Evaluating the Packers’ Biggest Strengths

Evaluating the Packers’ Biggest Strengths

[Music] what’s up friends happy Tuesday welcome in to an all new episode of the paday podcast I’m your host Andy Herman you can follow me on Twitter at Andy Herman NFL you can follow the podcast at paday podcast hope you guys had a great holiday weekend hope your week is getting started off on the right foot it is another OTA week one of those OTAs will be open to the media that is tomorrow’s practice on Wednesday I will be there and I will be of course here on Thursday to break break everything down for you so looking forward to that this week up until then though we don’t stop it’s a 365 day a year pack a day podcast we do Packers content the best every single day of the year so we have a great episode lined up for you today I’m going to be talking about the Packers biggest strengths overall as a team as an organization all of it tomorrow we’ll get to be a bit more negative which is my least favorite thing to do but tomorrow we’ll discuss the weaknesses of the Green Bay Packers and some of the things that they’re going to have to improve upon and get better at and address if they want to be everything they think they can be and I think they can be and hopefully you think they can be going into this upcoming season but today we get to stick on the positive side of things and that is with everything that this organization has going for it right now I’ve got 12 different things that I want to cover in detail so let’s get it started right away with number one and that has to be it has to be Jordan love there may be those of you who are skeptical there may be those of you who say I really liked what Jordan love did in the second half of last season but had an opportunity against San Francisco didn’t come up at the end of the game when the opportunity presented itself it was only half of a season it was a very small sample size you know he was put in some advantageous situations and I’m going to wait and see until I can make a full determination on Jordan love and to some extent I understand that I understand that what we’ve seen from Jordan was a really impressive overall first season that was definitely weighted heavily on the back half of the Season where we really saw some incredible stuff here’s where I come in or you know just My overall and overarching thoughts on where Jordan love is as a quarterback I believe that what he did in the second half of last year cannot be by accident it can’t be happen stance you can’t stumble into it it can’t just be against you know you got the right defenses at the right time I just simply do not believe that and again I understand that we need to see this play out nobody is crowning Jordan love today and saying yep he’s the greatest he’s going to be a top three quarterback you know he’s everything that we need him to be right now I’m not saying that yet but what I am saying is there is a baseline now that I believe is there that I don’t believe again that he stumbled into and that I don’t believe he’s going to fall underneath those expectations and I’m not saying every year I’m not saying he’s going to be incredible I’m just saying I’ve seen it with my own two eyes you’ve seen it we’ve broken it down we’ve discussed it at nauseum that second half of the year was pretty freaking special and from a statistic standpoint I think Warren sharp did a great job of it recently by saying from week 11 on and you might say week 11 that’s pretty like week 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 that’s eight NFL regular season weeks now remember 18 weeks so that’s eight regular season weeks from week 11 on Jordan love was number one in total touchdowns amongst quarterbacks number one in total passing yards number one in EPA per ATT attempt excuse me number one in lowest sack plus interception rate number one in touchdown interception ratio number two in fewest interceptions through with one number two in success rate number two in first down rate number three in completion rate and number three and third down conversion rate that’s not just like Cherry picks those those are the most elite statistics for quarterbacks that you can possibly imagine it’s every single one he’s in the top three and again week 11 on and we saw plays Big Time plays Big Time throws audibles at the line of scrimmage checkdowns we saw him throw the ball away avoid the big mistakes you know avoid sacks make plays with his legs add lib make plays when he needed to take what’s there when it needs to just be you know getting the ball out of his hands and taking what’s there we saw all of it there is nothing there’s absolutely zero anything that I can point to and say well we didn’t see that we saw everything the only thing that we have not seen is it done for for a consecutive or you know a consistent period of time I guess just longevity I’ll put it that way we haven’t seen it season over season over season over season that’s what we haven’t seen everything else from an individual play from Jordan loved the player from arm Talent athletic ability all of it we have seen it it’s there we don’t have to make it up we don’t have to think it you know hope it it’s just already there and here’s the thing wherever Jordan Love Comes out in the wash this season top 10 quarterback top 12 quarterback whatever it might be top five top three who knows wherever that comes out a prerequisite to being a Super Bowl contending team is at least a quarterback where Jordan love is at in my opinion right now that’s like the