Packers: 3 biggest storylines to watch in 2021 training camp

The Green Bay Packers kicked off their 2021 training camp with a bang last week. The Aaron Rodgers’ saga came to a conclusion (at least for this season) with the reigning MVP returning to Green Bay just in time, the Packers acquired two veterans including wide receiver Randall Cobb, and the team got after it in practice.

With a couple of week’s worth of practices before the Packers’ first preseason game–an exhibition season that is shortened to three games this year with the addition of a 17th regular season contest–let’s take a look at three storylines that will grab most of the attention.

These three storylines are sure to dominate the media during the Green Bay Packers’ 2021 training camp.

3. Wide receiver battle

With the addition of Cobb, the wide receiver room is suddenly very crowded. Green Bay only kept five a year ago, but will be hard-pressed not to keep six this season. You can write Cobb, Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Amari Rodgers and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in stone for the top five spots. After that, it will most likely come down to Devin Funchess and Equanimous St. Brown. However, Malik Taylor (a special teams’ stud) and Juwan Winfree have been making waves as well.

With Rodgers and Jordan Love slinging the rock, there hasn’t been a shortage of splash plays in the receiving game. All the wide receivers are stepping up their game and have come to play to begin training camp. Who will survive?

2. New defensive coordinator

Quietly, the Packers fired Mike Pettine in the offseason and hired Joe Barry to be their defensive coordinator. There hasn’t been much talk yet about the transition for the defense, as the scheme projects to be largely the same. The players are basically the same as well, with rookies and a veteran inside linebacker being the only real changes. Basically, that tells everyone that head coach Matt LaFleur thought the issue was Pettine and not the talent on the team. We’ll see how this plays out, starting in training camp.

1. Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love

It’s inevitable. Rodgers and his apparent protege Jordan Love are going to dominate the Packers’ headlines throughout training camp. Rodgers doesn’t want to be a lame-duck quarterback with the Packers controlling his future. However, Green Bay needs to ensure long-term future success and Love could be that guy.

Considering Love didn’t have any preseason games and didn’t receive any regular season playing time in his rookie year, this exhibition season will be extremely important for him. His improvement has already been noticed by his teammates and he’ll have the opportunity to translate that into playing time. Every throw he makes will be hyper-analyzed with the future of the Pack in mind.