he just seems to come up with some huge plays. And that’s just the kind of player that he is, with his size and speed, his vertical threat, how he attacks the ball. Yeah, it’s been awesome.”

2. OTs Zach Tom/Rasheed Walker

The Giants do have one superpower on their roster, and it is their defensive line. That fits with the reputation of their team, which has seen players like Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck torment opposing quarterbacks in the last 20 years.

Their game-wrecker now is Brian Burns.

Burns, who the Packers passed over to draft Rashan Gary in the first round of the 2019 draft, has grown into one of the league’s best pass rushers. He is tied for the NFL lead with 11.5 sacks.

“He’s had a pretty dang good career up to this point,” coach Matt LaFleur said.

Burns moves around the defense. His snaps have been split relatively evenly between left side and right side, so he’ll go against both of Green Bay’s starting tackles, Rasheed Walker and Zach Tom.

With Kayvon Thibodeaux set to miss the game, that’s one less dynamic rusher that the Packers should have to worry about, but they will not be able to put an extra body on Burns every time they drop back to pass.

The Giants also have first-round pick Abdul Carter, the third pick of this year’s draft, and defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence has only a half-sack this season but had nine last year.

The Giants did not record a sack last week against Chicago, but they were consistently in the backfield with Caleb Williams performing Houdini acts to escape pressure.

Walker and Tom struggled last week against Jaelen Phillips. Love was under pressure on more than 40 percent of his dropbacks against the Eagles.

If that happens again, the Packers could be in trouble, no matter the Giants’ myriad of other problems.

1. Coach Matt LaFleur

OK, fine, the coach is not going to be on the field making any of the plays happen.

The reality is the head coach shoulders a lot of blame whenever things go wrong. That’s the nature of the job.

The other reality is that LaFleur was asked about his job security after last week’s loss, a question that likely seemed asinine before the season started. The longer LaFleur and the offense continue to struggle, the louder the noise surrounding his job will get.

The other reality is that LaFleur has seen his team struggle against inferior opponents all season. He’s used the same formula in those games.

In addition, he’s attempted to use the same formula in those games in trying to establish the Josh Jacobs-led running game. However, Green Bay ranks 20th in rushing and 25th in yards per carry. Jacobs averages less than a yard before contact, which is a testament to the type of blocking he’s received.

LaFleur needs to be willing to allow his quarterback to be more aggressive, which is something he welcomes.

“Definitely, as a player, you always want that,” Love said when asked if he’d like to be turned loose to get the team out of its funk. “You always want the pressure to be on you, to be able to get the team out of funks. But, at the end of the day, there’s 11 players on that field for a reason. You’ve got to trust everybody on the field and players got to make plays when the ball comes their way.

“You can’t be out there trying to play Superman ball and do too much at times. You’ve just got to trust the process and take one play at a time. But I love having the ball in my hands at all times, and I love that pressure.”

With the run game as anemic as it has been, this game is a good opportunity for LaFleur to switch things up in order to build a lead early, before trying to salt the game away with Jacobs late.

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So, Micah, how's your run defense? ⬇️https://t.co/xzh0ysxCm7
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 15, 2025