pre you have to have at least that he has reached the prequisite amount of quarterback Talent needed to at least have the the opportunity if everything else goes right to contend for a Super Bowl and at this point last year we simply did not know that we didn’t know if Jordan love was even going to be a competent starter much less a good great spectacular or anything else starter and then we saw it from week 11 on with again everything really at stake in the second half of last season where they’re you know trying to fight and climb back into a playoff race and then Jordan came up when they needed him at his best came up with some huge wins goes into Dallas picks up that win and we saw a really impressive version of Jordan love and now the next step for him is going to be to carry that over into 2024 2025 and Beyond and be that same consistent player week in and week out but Jordan knows that he has talked about that he has talked about being that consistent player week in and week out and doing it over and over and over that is his goal but again if you want to have a shot at a Super Bowl if you want to be a contending team this is what you need at minimum and Green Bay probably needs even A step above you know from the overall season that he had or just him to continue to play the way that he did over the second half of last season if you have that you’ve got a chance you’ve got a puncher’s chance year in and year out and that’s what Green Bay has bought themselves with Jordan love and if you don’t think that that is a strength of the team I don’t know what to tell you it just is and I know that there are some that are already getting concerned and saying you know it’s great that Jordan love played to this level but now you have to give him the contract and we have seen it is very difficult to win when you have that exorbitant contract for one player there’s a piece of that that is unequivocally true however there are ways to counterbalance that and the ways to counterbalance that are when you don’t have to pay your wide receiver core anything which is what Green Bay’s at right now when you don’t have to pay your tight ends anything which is where Green Bay’s at right now when the only player along the offensive line that’s really making much of anything is Elton Jenkins when you have one playmaker on the entire offense that’s making a decent amount of money and that’s Josh Jacobs and it’s basically a pseudo one-year deal they have so much youth on offense that’s not getting paid yet that you have the ability to go out pay your quarterback that much money and if Brian gakin can show that he can continue to draft and develop players you hopefully churn those Playmakers through and you decide which ones you want to pay and decide which ones you want to go younger and cheaper with and he’s going to try to do I’m sure the same thing on defense as well but there are ways to make that work the the one way that you cannot make it work is if you don’t have the quarterback and we saw that this year teams going all in to try to grab all of these quarterbacks in the first what 12 picks of the draft six of them six QBs in the top 12 guys like Bo Knicks JJ McCarthy you know Michael penck going even you know what picks 8 through 12 and then you still had you obviously Drake May and Jaden Daniels and and of course Caleb Williams like teams were trying everything they could to get those quarterbacks early because they know if you don’t have one you’re just flat out screwed so so Jordan love unequivocally for me strength of this team they have their quarterback I don’t know if anyone wants to debate on that or not or if everyone’s just like yeah we get it he’s he’s that good and that’s where we should be at at this point and now again it’s up to Jordan the other thing I’ll say here too is maybe there are also those who saying yeah but now defenses are going to throw a lot of different stuff at him I agree they are going to and maybe eventually somebody finds something that sticks however teams threw just about everything at Jordan love this past season especially in the second half of last season and the blitzes that they threw at him were not only frequent but unique and they they threw some kitchen sink stuff at Jordan love and you know sort of some Sinker swim stuff and he swam not only did he swim he excelled in those situations so yeah teams are going to try different stuff they’re going to find something maybe eventually that works or maybe Jordan love just figured it out and I’ll just be you know totally honest and transparent one more time and saying that’s what it looked like it looked like in real time the Pittsburgh game and Matt llores talked about it I tried to get Jordan to talk about it but he didn’t I asked him it towards the end of the season but it by every account it feels like the Steelers game is where everything just sort of slowed down not only for Jordan but for this offense as a whole and that’s the other thing too is you know it felt like in that first half of the Season Jordan was kind of fighting with a a hand behind his back because the offensive line wasn’t really where it should be if felt like they didn’t have a great field for all the different weapons yet you know the the running game wasn’t going cuz AJ Dylan was in there and now it’s like you’ve got a fully operational Death Star here you’ve got the weapons he needs and a coach that understands exactly the plays that Jordan is liking with the weapons that he can get mismatches with with now more depth at running back it