MINNEAPOLIS — It’s true. Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium — in terms of the NFC playoff picture — is meaningless. 

The Packers (9-6-1) are locked into the seventh and final playoff berth in the NFC. They’ve clinched their spot in the postseason, but they cannot improve their No. 7 seeding.

They’ll either travel to Chicago to face the NFC North-champion Bears (11-5) or to Philadelphia for a playoff rematch with the defending Super Bowl-champion Eagles (11-5), depending on what happens in their respective regular-season finales.

So, win or lose against the Vikings (8-8), the Packers will be in the same spot after the clock strikes 0:00 as they were before kickoff.

But while the head coach Matt LaFleur and his staff, having seen too many of their most important players felled by injuries this season, are treating this game more like an August exhibition than a postseason tune-up, there’s plenty of meaning for a host of players who wouldn’t be playing — and some who wouldn’t even be on the team — if not for the Packers’ current predicament.

And for those players, this might not be their Super Bowl, but it is a colossal opportunity to state their case for a shot at making the roster in 2026, or to draw interest from one of the NFL’s other 31 teams, or — maybe, just maybe — earn a meaningful role during the team’s upcoming playoff push.

“There’s a level of excitement with these guys because some of them do know they’re about to get an opportunity — an opportunity of a lifetime,” Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said of the vibe around 1265 Lombardi Avenue before the team departed for the Twin Cities.

“Some guys who might have been on the practice squad a week ago, now they’re finding out they’re going to get a chance to go against [Vikings wide receivers] Justin Jefferson and [Jordan] Addison and a really good football team.

“I think that’s the beautiful part of this league. Sometimes, it only takes one opportunity — and it could change your life. And that’s pretty cool.”

Now, let’s not be Pollyannaish here. The Packers have lost three straight games — to the Denver Broncos, the Bears and last week to the Baltimore Ravens in their final game at Lambeau Field this season — and have been besieged by injuries.

They are unlikely to beat the Vikings with a ragamuffin crew — they were 8.5-point underdogs as of Saturday night — and are likely to enter the postseason on a four-game losing streak.

After a series of personnel moves during the week, they now have 15 players on injured reserve — headlined, of course, by Pro Bowl defensive end Micah Parsons (torn ACL in his left knee), tight end Tucker Kraft (torn ACL in his right knee), center Elgton Jenkins (fractured lower left leg) and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (torn ankle ligaments).

They made a whopping 23 — 23! — roster moves in the week leading into Sunday’s game because of said injuries, shuffling both the 53-man roster and 16-man practice squad to cobble together a group that will allow them to play it safe with their most important players and still be competitive.

And while they got their starting quarterback, Jordan Love, back from the NFL’s concussion protocol during the week, LaFleur made it clear he doesn’t think Love needs to play to be ready for the playoffs.

“The intent, I would say,” LaFleur said on Thursday, “is not to play him.”

Nor does LaFleur intend to play other indispensable players like No. 1 running back Josh Jacobs, who has been dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee since mid-November, or right tackle Zach Tom, who is listed as questionable but is likely to miss his third straight game since sustaining a knee injury of his own at Denver.

“Like I tell the guys, nobody cares about the circumstance. All they care about is what you do when you go out there,” LaFleur said. “So it’s really upon each individual to go out there and put their best foot forward and put good stuff on tape.”

And what an opportunity it is.

Cornerback Jaylin Simpson spent the entire season on the practice squad — with one game-day call-up for the Packers’ Thanksgiving Day win at Detroit, although he did not play — and is set to play in his first NFL regular-season game.

“These guys, they played 17 weeks straight and I’m about to play one. One. The least I can do is come in here with a smile on my face and trying to keep everybody’s mood up. That’s my thing,” Simpson said. “I’m trying my best to not get too high, not to get too low. I’m not changing anything about how I stretch, how I go to meetings, what time I wake up. I’m not changing anything because every week I was coming in here like I was playing that week. I’m not changing anything. 

“I’m just going to go out there and play ball like I’ve been doing since I was three years old. The lights won’t be too bright for me, for sure. It means everything.”

Safety Johnathan Baldwin, cornerback Shemar Bartholomew, wide receiver Jakobie Keeney-James, and guard Lecitus Smith also were signed from the practice squad to the active roster this week, while tight end Drake Dabney and linebacker Jamon Johnson received game-day elevations on Saturday.

“Just blessed for the opportunity, man — the opportunity to put that film on tape, like the older guys been preaching to us, not just this team but all 32 teams,” said Bartholomew, who saw action in five games last year with Carolina and just signed on to the Packers’ practice squad on Dec. 2. “Whatever they need me to do, I’m happy to be there and happy to give my best and my all.”

And, the Packers claimed defensive tackle Jonathan Ford, a 2022 seventh-round pick who never played a regular-season snap for them during two-plus years with the team, off waivers from the Bears to add depth to their depleted defensive line.

“I just want to contribute. That’s it,” Ford said. “I just want to come in and help the guys and give my best effort and be confident and show I can play and that’s it.”

And at the center of it all is third-string quarterback Clayton Tune, a 2023 fifth-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals who started one game as a rookie and has spent all season on the practice squad after Arizona cut him at the end of training camp.

With No. 2 quarterback Malik Willis, who has been fantastic in Love’s stead the past two weeks, listed as questionable with hamstring and right (throwing) shoulder injuries, Tune not only gets the start, but a huge opportunity to show the Packers that he deserves consideration to be Love’s primary backup next year if Willis leaves in free agency for a starting opportunity elsewhere.

“When I think back to when I started in a similar situation, you think about the amazing opportunity,” said Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion, who started a so-called meaningless regular-season finale for the playoff-bound Los Angeles Rams at the end of 2017 season. “You just think back to all your preparation, all the reps that you have banked, your preparation. And you’re thinking about just going out there and just operating, executing, and, frankly, just letting it fly.

“It’s a great opportunity for Clayton. Like, what better chance to put some tape out there for the league and show us what he can do for our team? So, we’re excited for him.”

And everyone else like him.

“Some of these guys, they’re holding that pen in their hand,” Hafley said. “And they’re finally getting a chance to write their own story.

“For sure, we want to win every game. That’s the expectation regardless of who’s in. But what a cool story it’s going to be for some of these guys who a week ago at this time thought they were going to be on practice squad and now they have the opportunity to go play in a real NFL game and make a name for themselves.”

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