Turnover woes troublesome for Packers early on in season

If there’s one thing about an Aaron Rodgers-led offense that we haven’t had to worry about, it’s turnovers. Rodgers has a career interception rate of just 1.3%, and generally, fumbles haven’t been an issue for the Green Bay Packers either.

However, that hasn’t been the case through four games during the Packers’ 2022 season.

After throwing just four interceptions during the entire 2021 season and never more than five since 2017, Rodgers has thrown three interceptions in the first four games, including just the fourth pick-six of his career, which was almost the difference between a win and a loss.

Meanwhile, the Packers have lost a fumble each week this season and have put the ball on the ground on a few other occasions as well. Overall, the Packers’ seven giveaways are tied for the sixth-most in football, and they sit at a very unfamiliar minus-three in the turnover differential category.

As far as the interceptions go, Rodgers has had a slower start to the season, and he just doesn’t look as sharp. I’m sure working through the growing pains with his revamped wide receiver unit has been a factor as well.

When it comes to the fumbles, ball security simply needs to be a greater emphasis. Romeo Doubs has put the ball on the ground twice, losing one of them, with Rodgers mentioning that rookie has to be better about knowing when to go to the ground.

Two other fumbles came on a miscommunication in the backfield, which led to a bobbled handoff exchange, and Aaron Jones taking a big hit from Vita Vea at the goal line. Green Bay has also been up against Tampa Bay and New England in recent weeks, two defenses who are among the best at attacking the football.

The Packers are fortunate that, so far, these turnover issues haven’t really impacted the win-loss column. They’ve lost the turnover battle twice this season, and thanks to the defense, they managed to split with Chicago and Tampa Bay.

As a whole, the offense needs to find more consistency, but also high up on the priority list is that Green Bay needs to take better care of the football. To put it simply, for a team that has struggled to put points on the board, the Packers can’t be giving the opponent additional opportunities.

They were able to overcome these turnover woes against a struggling Bears offense, a Bucs team without its top-three receivers, and a Patriots squad with a third-string rookie quarterback, but as the competition heats up, committing turnovers at this rate will undoubtedly end with losses.

"“This way of winning, I don’t think, is sustainable, because it puts too much pressure on our defense,” Rodgers said following Sunday’s win via SI."