Analysis
8/2/23
6 min read
Green Bay Packers 2023 Season Preview: Is Jordan Love the Answer?
As teams head to training camp and the NFL season approaches, The 33rd Team asks its experts to preview every team’s outlook for the 2023 season. In this installment, Greg Jennings takes a deep dive into the Green Bay Packers.
>> READ: Packers Fantasy Football Preview
Packers Team Preview
What To Know: Offense
The biggest storyline around the offense is obvious: the emergence of Jordan Love and whether he's the team's future or whether he's not good enough to be the Packers' quarterback moving forward.
We know there's talent around him, a lot of youth, but that's also mixed with experience. When we look at this coming season, it will be about his rapport: not only with his receivers, his offensive line and his running backs, but with head coach Matt LaFleur. That will be the most important relationship.
What will this offense look like with Love's talent and skill set, and how can the Packers put him in the best situation to provide them with the optimal version of offensive success they can have? That's where the pressure is.
It will be on Love to deliver because we've grown accustomed to the talents of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers over the past 30 years. Can Love sustain the quarterback success Green Bay fans are accustomed to?
What To Know: Defense
When we're talking about the Packers, it all happens upfront. Kenny Clark was good for the Packers last season, but he has to be great for this team to be successful in the secondary; he needs to get back to being that dominant presence.
Green Bay had success stopping the pass, but up front is where the team wasn't as disruptive in the run game. Can the Packers get the production and the pass rush when they're potentially starting the season without Edge Rashan Gary? Can others step up? Will rookie Lukas Van Ness have a great start to the season?
All these guys will impact the game, not just where we've become accustomed to seeing them in the pass rush. But, importantly, they've got to stop the run to stop allowing these offenses to get short second and third-down situations.
Biggest Off-Field Storyline
This offseason was a little different because they parted ways with Rodgers and entered into this unknown territory with their newfound quarterback, hoping he can be QB No. 1. There's going to be a lot of chatter around whether or not Love can be what Rodgers was, which isn't what anyone in Green Bay's building wants him to be.
But that's going to be the standard and the expectation. When you lose a great Hall of Fame, first-ballot guy in Rodgers, the expectation is The next guy up. You've got to be that. And that's what's going to take time.
People are going to have to taper their expectations. But also understand that this organization, the history behind who the Packers are, expects greatness every time they put a team on the field.
Breakout Player Prediction
Toward the latter half of the 2022 season, once Christian Watson started to develop a rapport with Rodgers, we saw the skill set and the potential this wide receiver possesses. That's going to have to be the case from Week 1 when we're talking about a new quarterback in Love and about developing chemistry. Yes, there are other guys on the team, and we understand Green Bay is going to want to run the ball. But when the Packers have an electric player such as Watson who we've seen get it done with Rodgers, a guy and a talent we are certain of, the expectation and the desire for Watson is that he can progress.
Move Packers Should Make
This probably pertains to their defensive and offensive lines, but their defensive line primarily. This was an area where they lacked getting pressure on the quarterback, as well as stopping the run.
When the Packers can address this, whether it be with a guy you see in training camp who they have on their current roster or a guy who got cut or released from another one of the 31 teams, they should go and acquire that individual if they think he can play a part in allowing them to have success.
The Packers have got to do that because there's a domino effect to how a team performs not only in the back end but overall defensively. They've got to stop the run.
2023 Season Expectations
The expectations for the Packers are always going to be a championship. But if we're being realistic, this team is a playoff long shot. They have a new starting quarterback who they're putting younger pieces around, particularly skill-position guys.
Can Love take this team over the top? Well, Rodgers didn't get it done last year. Will Love be able to do it this year?
A lot of the pressure is going to be on that defense to be what we expected them to be last season. For me, with the NFC North being up for grabs, this is still a long-shot playoff team.
Other Previews
NFC East: DAL | NYG | PHI | WAS
AFC East: BUF | MIA | NE | NYJ
AFC North: PIT | CLE | BAL | CIN
NFC West: SF | SEA | LAR | ARI
NFC South: TB | CAR | NO | ATL
AFC South: JAX | TEN | HOU | IND
Greg Jennings is a former NFL wide receiver who played for the Packers, Vikings and Dolphins. A two-time Pro Bowl player, Jennings was a member of the Packers' Super Bowl XLV championship team and is inducted into the club's Hall of Fame. Follow him on Twitter @GregJennings.