just it feels like they’re more fully operational even going into this season than they were at any point last season which is going to help Jordan as well so for me biggest for this Packers franchise right now is the fact that they have found their franchise quarterback Jordan love is that guy and should be that guy for the foreseeable future number two is Matt laflor this is another one I am not crowning Matt laflor and saying look at him greatest coach in the league we know that if you want to be considered a great coach in the NFL you got to win the big one more often than not there are precious few that people will call greats without ever winning one but it is very few and far between and if Matt wants to be considered on that up you know upper upper upper echelon of coaches he’s got to find a way to win a Super Bowl but there are a lot of things that Matt brings to the table that are very clearly advantages for this franchise I thought Kevin Clark and Mina KES had a great discussion about Matt laflor being a top five NFL head coach right now he’s 59 and 31 in his career so far and we’ll talk about some of the other things that he brings to the table but just his ability to be the true coach of this team to have his you know finger on the pulse of the team to understand when he needs to ramp up practices when he needs to kind of scale things back to be what I kind of consider a players coach but also be extremely tough on these guys when he needs to be and then just to kind of keep things always in perspective always afloat regardless of what’s going on he sets the culture of this team and this culture to me since he got here has been remarkably impressive and there’s a few things here or there obviously Aaron was upset a couple times take that or leave it whatever you want to do with it obviously dandre Campbell has had some things to say there’s always going to be a couple denters along the way but more often than not the players that have played for him that are still on this roster have had nothing but positive things to say about the culture that Matt laflor has brought and the overall state of the organization and to me that has a ton to do with the head coach so the fact that he has that culture really intact and at a very high level and really promotes ideas within the team you know sets you know players up to be leaders and in leadership positions in the organization I think is super important as well but here’s the other thing whatever you feel about him as a coach his offense works and he knows how to find mismatches attack defenses and tear apart even some of the best defenses in the NFL now they need to come up with big wins in big games there’s no question about that and part of that falls on Matt laflor there are some game management stuff here and there that I think he can continue to improve upon certain times with the challenges some things again he can improve upon I’m not saying Matt’s perfect but I do think that he is at minimum in the top third of coaches in this league I do believe that he is one of the absolute best play callers in this league I do believe he runs one of the best most efficient offenses in this league and those are things that are super important not only to the franchise but to the development of Jordan love and his ability to get Jordan playing at that level that he was a season ago that to me is also not by accident now give Jordan a a ton of credit for that give Tom Clemens a ton of credit for that give you know Brian gakin for some of the pieces that he was able to put around him but I also put a lot of that on Matt laflor and making a friendly offense that is worth you know or able to make Jordan love you know at least give him the opportunity to play at the level that he played at and it’s there’s a Synergy there right I’m not saying it’s just one or just the other it takes everyone doing their part that’s the beautiful thing about football but Matt’s offense has proven successful you I I go back to this all the time when Mark Murphy talked about hiring Matt laflor he hired Matt laflor with the idea of that he needed somebody needed to come in and get Aaron playing at an MVP level again you have to remember where Aaron was at before Matt came back some of those later you know Mike McCarthy years it was I don’t want to say it was tough to watch in the scheme of things because as Aaron has said over and over and he’s not necessarily wrong his worst years are a lot of players best years so I get wholeheartedly how spoiled we have been as Packer fans that even Aaron’s worst years are still pretty freaking good but in comparison to the Aaron that we had come accustomed to those last years in the Mike McCarthy era were brutal in comparison to the peaks of what Aaron Rogers was capable of and the Peaks that Matt laflor got Aaron Rogers playing that again when he took over and I still go back to this I believe the way that Matt handled that transition could not have been more perfect and the reason I say that is if he would have come in from day one and said Aaron you’re running my offense it’s my way or the highway it would have been immediate fireworks it would have been a nightmare you know this is not a shot necessarily at Aaron in any way but you know because we’ve seen that you know that Aaron’s just going to sort of GO RAD and he’s going to change the plays and he’s not going to have that buy in you think you can tell me like I’m just going to do my thing and it would have been a nightmare I think it would have been an absolute nightmare