Green Bay Packers: 3 Reasons for Optimism about 2021 Season
By Kenny Jilek
The great thing about professional sports is that there’s always next year. Of course, there will be players departing for other teams and changes that need to be made to get over the hump, but there will be another season of Green Bay Packers football in a few months, and I think we could all use some positivity right now, so let’s look at some reasons to be optimistic about it.
Just like Kenny Clark tweeted the morning after the game, “Back to work we go.” Brian Gutekunst and his guys will go to work making crucial roster decisions and evaluating draft prospects. Matt LaFleur and the rest of his staff will go to work looking at adjustments for next season and how they can maximize every player on the roster. And the players will go to work in the offseason, lifting weights, practicing their footwork, and developing their skills.
Life goes on in Green Bay, and in a football city with so much history from Lambeau to Lombardi to Favre, they’ll have another chance next year to add to the great story that is the Green Bay Packers’ organization.
Reason 1: Exciting Young Players
With the Packers’ lack of cap space this offseason, they probably won’t be making many upgrades in free agency. Fortunately, they have some great developing players on their cheap rookie contracts who have flashed big potential and are set to make big improvements next season.
This group includes guys like A.J. Dillon, Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage, Kingsley Keke, the inside linebacker tandem of Kamal Martin and Krys Barnes, and Josiah Deguara who missed almost the entire season with a torn ACL.
Gary and Savage were already in starting roles this year as second-year guys, and their third years should be even better. They both ended the season extremely strongly, with Savage making four interceptions in the final six weeks of the regular season and Gary being the best defensive player on the field in the Divisional Round against the Rams, with three QB hits and 1.5 sacks.
Dillon will almost definitely get more carries next year because at least one, if not both of Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams, will almost definitely be lost in free agency. Deguara will get his chance to be a huge cog in LaFleur’s offensive scheme and should be a big building block for the offense to work in. The pairing of Martin and Barnes personally excites me the most. These guys came in as rookies with no training camp or preseason and played respectable NFL football. Once they get a full offseason, they could both be studs and shore up the middle of the defense very well.
Finally, they’ll be getting some more young talent in the draft. I’m going to make a bold prediction: The Green Bay Packers will not take a quarterback with their first-round pick. That means that, at the very least, if they trade back, they’ll have an early second-round pick and hopefully grab some playmakers to fill a hole or two in the roster.
Young talent is always a reason to be excited and optimistic, and the Packers have some impact players in the making.