Coming into this season, Green Bay Packers fans, for the most part, are hoping for the best, but bracing themselves for the worst.
With Jordan Love taking the helm at quarterback, leading a crew of young and relatively inexperienced pass catchers, there’s a lot that we won’t know about the team’s offense until the players hit the field. On defense, the Packers have some legitimate talent, but they were appallingly average last year, ranking 17th in yards and points allowed.
There are just so many question marks when it comes to Green Bay that predictions are hard to make.
NFL analysts all over the place, though, seem to be pretty decisive when it comes to one thing this coming season– The Packers will post a mediocre-to-below-mediocre won-loss record.
Just skimming a few of the more popular sources, one gets an idea that the experts are not exactly bullish on this team and its immediate future.
Sports Illustrated has the Packers finishing 9-8, as does LombardiAve.com. Those are the most optimistic of the lot, although Fansided’s Worst-Case Scenario Record Prediction has the team winning between 7 and 10 games. ESPN Staff Writer Rob Demovsky agrees with the Sportsbook betting line, placing the over/under on wins at 7.5. Bleacher Report has Green Bay going 8-9. Will Brinson of CBS Sports thinks this season may be borderline cataclysmic at 6-11. Longtime Jordan Love non-believer Colin Cowherd agrees with the 6-11 tally and went deep into his pessimism in a recent episode of his program, The Herd.
“I have never sold my stock on a football team in an OTA faster than I’m selling Green Bay’s now,” Cowherd said. “Listen, the NFL has pivoted to a one way to win league. You gotta be really good at quarterback and the Packers don’t have one, apparently…Thank God Green Bay’s in a division with the Bears. Thank God they’re in the NFC. And thank God their schedule early in the NFL is littered with tomato cans. So, I went and looked at the Packers’ schedule and, let me tell you, I came up with six wins…I’ll give them some early wins. But the middle of that schedule…There’s a lot of L’s there. So, I think we’re going into what the Packers were in the 80’s– kind of irrelevant. They don’t have a great quarterback…It’s increasingly a quarterback league. This is not a time when, if you had…a great running back and great defense, you could be a dominating team. Those days are over…I’m moving to 6-11 with the Green Bay Packers. I was trying to be very positive…I got them at six wins…and I don’t think that’s negative.”
All of the above predictions, however, need to be tagged with a caveat. The Packers are coming into this season with a lot of unknowns buzzing about them. Unknown does not automatically translate into a fail. The team WILL have a relatively soft schedule and that may allow for Love and his crew to find their rhythm at an easier pace. It’s also hard to imagine the defense not improving from last year’s showing. All in all, we really won’t know what’s what with this team until the season actually starts.