so what does he do he comes in and says what do you like to do and he runs really a a pretty you know Aaron roders esque offense that first year and it’s partly integrating some of the LEF Flo stuff in I would say it’s probably 6040 Aaron Rogers offense with 40% Matt laflor but he took Little Steps over time and then you had 2020 and Aaron bought in Aaron bought Inc completely and we saw I would say 9010 maybe 8020 Matt LeFleur offense and then 2020 what like the next couple Seasons um you know I thought it started to kind of get away a little bit and then we again saw Matt laf Flores I think this past season with Jordan love coming back but overall I think the way way that he handled that and I think the way that he handled the transition to Jordan love has been fantastic so his system his offense his play calling his ability to set up mismatches and get mismatches for his wide receivers his tight ends and and his quarterback to be able to exploit all of it to me is super impressive I think he is legitimately one of the best coaches in the league and I do think he has everything that’s needed to lead this team hopefully to that Super Bowl but I do believe that Matt Flo is absolutely a strength of his team specifically with the culture that he has built overall number three depth I think if you look at this roster as a whole the depth that they have put basically at almost every position has been massively impressive now the first position we of course should talk about is quarterback and that’s a big question mark if Jordan love goes down for any significant period of time what you get out of Shawn Clifford or Michael Pratt is a massive massive question mark we have no idea and it’s probably just not great right at at best and it could be a lot worse than that but it’s probably not great so you might question well all right then everything’s just up to Jordan love and if if he gets hurt like is there really great depth then I’m a pretty big believer in the Indianapolis Cults way of life and this was when they were with pton Manning and they had no backup for Payton whatsoever just a you know slew of quarterbacks that it was it was going to be brutal if pton never got hurt and they asked him and they’re like well what happens if pton gets hurt and they said if pton gets hurt we’re effed and we don’t practice effed I’m a believer of that philosophy more often than not if Jordan love goes down for a massive chunk of the Season you’re probably just going to be a bad football team at least you’re not contending and at that point who your backup quarterback is probably doesn’t matter a ton now if he go was down for 4 weeks 6 weeks do you want them to be able to go 2 and two 3 and three yes do I think Sean Clifford could potentially do that yes I do it’s going to take some effort maybe take the right matchups at the right time maybe get a couple bounces to go your way but yeah in a four to six game stretch I think you could go two and two three and three but yes if you lose Jordan for any other extended period of time you’re just going to have a losing season it’s like every team is basically set up that way far more often than not and I don’t have an issue with that like if you’re going to be bad just be bad get a better draft pick next year and set yourself up for The Following Season that’s probably the better way to do it more often than not but outside of Jordan where again you don’t practice effed everything else what they’ve been able to do to develop that wide receiver room they are three running backs at least deep right now the tight ends with having Tucker craft and Luke Musgrave and then even a guy like Ben Sims at number three we saw them really develop the depth along the offensive line or at least give them opportunities to with with the draft they had and then picking up Andre Dillard right before the draft Edge rusher right they’re four deep at Edge rusher guys that can come in and play and there’s no significant drop off inside linebacker they address by getting Hopper and Edan Cooper in the draft interior defensive line corner you know we can talk about if they have that true number two but they’ve got guys that are backing up now like either carington Valentine or Eric Stokes are going to be backing up Cory balentine’s going to be backing up they’ve got guys that can go in that have shown that they can play in this league and of course safety they get Xavier mckin and then they go draft three more safeties theyve still got Anthony Johnson Jr and a couple other guys that could be core special teamers they have a ton of depth on this roster where we know there’s going to be injuries we know this team is going to have to have guys step up and Brian gakin has put them in a position where they can have guys that step up so depth is number three for me number four the offensive weapons and this kind of goes with depth a little bit it is absurd that this is a group of playmakers that has Josh Jacobs Marshon Lloyd AJ Dylan Davian Wicks Jaden Reed Romeo dobs Christian Watson Bo Melton Malle Keith Luke Musgrave Tucker craft and to some extent Ben Sims that is a 12 deep playmaker group that is about as impressive as you can get from a depth standpoint from a weapon standpoint from a mismatch standpoint from from a variety of different types of weapons that they have all of that is impressive and at all different positions we’ve seen teams in the past that have had great receivers but they didn’t have the tight ends or the running backs we’ve seen great tight ends but maybe not wide receivers