Super Bowl LXI Road Map: Why the Packers Can (or Can’t) Win It All

Green Bay has stability and a strong coach-quarterback tandem, but the team remains a little short on true star power.

Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur give the Packers a high floor, but they must put last season’s playoff disappointment behind them. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Super Bowl road maps: Jaguars | Bears | Browns | Dolphins

Welcome to Super Bowl LXI road maps, where we look at every team’s chances of winning it all in 2026. We’ll analyze the summer optimism before providing a reality check of what’s to come. Next path to assess: the Packers.

How do you rebound from a crushing loss, and to your most hated rival no less?

The Packers will attempt to answer that question. Green Bay went 9-7-1 and led by 18 points in the first half of last year’s NFC wild-card game before watching Chicago chip away to score 25 fourth-quarter points for a stunning 31–27 win. 

Going into 2026, the Packers return with much of the same cast, led by quarterback Jordan Love and coach Matt LaFleur, together for their fourth season with Love at the controls. But is there enough around them to not only get back to the postseason but make a real run at a Super Bowl appearance for the first time since the 2010 season?

Let’s take a deep dive into the Packers and their hopes of a championship.

Leadership

The Packers are a model of consistency in a league that often doesn’t see much of that trait. 

Green Bay enters its eighth season with LaFleur on the sideline, although he does have a new defensive coordinator in Jonathan Gannon after Jeff Hafley accepted the top job in Miami with the rebuilding Dolphins. 

LaFleur has run the offense during his tenure in Green Bay, helping the Packers to a 76-40-1 record, winning three NFC North titles and making six playoff appearances. For LaFleur, though, the pressure is only mounting after Green Bay blew a 21–3 lead to the Bears in the wild-card round in January, leading many to believe at the time that he might have coached his last game with the Packers. As it turned out, LaFleur was given an extension by general manager Brian Gutekunst, who has been with the team since 1999. 

As for Gannon, he comes over after three seasons leading the Cardinals, in which they went 15–36. Now, he returns to the coordinator role he held with the Eagles between 2021 and 2022, the latter year ending up in the Super Bowl. Gannon’s defense was loaded that year, registering a league-high 69 sacks while ranking second in yards against. 

Gannon will be tasked with a challenge, as All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons isn’t expected back until October at the earliest, recovering from a torn ACL sustained in Week 15 against the Broncos. With Parsons’s absence, Gannon will need to find creative ways to create pressure. One answer could be blitzing, something Green Bay didn’t do much of with Hafley as the unit ranked 24th in blitz percentage. However, Gannon’s Cardinals ranked 15th.

Most influential roster move

The Packers were fairly quiet in free agency, but perhaps their biggest move is the one they allowed another team to make. 

Veteran receiver Romeo Doubs signed a four-year, $68 million deal, including $35 million guaranteed, with the Patriots. Doubs, 26, is coming off a season in which he posted 55 catches for a career-best 724 yards and six touchdowns. 

Still, Gutekunst allowed Doubs to walk before extending fellow receiver Christian Watson on a four-year, $92 million contract, including $31 million guaranteed. Essentially, the Packers chose Watson over Doubs, something that could prove to be a mistake. 

If Gutekunst had preferred to, he could have traded Watson and the one remaining year on his contract for a mid-round pick before signing Doubs to the exact figures New England agreed to. This would have netted the Packers an extra choice and kept the more reliable player. Each came into the league in 2022, with Doubs posting better numbers since:

• Watson: 48 games, 133 receptions, 2,264 yards, 20 touchdowns, 58.6% catch rate
• Doubs: 59 games, 202 receptions, 2,424 yards, 21 touchdowns, 63.1% catch rate

What argument is there for Watson being a better player? It’s tough to make it.

Zaire Franklin gives the Packers a new leader in the middle of their defense. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

Why this offseason move will work

While Gutekunst made a questionable decision on the offensive side, he made an excellent one to aid the defense. 

