Five Critical Questions Packers Must Address to Go From Good to Great

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are 5-2-1 and in first place in the NFC North. However, one brutal loss against the Panthers has completely changed the narrative around the team at the season’s midpoint.

If the Packers can’t beat the Panthers at Lambeau Field, how can they be taken seriously as a championship contender? It’s a fair question for a team in which every season should be Super Bowl or bust.

To answer that question requires answering these five questions as the Packers open the second half of the season on Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles.

1. Will Jordan Love’s Patience Be Rewarded?

Quarterback Jordan Love has a preferred way of doing business.

“I’m going to be an aggressive quarterback. I love taking shots downfield,” Love said after a big-play victory over Washington. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in my guys that they’re going to make plays when we get some of these opportunities.”

Defenses know it, so they’ve taken away those deep shots.

Over the last seven weeks, Love’s average air yards per target ranks toward the bottom of the NFL. By and large, he’s adapted well. He ranks among the NFL leaders in completion percentage and passer rating. Even after laying an egg against Carolina, the Packers are 11th in scoring. They’d be seventh had one of those red-zone failures last week resulted in a touchdown.

Love did throw one horrible interception against Carolina, when he forced a deep shot into coverage on first-and-10. It’s those occasional blunders that mean some nagging questions about Love’s ability to win a championship.

Here’s the thing: It’s easy to settle for short completions when those plays result in bigger gains. Before last week, Love was the No. 1 beneficiary of yards after the catch per completion. There might not have been a better YAC threat in the NFL than tight end Tucker Kraft. With Kraft out for the season, who will consistently turn a 1-yard pass into a gain of 6 or 8 or 10? If Love’s patience isn’t going to be rewarded, it’s going to be hard to stay patient.

The key for Green Bay will be running the ball so well that one of the deep safeties has to come to the line of scrimmage to account for Josh Jacobs. Until and unless that happens, it’s going to be up to Love to stay patient – even if he’d rather not.

2. Will Elgton Jenkins Become Quality Center?

The Packers’ offensive line was overrun in last year’s playoff game at the Eagles. In response, general manager Brian Gutekunst decided to not re-sign center Josh Myers to a bargain-basement contract. Instead, he gave Aaron Banks an enormous contract to play left guard and moved Pro Bowl left guard Elgton Jenkins to center.

“We feel he’s got a chance to be an All-Pro center,” Gutekunst said.

Jenkins agreed. He’d wanted to move to center, anyway, and embraced the change.

Green Bay Packers center Elgton Jenkins (74) against the Arizona Cardinals. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“I feel like the sky’s the limit, honestly,” he said. “I can be an All-Pro, Pro Bowl, same guy – probably even better, honestly. We’re just going to see.”

That hasn’t been the case. At all.

Center is a difficult position because there’s so much going on. Typically, the center is in charge of line calls and getting everything coordinated between the line and the quarterback. That’s easy in a vacuum but difficult in the heat of the moment when defenses are adjusting to the offense’s adjustments.

It wasn’t a nonstop problem against Carolina, but the Panthers had too many defenders running free on Sunday. Say what you want about Myers’ ability as a blocker, but that didn’t happen when he was in charge.

“I wouldn’t put that on Elgton at all,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “Those are things that we talked about with the protections, those are adjustments that some of them are on the quarterback, some of them are on Elgton, some of them are on the schemes where we’ve just got to do a better job with the plays that we call. It’s definitely not on Elgton, though.”

Nonetheless, it’s probably a reasonable assumption that there might be fewer mental errors had Jenkins been even a limited participant in the offseason program.

Jordan Love is being pressured (28.1% of dropbacks) at the highest rate any Packers QB has in a season under Matt LaFleur.@PaulHembo
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) November 6, 2025

It’s not all Jenkins’ fault. Not even close. Jordan Love has been under siege on too many passing plays and Josh Jacobs hasn’t had a prayer on too many running plays. Right guard Jordan Morgan, for instance, was beaten on a red-zone sack and the fourth-down debacle last week.

For the Packers to be considered a real Super Bowl contender, the offensive line must play better. That starts with the man in the middle growing into the role.

3. Can Luke Musgrave Successfully Restart Career?

In 11 games as a rookie in 2023, Luke Musgrave caught 34 passes. Had it not been for a lacerated kidney, he was on pace to finish his debut season with 53 receptions for 544 yards and two touchdowns. The franchise rookie records for a tight end were 34 catches (by Bubba Franks and matched by Musgrave) and 363 yards (Franks). Among all Packers tight ends, the catch count would have ranked 12th.

The injury, of course, changed everything. It opened the door for Tucker Kraft, who slammed the door behind him and threw the key somewhere in a cornfield in South Dakota.

