The Packers are just over a week away from the first practice of training camp and the 2023 season in Green Bay carries just as much intrigue, if not more, than the last several. In Aaron Rodgers’ last couple of years with the Packers, that intrigue originated from the realistic expectation that Green Bay could win the Super Bowl. The intrigue now comes from the question of whether the Packers — and more specifically, quarterback Jordan Love — will be any good.
Speaking of questions, here are the 10 most pressing ones for the Packers this summer ahead of the upcoming season.
1. Is Love the guy?
The answer to this one might not come this season. The Packers are essentially giving Love a two-year trial to prove he should be the long-term quarterback. The one-year contract extension they gave him this offseason guarantees the 24-year-old more money up front while not tying the Packers to as much of a 2024 guarantee as if they had exercised his fifth-year option. The Packers seem genuinely optimistic about what they have in Love because of what they’ve seen on the practice field and in limited game action the last couple of seasons. But as Rodgers said after the 2022 season when asked about Love, we won’t truly know whether Love is ready to take the full-time reins of the franchise until he’s thrown into the fire consistently.
2. When will Gary return?
The Packers’ standout pass rusher spoke to reporters on the final day of mandatory minicamp in June for the first time since tearing his ACL in Week 9 last season, but he didn’t reveal anything about a return timetable. Gary staunchly rehabbed on the side this offseason while the team practiced and faces the challenge of being ready for Week 1 in Chicago. Green Bay’s pass rush disappeared after Gary went down last season, and his presence in the lineup is paramount to the defense’s getting off to its desired start in 2023. Think of this, even if all ACL tears and rehabs are different: left guard Elgton Jenkins tore his ACL in Week 11 of the 2021 season and played Week 2 of the 2022 season (he might have played Week 1 had the game not been on the same Minnesota turf that he tore the ACL on). If Gary tore his Week 9 of the 2022 season, isn’t it realistic to think he could be on the field in Week 1 of the 2023 season?
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3. How much leeway does Barry have?
Over the last couple of seasons, Joe Barry’s two as defensive coordinator, the Packers rank 13th in the NFL in scoring defense with 21.8 points allowed per game. The Packers didn’t allow an offensive touchdown to the 49ers in a 13-10 loss in Green Bay’s lone playoff game with Barry in charge of the defense. However, there remains a sense this could be Barry’s last chance as defensive coordinator in Green Bay because of his inability to maximize the talent at his disposal. The Packers now have eight first-round picks on their defense — Gary, defensive linemen Kenny Clark and Devonte Wyatt, inside linebacker Quay Walker, cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes, safety Darnell Savage Jr. and rookie edge rusher Lukas Van Ness. The scoring defense has been about league average, but you can make a case it should be in the top five. The Packers have had too many questionable coverage schemes, stretches of inconsistency and personnel decisions over the last two seasons for Barry to feel like his job is secure.
4. Can the offensive line stay healthy?
According to ESPN Analytics, the Packers ranked fifth in pass-block win rate and eighth in run-block win rate last season. That was with left tackle David Bakhtiari’s playing only 11 games because of recurring knee issues and an emergency appendectomy and Jenkins’ taking a while to round into form coming off his 2021 midseason ACL tear. The last time those two were consistently healthy and in the lineup, they composed the left side of the NFC Pro Bowl team’s starting offensive line in 2020. There’s no reason an offensive line led by Bakhtiari and Jenkins, both fully healthy again, and rounded out by some combination of Josh Myers, Jon Runyan Jr., Zach Tom and Yosh Nijman, can’t be in contention for best in the NFL.
5. Who will emerge as tight end No. 1?
The most likely answer is Luke Musgrave, the rookie second-round pick from Oregon State, but the Packers have two intriguing rookies in both Musgrave and third-round pick Tucker Kraft from South Dakota State. We’re about to find out whether either of them can block worth a lick — doing so is a vital skill to have at the position in coach Matt LaFleur’s offense — but both offer an enticing profile as pass catchers. The Packers haven’t had a supremely athletic pass-catching tight end since perhaps Jermichael Finely in his prime, but they hope to have found two in this year’s draft.
6. Do the Packers need a veteran wide receiver?
They seem to think the answer is no, at least not yet. LaFleur said this offseason that he wanted to let the young guys go at it. It’s not like the veteran free-agent options at the position have been enticing anyway, save for DeAndre Hopkins, whom the Packers aren’t going to pay what he’ll command from whoever signs him. The most notable receivers still unemployed are Jarvis Landry, Kenny Golladay, Julio Jones, N’Keal Harry and Byron Pringle. Is it worth taking snaps away from guys who offer more upside as part of Green Bay’s future, hindering their development in favor of a wideout on their last legs just because they have more experience?
7. How much of a liability are the safeties?
Savage went from safety to slot to the bench because of how bad he was last year before a late-season resurgence provided optimism he still might be able to play like the first-round pick the Packers hoped they were getting in 2019. He’s still largely a wild card, just like Rudy Ford, who was decent for a fill-in last season. The Packers didn’t realistically have the budget for one of the top safeties on the market this offseason — Jessie Bates, Jordan Poyer or Jimmie Ward, nor did they re-sign Adrian Amos for cheap — so they’re rolling the dice with a milquetoast starting tandem (for now) with veterans Jonathan Owens and Tarvarius Moore waiting in the wings. Hold your breath, Packers fans.
8. Can a rookie kicker handle the conditions?
Kicking in Green Bay from July to September is one thing. When it gets cold, really cold, however, is an entirely different challenge. Mason Crosby mastered the art of doing so over his 16 seasons with the Packers, through the wind, snow, freezing temperatures, you name it. Rookie sixth-round pick Anders Carlson played at Auburn and will have to do so himself during his first season in Green Bay. Crosby no longer lives in Green Bay, and it seems like the door on a potential return, even if Carlson implodes this season, has been shut.
9. Does Clark finally have enough help?
For the last couple of years, Clark, the Packers’ Pro Bowl defensive tackle, hasn’t received enough help alongside him on the defensive line stopping the run or rushing the passer. Gone are the likes of Dean Lowry, Jarran Reed and Tyler Lancaster. In is the youth of T.J. Slaton and Wyatt, the 2022 first-round pick who only played 21.68 percent of the defensive snaps last season. Maybe a changing of the guard up front is what the Packers need to finally generate pressure from the interior and do something, anything, to stuff the run. They ranked dead last in the NFL in defensive rush EPA per snap since Brian Gutekunst officially took over as general manager in 2018.
10. Are the Packers a playoff team?
There’s no reason they can’t be. Sure, they have a massive question at quarterback. But the Packers don’t play a team that made the playoffs last season until Week 8, have a talented roster around Love in all three phases and play in a weak division in the weaker conference. Will they contend for a Super Bowl? Probably not. But it’s reasonable to think they’ll be among the seven best teams in the NFC.