are back we’ we’ve seen a little bit of each but it’s rare when you’ve got it at every single position now they need to stay healthy and they need these guys to play at the level that they’re capable of playing of but man you talk about going shopping and trying to get all the ingredients that you need it was like you know Brian gakin went shopping got all the ingredients he’s like I still have all this extra money like I still have more I can get you I can get you more and it’s like well we don’t even need all those but like sure we’ll take them and that’s kind of where it is you know when you take you know draft pick after draft pick at wide receiver davan wicks in the fifth round Jaden Reed in the second round Romeo dobs in what the fifth round fourth round I think uh Christian Watson in the second Bo Melton as a practice squad signing Malik keth as an undrafted free agent Samar T in the seventh round Grant to Bose’s in the seventh round like and we can put T and deo’s aside for a second but like every other one of those guys hits you’re going to get you know a lot of depth and then he did a great job last year of attacking a very deep tight end draft by drafting Luke Musgrave in the second and Tucker craft in the third he goes shopping for Josh Jacobs in free agency this year gets Marshon Lloyd in the third round brings back AJ Dylan for basically nothing again he just brings in all of these different weapons and they’re all different types Jacobs is different than Lloyd it’s different than Dylan Wix is different than Reed is different than dobs is different than Watson and Melton and and Heath all different types Musgrave craft Sims all different tight ends that is the beauty of this and when we talk about Matt laflor being a master of mismatches we’ll give him a variety of different players who can attack in a variety of ways and create mismatches regardless of what type of defense that you’re going against and that is again the beauty of this is you have all of those weapons with the quarterback that you need with a play caller that knows how to utilize all those weapons and get those beautiful matchups it is a offense that is just Bo you know beaming with potential I I that that’s the beautiful thing an offensive line they’re going to have to come through big they’re going to have to step up there’s going to be some guys that need to play better there’s going to be injuries some of these young guys are going to have to play but from a playmaking standpoint they have everything they need at their disposal number five goes along with kind of a lot that we’ve been talking about but it’s those mismatches the variety of players that we’re talking about they have different flavors and again this goes to a Christian Watson Deep threat Bo Melton is a different type of deep threat jayen Reed can attack all three levels of the field Malik Keith is going to attack the middle of the field as is Romeo dobs Malik Keith is a great blocker Davian Wicks is is a route running you know extraordinaire like he he does everything and gets separation Musgrave is the speed guy up to seam craft is the run after the catch guy Ben Sims is the blocking guy Josh Jacobs is your do everything back Martian Lloyd is going to be your spark plug your guy that can take it the distance at any given moment and AJ Dylan’s going to be the tough between the tackles guy you have different varieties of flavors at every single position and that’s going to allow you to get those mismatches and Matt laflor again knows how to utilize those mismatches so it’s one thing to have the play caller it’s another to have the pieces that the play caller needs or vice versa right if you have all the pieces but you don’t have a play caller that knows how to utilize them or you have the play caller but you don’t have the pieces that the play caller needs it’s a moot point it doesn’t work but now you’ve got the play caller that knows how to use all these pieces all the pieces that need an ideal playmaker and you’ve got the quarterback to go along with it as well number six on my list versatility this has been a you know invogue word for covering the Green Bay Packers is how versatile Brian gakin wants as players and I love the way that he defined it in the offseason saying you again paraphrasing here but you know we don’t want a specific type of linebacker because if all of a sudden we have injuries and now we’ve just got a run stopping linebacker well now they can’t cover but he’s got to be on the field because we’ve got all these injuries and teams are going to pick that apart and I’m again putting some words in his mouth there a little bit but that’s basically what he’s insinuating and he knows like every GM knows that this NL season especially now that it is 17 games in the regular season plus extended playoffs now you got the super wild card and everything else it is a war of attrition you are going to have a massive amount of injuries more often than not through the course of a season and you have to have guys that can step up and play well at a variety of different positions and we’ve got an offensive line in Green Bay that has a Jordan Morgan a Zack Tom and an nton Jenkins that can all play a variety of different positions in fact Jenkins and Tom might be able to play all five and Jordan Morgan might be able to play four of the five that gives you so much flexibility along the offensive line and a lot of the other guys have versatility as well you have two tight ends that can do a bit of everything wide receivers that can play every