Five Bold Predictions for Second Half of Packers’ Season and Playoffs

The Green Bay Packers are halfway through the season, and will take on the Minnesota Vikings as a jumping-off point for how the rest of their season could play out.

With a win, the Packers would be tied with Minnesota in the loss column and avoid losing what could be a crucial tiebreaker in the NFC North playoff picture.

A loss would keep the Packers in the basement of the NFC North, and will essentially put them three games behind Minnesota by virtue of the tiebreaker the Vikings would own over them.

The month of December is no cakewalk, either, with a home date against Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills, and a Christmas Day showdown against the Chicago Bears. The Packers will earn whatever comes to them for the rest of the season.

With nine weeks down and nine weeks to go and the calendar having turned to November, here are some bold predictions from our crystal ball for the rest of the Packers’ season.

Jordan Love Leads League in Passing Yards, Finishes as MVP Finalist

The Packers are only able to move the ball on offense one way. That’s Jordan Love carrying out an aerial assault on opposing defenses. Their run game is virtually nonexistent, and Green Bay’s top two receivers have done their part to help Love find his way to the top of the NFL in passing yards.

Can it continue? The answer is yes. The Packers are going to be playing in big games down the stretch, which will require Love to play well for them to win. Since our season forecast has the Packers winning six of their last eight games, the bet here is he will continue to play well.

As a result, Love will end up leading the league in passing yards, edging out Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, who enters Week 10 with a slight advantage in yards per game.

In that scenario, Love would be an MVP finalist, but we think he loses out to Buffalo’s Josh Allen at least in some part due to Allen’s team finishing with a better record than Green Bay.

Big Years Continue for Christian Watson and Matthew Golden

The Packers have not had two receivers top 1,000 yards in the same season since Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb accomplished that in 2014. The 2014 offense was one of the best the Packers fielded under the stewardship of Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarhty. They rode that group all the way to the NFC Championship Game.

This year, Matthew Golden and Christian Watson have both been top-tier targets for Jordan Love. They’re both pushing 1,000 yards already, with Watson leading the way with 879.

Now, the question is whether they will set the NFL record for most yards by a duo. Detroit had Herman Moore and Brett Perriman reach the record of 3,174 yards in 1995, when it was a 16=game season.

Throw in an asterisk if you’d like, but Watson and Golden are on pace for 3,139 receiving yards. Can they find an extra 36 yards somewhere? The bet here is yes. The Packers are going to have to continue throwing the ball to sustain any semblance of success on offense.

“Those guys have been making play after play,” Love said this week. “MG, when he first got here last year, was making a lot of plays. Obviously, the situation we had, we had a lot of depth in the room (and) he wasn’t getting a lot of those opps. Christian’s been making play after play since he’s been here. He’s been getting better and better each year. It comes down to I know these guys are going to make the plays.

“It just is us seeing it all as one, being on the same page with how we’re seeing routes, how we’re seeing the coverages that teams want to play against us, and then me putting the ball in a great spot and them making those plays. I know we’re more than capable of doing it every play.”

As long as Watson and Golden are healthy for all 17 games, we’re betting they break the record held by the Lions’ crew.

Packers Do Not Win the NFC North

The Packers are just one game out of first place in the NFC North in the loss column, and they’ve already knocked off the Chicago Bears with a 31-7 drubbing at Lambeau Field.

The Bears did not have two massive pieces for that game. Jeffery Simmons was in Tennessee and Caleb Williams was nursing a hamstring injury.

Chicago has not lost a game that Williams has started and finished this season, and their defense has looked formidable in the two-game sample following Simmons’ addition to their defensive line.

The bet here is that both teams will have the same record going into a Christmas Day showdown at Soldier Field, which will have NFL executives licking their chops.

The Packers have lost the last two games at Soldier Field, including a disastrous ending in the postseason last year. This year, they’ll give their fanbase a big lump of coal on Christmas, as the Bears will knock off the Packers, giving them the inside track to winning the NFC North.

Much like last year, a loss against Chicago will prove to be the difference between winning the NFC North and having to go on the road in the postseason.

However ...

Packers Get Postseason Revenge

This time, things will be different. The Packers will enter the playoffs with the fifth seed of the NFC playoffs and knock off a Tampa Bay team that is only in the postseason by virtue of playing in the worst division in the conference.

A big day from Jordan Love and Christian Watson vs. the Buccaneers will send them on a short flight back to Chicago, where they will meet Williams and the Bears again.

This time, however, the Packers are the ones who emerge victorious, avenging their Christmas Day loss to Chicago. Jordan Love will have another big day against Chicago, with Matthew Golden setting up a game-winning field goal by rookie Trey Smack, which splits the middle of the uprights.

That win in the divisional round will put the Packers just one game away from the Super Bowl.

Packers Play for NFC Championship … In San Francisco

Matt LaFleur and Kyle Shanahan have met three times in the postseason as head coaches, and Shanahan’s teams won all three.

In the 2019 NFC Championship Game, Raheem Mostert ran around, over and through Green Bay’s defense en route to a 37-20 victory that was not as close as the final score would indicate.

Two years later, the Packers were the No. 1 seed with everything lined up for a Super Bowl run. Za’Darius Smith and Jaire Alexander returned from long-term injuries for this game against a San Francisco team that was in the postseason but not as good as that year’s Packers team, which felt destined to give Aaron Rodgers a second title.

It was not to be. Poor offense and disastrous special teams wasted an otherwise strong defensive effort, and Rodgers never played another postseason game for the Packers.

In 2023, Jordan Love had the upstart Packers in position to upset the No. 1-seeded 49ers in the divisional round but they fell just short due in part to a missed field goal.

This time, the Packers will travel back to San Francisco in search of their first trip to the Super Bowl since winning Super Bowl XLV to cap the 2010 season.

This place, however, is a house of horrors for Green Bay, and Brock Purdy will get the best of Green Bay’s defense late. A late touchdown pass to George Kittle in the middle of the end zone with minimal time left will break the Packers’ hearts and send the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

As usual, myself and @JacobWestendorf made our Packers game predictions. Along with those, with nine games down and nine to go, here's how we see the second half of the season playing out. ⬇️https://t.co/tcZvsQOkhV
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 14, 2026

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