With linebacker Quay Walker leaving in free agency for $40.5 million and the Raiders, the Packers were quickly able to replace him without losing any draft picks in a trade or spending significant dollars on the market. Green Bay sent fourth-year defensive tackle Colby Wooden to the Colts for 29-year-old inside linebacker Zaire Franklin, giving them a leader in the middle of their defense.

Wooden will be a nice run-stuffing option on the interior for Indianapolis, but he’s shown no pass-rush juice. In three years with the Packers, Wooden played 1,076 snaps, recording a half-sack and seven quarterback hits. Meanwhile, Franklin has been a tackling machine, amassing a league-high 179 tackles while earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2024. Last season, Franklin had 125 tackles, five passes defensed, two sacks and a forced fumble. Franklin has missed only one game in eight years.

Furthermore, Franklin is signed for the next two seasons at cap hits of $7.1 million and $10.8 million, respectively. If things go poorly in Gannon’s scheme, Green Bay could cut Franklin after this year and save $9 million against its cap in 2027.

To replace Wooden, Green Bay signed nose tackle Javon Hargrave, who will be on his third team in as many seasons after spending 2025 with the Vikings. At 307 pounds, Hargrave is a 33-year-old space-eater who had 3.5 sacks and 52 tackles last year while playing 53% of the snaps. He’s a good option on a two-year deal (he can also be released with a $10 million savings after this season if need be) for Gannon and the Packers.

Breakout player candidate: Jordan Morgan, LT

This is going to be a telling season for Morgan, who has had a checkered start to his pro career. 

As a first-round pick in 2024, Morgan barely saw the field. He started one game, playing 186 offensive snaps while primarily sitting on the bench, coming in sparingly throughout six games. Last year, Morgan cracked the starting lineup as a guard instead of a tackle, where he starred for Arizona during his five years with the Wildcats. 

Now, with left tackle Rasheed Walker gone to the Panthers in free agency, Morgan is getting his chance. Early returns have been promising for the 24-year-old, but we’ve yet to reach training camp and preseason games, let alone Week 1, when he’ll be lining up against the Vikings. 

After starting 37 games at left tackle in college, Morgan could shine in the position where he’s most comfortable. If he doesn’t, this could be the last thing Gutekunst needs to see before declining his fifth-year option after this season.

Missing piece

A game-changing star. Pick the position. 

Parsons is that player, but he might only play half of the season due to rehabbing his torn ACL. Offensively, the Packers have long viewed their versatility and group of good-not-great weapons as an advantage, making it harder to key in on one star. However, with Doubs gone, Watson often injured (he’s played more than 14 games once in four years), and Dontayvion Wicks traded to the Eagles, someone needs to step up.

Perhaps that will be Matthew Golden, who, as a first-round rookie last season, caught 29 passes for 361 yards without a touchdown. Maybe it’ll be Jayden Reed, who had 857 yards and six touchdowns in 2024 before a broken collarbone in Week 2 against the Commanders scuttled much of his 2025 season. Or maybe it’ll be tight end Tucker Kraft, who, before tearing his ACL in Week 9, had 489 yards and six scores. 

Regardless, there needs to be more star power in Green Bay, where the team has often had a collection of good players who don’t have that game-changer come the biggest moments.

Realistic outlook

The Packers are a good team, but they have the upside of other top NFC contenders.

Green Bay has the most important ingredients in LaFleur and Love, giving them a top-five tandem at the sport’s two-most important positions. However, they don’t have the skill-position talent around them to take down a team like the Rams, who have Pro Bowlers and All-Pros (and an MVP quarterback in Matthew Stafford) dotting both sides of the roster.

As usual, the postseason is reachable, even in a division with the Bears ascending behind third-year man Caleb Williams, and a Lions team loaded with blue-chippers, including 1,000-yard receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams. But asking Green Bay to win the division and then multiple playoff games without a few go-to superstars is a lot.

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