spot that’s needed in Matt LEF flor’s off defense you’ve got a couple defensive ends that can kick inside you’ve got a couple defensive tackles that could theoretically kick outside you’ve got linebackers that can play inside and that could potentially play some on the edge if needed as well you’ve got safeties who can line up at linebacker katano ladapo you’ve got safeties that could line up in the slot Javon Bullard Evan Williams and David mckin can do a little bit of everything you I think you even have some Corners that could line up at safety you have so much versatility and before on the the offensive side of the ball with Matt laflor that mattered a lot and now it feels like they even have more versatility on defense it felt like Joe Barry was just going to do his thing you can have all these different pieces I’m going to keep doing the same thing over and over that’s a little bit of an aggressive approach to it like maybe over exaggeration or oversimplification but for the most part that was kind of the case with Jeff Halley it feels like this is going to run like a Matt lefur offense except on the defensive side of the ball where he’s going to utilize all these different versatile pieces to the best of his ability to not only take away what the opposing offense is trying to do but to put his players in the best position to succeed based upon the opponent that they’re playing change it up and have a game plan that is opponent specific not just here’s what we’re going to do the other team’s going to have to beat it but they know what’s coming and they’re going to have everything schemed up to attack exactly what we like to do it’s going to be different with Jeff Halley and that versatility not only with injuries but with play callers and scheme designers like Matt laflor and Jeff Halley this is going to be massively important and it should serve Green Bay extremely well number seven kesan Nixon not necessarily as a corner as a returner and specifically as a kick returner I do believe these new kick return rules are going to favor kick returners in a significant way and I do believe kesan Nixon is going to have a huge say in Green Bay starting field position and some of the huge playmaking that Green Bay’s got at their disposal not just on offense but from a special teams standpoint as well I think this is going to be almost like an extension of the offense with what kesan Nixon’s going to be able to do as a kick returner I think he’s going to set them up for Success far more often than not by getting them in some of the best field position throughout the NFL that’s how much of a weapon that I think he can be I think it’s a legitimate strength now whether or not they use him as a punt returner as well he’s been a little shakier Fielding punts you’ve kind of got your safe guy and Jaden Reed we’ll see if any of the other you know rookies or new guys you know try to step up in that position as well but I don’t even care kesan Nixon as a kick returner is a weapon and has a real opportunity to be a strength of this team number eight the offensive line draft and develop this has been something that’s been going on for forever there are few teams in the entirety of the NFL that do one thing as well as Green Bay does finding late round offensive linemen and turning them into starting caliber players now right now you’ve got Walker seventh round pick who I believe is a starting caliber offensive tackle in this league no questions about it now he might not start because Green Bay has Zack Tom and Jordan Morgan and he might just be the swing tackle but I wholeheartedly believe that Rasheed Walker is still a starting caliber player from the seventh round Zack Tom day three selection that they turned in to a dominant offensive lineman now Elton Jenkins second round pick Josh Myers hasn’t quite developed but second round pick Shan ban is a third round pick now they get Jacob monk Travis Glover you know guys like that that they’re developing from later rounds we’ll see what Jordan Morgan can do as their lone first-rounder I guess Andre Dillard’s technically a first-rounder but not theirs on the offensive line as well but the ability to find these guys and develop them and turn them into good football players we can go back to Mark touser Mike wall Marco Rivera Adam Timberman we can go forever I mean we can talk a very long period of time about green bit David bakari etc etc etc etc their ability to have this philosophy of how to find these offensive linemen late in the draft how to bring them in how to develop them and make them into serviceable or even Pro Bowl caliber players is remarkable and they have to continue to do it I think there are still ways for Josh Meers and Shawn Ryan to grow to even make that better but even still Zack Tom day three Rasheed Walker day three now we’ll see what they can do again with Jacob Monk and Travis Glover and those typee of guys it has been a real true skill of this franchise and I believe it’s going to be something that they continue to do moving forward next up number nine their Pro Personnel department they got kesan Nixon off the complete scrap Heap for nothing he got a minimal the the bare minimum vet deal with zero guaranteed when they signed him a couple seasons ago DeAndre Campbell when they picked him up now he was great for one season and then fell off a little bit but that great all Pro one season was like a one-year $2 million deal rosul Douglas they found off of a practice squad Bo Melton they found off of a practice squad Ellen Lazard back in the