For Packers, Injuries Are Explanation But Not Excuse

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For bad teams, the most popular player on the roster is the backup quarterback. For injured teams, the most popular player is the next man up.

The Green Bay Packers have relied on a bunch of next men up in limping into this year’s playoffs. Injuries are not an excuse, though, as the team will take a two-game losing streak into Saturday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. They can’t be. And they shouldn’t be.

Look no further than the San Francisco 49ers, who are in the thick of the chase to be the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. Coach Kyle Shanahan has treated injuries like a mere nuisance. His team is 11-4 and on a five-game winning streak.

On defense, star defensive end Nick Bosa played in three games and All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner played in six before season-ending injuries. On offense, Brock Purdy has played in seven games, receiver Ricky Pearsall has played in eight, tight end George Kittle has played in 10 and 2023 second-team All-Pro receiver Brandon Aiyuk won’t play at all.

According to Sports Info Solutions and its Total Points metric, the 49ers have incurred the third-worst injury impact this season.

The Packers have been hit hard, too. They just haven’t adapted as well, though reaching the playoffs is no small feat to be taken lightly.

To be sure, losing tight end Tucker Kraft and defensive end Micah Parsons to torn ACLs was a devastating one-two punch.

However, to believe the Packers are the only team to be hit hard by injuries is to ignore what’s going on around the league.

“To this point in the year, the Packers have been middle-of-the-road in terms of value lost to injury,” SIS’s Alex Vigderman said. “By our measure of player value, Total Points, they have lost the 18th-most production from injuries sustained since training camp. Tucker Kraft’s absence has been the biggest loss by far in terms of accumulated value.”

Injury impact is a cumulative measure, and the impact of losing Parsons will, obviously, be felt on Saturday night against the Ravens, next week against the Vikings and against whoever awaits in the playoffs.

“The difference between them and teams like the 49ers is that the Niners have gotten many of their guys back, while the Packers have had a recent accumulation of big losses,” Vigderman continued. “Prognoses can be an inexact science, but using an estimate of projected value missed going forward, Green Bay jumps to the top five least-fortunate teams.”

The two teams hit hardest by injuries, according to Total Points, are the Cardinals and Commanders, whose seasons will be over in less than 10 days. The 49ers are third and the Bills are fourth; those teams are legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Of the 10 teams that have felt the most pain, they might be the only two that reach the playoffs.

On the other side, the fifth healthiest teams in terms of Total Points lost are the Patriots, Rams Eagles, Seahawks and Broncos – playoff teams and Super Bowl contenders, one and all.

So, health is an absolutely critical factor in a team’s success or failure. Obviously, the next men up are the next men up for a reason.

However, the top teams can overcome those injuries, whether it’s through shred drafting and personnel moves, player development, or scheming around injuries or putting those next men up in positions to succeed.

The 49ers are doing it this year and the Packers did it in 2010.

Can they do it again in 2025?

The Packers eventually recovered from Kraft’s injury to win four consecutive games. Parsons was injured at Denver, a game the Packers lost. In the loss at Chicago the following week, the Packers played good enough on defense to win despite lining up without Parsons, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt and safety Evan Williams.

Injuries are a way of life in the NFL. The players are well aware that the train waits for nobody.

“Because we can’t really do much about it,” safety Xavier McKinney said this week. “Like, if somebody get injured, and has a serious injury, it’s like, what can you really [do]? Like, you get two choices, really. Either you sit there and [say], ‘Damn, like we don’t got …’ Or, you go, ‘All right. Next man up, let’s go win the game. Next man up, let’s go do this.’

“So, either you feel bad and feel sorry for the people that’s here, whatever, or you put on them boots, roll up them sleeves and like, ‘All right, we got to go to work with what we got.’ You can’t really change that. So, I think that’s how we feel and how we think about it.”

The Packers have eight players on injured reserve. That includes four starters – Parsons, Wyatt, Kraft and center Elgton Jenkins – along with tight end John FitzPatrick, special-teams ace Nick Niemann, running back MarShawn Lloyd and tackle Travis Glover.

In terms of games lost by injuries, the Packers are 14th with 200, according to SIS. The Bears have lost a league-worst 299 games due to injuries.

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