GREEN BAY \u2014 It\u2019s tough to measure the urgency of a football team during Organized Team Activities.<\/p>\n
Players don\u2019t have pads on. There is no live tackling, or really, any contact whatsoever.<\/p>\n
As Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said, “It sucks that we\u2019ve got to go like 50% right now.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rob Reischel<\/p>\n
Yes, in many ways OTAs are the epitome of fake football.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s still plenty that teams can accomplish. And the Packers are doing everything possible to attack the offseason with an urgency that was called into question when the 2024 season ended.<\/p>\n
Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst first dropped the U-word \u2014 urgency \u2014 in mid-January, four days after the Packers\u2019 22-10 loss to Philadelphia in an NFC Wild Card game.<\/p>\n
“I think for me, the thing that\u2019s been on my mind as we concluded this season is we need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,” Gutekunst said that day. “If I\u2019m looking at one thing, that would be it.”<\/p>\n
Now, four-plus months later, that word still seemed to be ringing in many of the Packers\u2019 heads as OTAs rolled along.<\/p>\n
“You feel the urgency for sure,” Packers Pro Bowl running back Josh Jacobs said. “You feel a lot of the younger guys growing up, you can definitely feel them coming into their own. You feel the urgency just from the way the guys are going about practicing and the details and the way they\u2019re on top of everything.”<\/p>\n
Cooper, Green Bay\u2019s rising second- year linebacker, agreed.<\/p>\n
“As soon as we start ball, as soon as we enter this building, everything we try and do we try and have urgency,” he said. “Everything we do.”<\/p>\n
With good reason. Green Bay played much of the 2024 campaign like lions, then exited like lambs.<\/p>\n
The Packers were 6-2, 9-3 and 11-4 at various points last year and were still in the mix for big things. Then, Green Bay lost its final three games in a collapse that was almost as surprising as it was disappointing.<\/p>\n
First came a 27-25 setback at Minnesota in a game Green Bay trailed 203 and 27-10 before two late touchdowns made the final score both respectable and deceptive.<\/p>\n
Then, NFC North doormat Chicago came to Green Bay with nothing on the line and rallied for an improbable 24-22 win. That snapped the Packers\u2019 11-game winning streak over the Bears, and also marked the first time Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur lost a game to his neighbors to the south.<\/p>\n
Finally came a dreadful offensive performance in Philadelphia, where the Packers lost the turnover battle 40 and quarterback Jordan Love had a passer rating of 41.5 \u2014 his second lowest since becoming the starter in 2023.<\/p>\n
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