day they found off of a practice squad Daniel whan they found in the XFL Cory Balentine completely off the scrap Heap guys like Rick Wagner Preston Smith zidus Smith Billy Turner Adrien Amos Jared valer Christian kirsy even had a pretty solid season when he played in Green Bay now they’ve got xaver mckin Josh Jacobs Andre Dillard who’s next they have been able to find players with big free agent money and find the right players and that has worked for them they’ve been able to find guys off of practice squads and guys that have been completely discarded and found ways to utilize them and make them work who’s next gem green the corner that they found off the scrap Heap this year Robert relle Greg Joseph Christian Welch or somebody that’s not even on the roster yet I have full faith in the Personnel Department that if Green Bay needs a player midseason they’ll pick up somebody from some team’s practice squad grab a guy from their own practice squad whatever it might be they’re going to find a guy that can come in and be a serviceable player on the 503 man roster that’s been one of the things that has been most impressive about this team like almost everyone that comes in and as a member of the starting lineup is a good football player like they’re going to have in my opinion like 60 65 guys that are worthy of making a 53 man roster now they all won’t and it’s not like everyone that doesn’t you know is going to get cut and claimed by other teams but they have a ton of players that are 53 man roster worthy and a lot of those guys are going to make their practice squad and they’ll call them up and like I said even if they don’t they’ll find guys randomly out of nowhere because their ability to scout these players as NFL players we talk all the time about scouting players in the draft now part of that is a part of the discussion when you pick up these guys later as well but the ability to continue to scout them as they are Pros is super important as well and I think the additions of Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKenna maybe less or so that you know Andre Dillard but their ability to find those guys too I’m super excited because I know the time effort and energy that this front office and Personnel staff puts into finding these guys and they’ve been pretty freaking fantastic at it number 10 this might be putting the cart before the horse just a little bit I’m going zaver mckin you talk about Jeff Halley’s definition of a post safety and just a safety in general and what he wants is the definition of Xavier McKenna he is going to be in my opinion the key that unlocks this Jeff Halley defense he is going to be ultra important to the back end especially with how much I think press man they’re going to want to play on the outsides I think he’s going to be a perfect fit he’s a phenomenal safety I watch his tape from New York he is that fre freaking good and I think the other thing too is he’s not just great on the field he’s been great in the locker room by all accounts he is a leader within that defensive back room his signing will have Ripple waves in a positive manner throughout the entirety of that defense and I think even you know potentially through the entirety of the team that’s how big of a free agent signing this is I don’t know if this is on par with Charles Woodson and Reggie White I’m not going that far but I think this could be Bri gudak against ultimate free agent signing that’s saying something because that zidus Smith signing that first couple seasons was pretty freaking epic and Preston Smith’s had a pretty good run as a packer as well I think this could be his best signing and I think he’s going to come in fit phenomenally with this team and make a massive massive impact number 11 the Youth of this team and their ability to continue to develop as a true core a true young core that’s on the same timeline here’s Green Bay’s oldest players Preston Smith at age 31 Eric Wilson at age 29 Matt orik is 29 Greg Joseph is 29 Alex MCU is 28 Elton Jenkins is 28 Andre Dillard is 28 Kenny Clark is 28 Cory Balentine is 28 Tyler Davis is 27 Zayn Anderson is 27 Jer Alexander is 27 that is 12 players everyone else is 26 are under everyone else and only one player over 30 and here’s the other thing of the players 27 and older there’s only four on that list that are really guaranteed to make the roster and or are core members of the team Jer at age 27 Kenny Clark at age 28 Elton Jenkins at age 28 and Preston Smith at age 31 those are your only four core players that are aged 27 or older four that’s it it is an incredibly young team they already showed what they were capable of a season ago fighting you know to the end with San Francisco in a game they probably should have won to go to the NFC Championship Game and now they’re going to only get better theoretically we’ll see if that can actually happen but they’re going to continue to grow as a young core and I think that is another advantage of this team this is not an overage team it’s not a team that you’re looking that you’re going to have to replace a bunch of guys soon it is a young growing core that’s all on the same timeline and that is going to serve this team incredibly well and last but not least number 12 on my list is the locker room we have heard from Matt laflor in Brian gakin going back to the very early parts of last year before we even saw this team make a run before we even saw this team go to the divisional round and give San Francisco everything they could handle this was early in the year and even actually I think