Kraft’s torn ACL has changed everything again. The door has reopened for Musgrave, and they’ll need him to take advantage.

Musgrave came into Sunday’s game against Carolina with six receptions for 54 yards. On the final possession alone, he caught three passes for 34 yards.

Green Bay Packers tight end Luke Musgrave (88) catches a pass against the Carolina Panthers during the game at Lambeau Field. | Tork Mason-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

“I’m not super into the stat line,” Musgrave said on Thursday. “I think if I were to catch those or not, I think I would’ve been happy with how I ran them. I’m focused on how I show up on film, that I’m playing with good energy, good effort, and if I get those three receptions, it’s great. If not, and we still score, we still scored and that’s what I’m interested in is scoring.”

Musgrave will never fill Kraft’s role as a blocker or yards-after-catch specialist, but he can be a difference-maker in his own way. They’ll need it to happen in order to play deep into January.

“I think Luke does a lot of things well,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “His speed is something that I feel not a lot of tight ends have. That’s definitely a weapon. With Tuck being out, he’s going to obviously see a lot more reps. It’s just maximizing all those reps and finding ways to improve and just keep stacking it.

“He does a lot of good things. I think he’s gotten a lot better in the pass game, his route-running ability. I think his confidence in himself is pretty high right now. It’s just to continue to keep building on that and improving on all the reps he gets.”

4. Can a Defensive Back Make a Play?

Well, All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney can make a play. Can anyone else?

The Packers have three interceptions – only three teams have less. McKinney has two. The Packers have forced three fumbles. McKinney has one.

Green Bay’s cornerbacks have zero interceptions. That’s no surprise. Keisean Nixon, who has started 42 games in his career, has three career interceptions. Nate Hobbs, who has started 43 games, has three career interceptions. Carrington Valentine, who has started 22 games, has two career interceptions. Kamal Hadden and Bo Melton haven’t played a regular-season snap on defense in their career, so that means the Packers’ entire cornerback corps has intercepted eight passes while starting 107 games.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) breaks up a pass intended for Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Of the 118 teams to reach the Super Bowl, the 2023 Chiefs are the only squad to finish with 10 or fewer interceptions; they had eight en route to winning the Lombardi a couple years ago. The league median is 15. The 2010 Packers intercepted 24 passes, with Tramon Williams grabbing six and 11 players having at least one.

That’s perhaps one reason why the Packers are interested in signing cornerback Asante Samuel Jr., who had two interceptions apiece in 2021, 2022 and 2023 with at least 11 passes defensed in each of those seasons. Samuel might be undersized and a bad tackler, but he at least has some playmaking ability.

Moreover, the Packers have only five takeaways. Only the woeful Jets with one have fewer. That’s a pace for 11. In the Super Bowl era, the 2023 Chiefs had the fewest with 17. The league median for the Super Bowl teams over the last decade is 25. Green Bay’s five Super Bowl teams averaged 37.

Simply put, the Packers aren’t going anywhere unless the takeaways start coming in more than dribs and drabs. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is confident after his unit has forced one in each of the last three games.

5. Can Special Teams At Least Not Lose Games?

For far longer than a decade, a successful day on special teams for the Packers is not having a killer mistake. The Packers were on their way to the Super Bowl in 2014 and might have done the same in 2021 without all-time disasters. In last year’s playoff game against the Eagles, two-time All-Pro Keisean Nixon fumbled away the opening kickoff.

This season, Green Bay lost in Week 3 against Cleveland because of a blocked field goal. It tied in Week 4 against Dallas due in part to a blocked extra point that was returned for two points and swung the momentum. Who knows how Sunday’s loss against Carolina would have turned out had Brandon McManus not missed a field goal at the start of the third quarter that would have given the Packers a 9-7 lead.

McManus missed one kick last season. This year, he’s second-to-last in field-goal percentage. Without protection issues and his injured quad, the Packers might be 8-0 headed into Monday night.

Green Bay Packers kicker Brandon McManus (17) warms up with punter Daniel Whelan (19) before a game against Carolina. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

He’ll kick again on Monday night.

“If you’re asking me, it’s Brandon McManus,” special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said on Friday of the decision between McManus and Lucas Havrisik.

The margin for error is slim for this team. The Packers are not the dominant team they looked to be in Week 1 and Week 2. The margin for error also is slim for this season, too, as is apparent with the playoff standings.

They must get their kicking issues squared away. Anything they can get from the feeble return game would be an added bonus.

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1. Will Jordan Love’s Patience Be Rewarded?

2. Will Elgton Jenkins Become Quality Center?

3. Can Luke Musgrave Successfully Restart Career?

4. Can a Defensive Back Make a Play?

5. Can Special Teams At Least Not Lose Games?

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