right around the the trade deadline when when they were losing too was gudy was talking about it again but even before that even going into training camp we heard from gudy and we heard from Matt laflor early in 2023 of how unbelievable that locker room and that core was and all their young draft picks and young players how much they are football junkies they eat sleep breathe football it’s what they care about it’s what they go do in the offseason hook up you know uh you know and get together and you know do football activities outside of 1265 they bring that energy to practice as West hod said at rookie even the rookie mini camp this year was a more intense uptempo super productive rookie mini camp than what we’ve seen in the past this is a truly legitimate by all accounts special core of the team that is guiding this locker room it seems like there are extremely few if any OS it seems like everyone is on the same page focused on the same goal and that this is a team that is driven to get better that is driven to get to the Super Bowl and that’s driven to win a Lombardi and bring it back to Green Bay and that might all sound like I don’t know just cliche coach speak or things like I don’t believe so I believe that it is true I believe it’s legitimate I believe we got a glimpse of it this past season listen they were two and five last year they are three- six after that they trade away rosul Douglas at the trade deadline and things are not looking good what do they do they bounce back and they get back into it and then what happens after that they lose two in a row to New York and Tampa they go they’re at 6 and8 and playoffs are looking pretty bleak what do they do they go three wins in a row to get into the playoffs then beat Dallas and give again San Francisco hell in that divisional round game they had three quitting points last season at 2 and five at 3- six and after losing two in a row to New York and Tampa and they rallied every single time for a young inexperienced team after jettison you know Aaron Rogers the face of their franchise in the off season that’s pretty impressive even the year before that in 2022 they lost seven out of eight games I go back to this game all the time after losing seven of eight they’re in the going into the fourth quarter against Chicago on the road a bad Chicago team and they’re down 19 to 10 19 to 10 in week 13 after losing seven out of eight games playoffs just about all gone they could have easily quit in that situation and they didn’t they were 4- eight at the time and they came back they won against Chicago they won four in a row overall and had every opportunity to go against Detroit in that last week and get into the playoffs it’s just a team that didn’t quit and I I think that season still had a lot of those veterans on it so I’m less talking about that but in 2023 I think we saw already a lot of what this team is about and what they’re made of and I think they’re only going to gel further this year I think adding Josh Jacobs xaver McKenna and another class of hungry rookies is going to be super beneficial as well but I do believe that there is a true legitimate special vibe to the core of this team to this locker room and I do think it is something that they are protecting at all costs because of how valuable it is to this franchise right now it takes that type of camaraderie and desire for excellence to reach that level now whether they get there or not TBD all of these things that we talked about today all the strengths have to come together in all the best ways and all the weaknesses that we’ll talk about tomorrow are going to have to find a way to be mitigated but they’ve got a lot of the really important ingredients including head coach quarterback weapons depth playmaking you know a a great locker room great young leaders a young team that’s developing on the right timeline there is so much that is going in their favor right now it is a great time to be a Green Bay Packer fan my 12 strengths one more time Jordan love Matt laflor their overall depth their offensive weapons their ability to generate mismatches the versatility that they have all throughout the team kesan Nixon as a kick returner their ability to draft and develop along the offensive line their Pro Personnel Department’s ability to find players high price Players low PRC players practice squad guys scrap Heap guys Etc xaver mckin coming in and being the key that can unlock that defense the youth in development and the locker room those are the strengths of your 2024 Green Bay Packers that is going to do it for me today I’ll be back here tomorrow with a less fun topic the Packers weaknesses shout out to our Hall of Fame and All Pro members M to Minnesotan PJ wi John wild Jay Brad Brandon PETA boom handle Donald Lee Lor Lord baby QB David mcclusky Donald Decker Breman David Prendergast danan Miller Alex Swang and arnal Arnaldo Espinosa I’ll see you guys tomorrow but until next time and as always go Paco

On today’s show, Andy takes a look at the biggest strengths for the Packers as an organization as they head into the 2024 season. Don’t miss it!

#Packers #GreenBayPackers #jordanlove

To become a member of the Pack-A-Day Podcast, click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGx5Pq0zA_7O726M3JEptA/join

Pack-A-Day Store: https://www.packadaypodcast.com/

Don’t forget to subscribe!!!

Twitter/Threads: @andyhermannfl

If you’d like to support my channel, please donate to:
PayPal: https://paypal.me/andyhermannfl
Venmo: @Andrew_Herman

Email: PackADayPodcast@gmail.com