After taking a look at six reasons Green Bay Packers fans should be optimistic about the upcoming 2023 season, it’s now time to take a look at the other side of things, specifically the reasons for concern.
This is a roster with a lot of youth, as the youngest collective team in the league this season, and with inexperience comes a lot of questions and unknowns, all of which creates uncertainty. Here are my five reasons for concern with Week 1 on the horizon.
Inexperienced pass-catchers
Around first-time starting quarterback Jordan Love will be the youngest receiver room and tight end room in the NFL. From a tenure standpoint, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure are the most experienced receivers entering their second NFL seasons. In terms of snaps, Doubs has the most with 529. At tight end, the Packers have three rookies, at a position that comes with a notoriously difficult transition to the NFL, which is why we rarely see first-year tight ends with significant production. The Packers also have Josiah Deguara, who is entering his fourth NFL season but is technically a fullback.
As I highlighted in my ‘Reasons to be Optimistic’ article, the speed and versatility of these position groups are reasons to be excited. However, even with that potential, it doesn’t mean there won’t be ups and downs. The rookie years of Watson and Doubs showcase why. Both players were able to flash and show off their high upsides, but there were still plenty of inconsistencies as well. According to PFF, Watson would finish seventh among all receivers in drop rate, and Doubs ninth.
To a degree, this high level of variance should almost be expected from first-year players, including Jayden Reed, Malik Heath, and the rest of the Green Bay rookies. Not to mention that as they adjust to NFL play and a new playbook, being in the right place at the right time with their routes may be off at times as well. Even this year, with Watson, Doubs, and Toure, there still may be additional growing pains. They are now playing with a new quarterback, and none of them has a full season’s worth of snaps under their belts yet.
A first-time starting quarterback
Jordan Love gave us plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming season with his play throughout training camp and in the preseason. But with that said, he is still a first-time starting quarterback–growing pains feel inevitable.
I look at the second joint practice with the Patriots as a glimpse into what this season could look like at times for the Packers offense. In joint practices, defenses are much more willing to show a bit more than what they would in a preseason game, where every snap is being put on film. So New England threw a lot of looks at Love, including blitzes, a variety of personnel, and late movement in the secondary–all things I expect most defenses to throw at Love in an effort to cause confusion.
To Love’s credit, he handled all that well during the first joint practice. However, on Day 2, with the Patriots being more familiar with the Green Bay offense in terms of timing and what they like to run – which is similar to the regular season where opponents are watching film and making adjustments to what the offense does – moving the ball became very difficult for the offense. For much of camp and the preseason, Love did well taking what the defense gave him, but you could tell during this practice with New England he began to press a little bit, leading to inaccurate throws and trying to fit the ball into tight windows, which resulted in takeaways for the Patriots.
We also saw inconsistency from this offense during situational drills, which included the two-minute and red zone periods throughout the summer practices. There didn’t seem to be a lot of middle-ground from the offense this summer, as we saw in the preseason. Either things were clicking, and Green Bay was moving the ball, or things stalled out pretty quickly.
Turnovers this season, at times, will feel like they are inevitable. Points very well could be at a premium. This offense has the ability to move the ball and pick up chunk plays, but how does Love – and everyone else – respond when it’s tough sledding, or they are down by 10 points? Once they put on film what they are good at and opposing defenses then try to take that away, can Love and this offense counter?
The safety position
This was one of the biggest unknowns about this Packers team heading into the offseason, and it still remains that way. The team still hasn’t announced who will be starting next to Darnell Savage Week 1–although that does appear to be Rudy Ford’s role for the time being. However, as recently as the New England game, GM Brian Gutekunst said that no one had been consistent enough through the first three or four weeks of training camp to earn that second starting spot, which, on its own, is a bit concerning.
I guess if you’re looking for some optimism, it’s not as if the play of the safety group this year has to be lights out to match what we saw a season ago. In fact, as Joe Barry has pointed out, simple consistency will go a long way. This means effective communication with the rest of the secondary pre-snap. Doing your job and being positioned correctly, along with being sound as a tackler. Last season, coverage breakdowns, miscommunications, and missed tackles were far too prevalent.
With Anthony Johnson being a late Day 3 pick who is still somewhat adjusting to a new position – this was only his second offseason playing safety – my guess is that, at least right away, his role is small, while Dallin Leavitt and Zayne Anderson are special teams players. That leaves either Ford or Jonathan Owens to play next to Savage. With Ford and Owens, the Packers have two players who have shown in the past that they can provide some reliability as tacklers, but the biggest question mark around this unit is if they have enough coverage ability amongst the group. Those responsibilities are likely to fall on Savage, which isn’t exactly comforting after his play in 2022.
An inexperienced interior defensive line
The youth on the offensive side of the ball, specifically at receiver and tight end, have garnered most of the attention–and understandably so. But there is also a lot of inexperience along the interior defensive line. Only Kenny Clark, TJ Slaton, and Devonte Wyatt have any NFL snaps, with Slaton playing fewer than 600 and Wyatt less than 250. The Packers are going to be relying heavily on two rookies, Colby Wooden and Karl Brooks, and another near rookie in Wyatt from a playing time perspective.
The good news is that Wooden and Brooks both had really impressive summers. As a whole, I was impressed with the play of the interior defensive line, specifically with their ability to create consistent push up the middle, along with how much faster this unit looks this season.
But with that said, performing in the preseason and doing so in the regular season are two very different things, and it remains to be seen if this position group can continue to make plays when it matters. If the defensive unit is going to improve this season, it all begins with the interior defensive line. The Packers have to be better at slowing the run and putting the opposing offense in predictable passing situations. This is also a defense that ranked 22nd in total pressures generated last season. In order to be better in those areas, it will take all 11 defenders, but it all starts up front.
With what we saw from the interior defensive line this summer, there are certainly reasons for optimism. However, when relying heavily on inexperience, down-to-down consistency can very much be an issue. And with an offense that may struggle to put up points, the margin for error for this unit is a lot smaller than what it has been over the years.
A rookie kicker
Since drafting Anders Carlson, the Packers knew that there would be ups and downs that came with relying heavily on a rookie kicker, and we’ve already seen plenty of that, but Gutekunst also made clear that patience was required and they would give Carlson time. During one practice, you would see Carlson go 6-for-6, and the next day, he might go 1-for-6.
Once again, I’ll reference that points may be at a premium for this offense early on, which means maximizing field goal and extra point opportunities–something that, at least initially, probably won’t be a given. Two aspects about Carlson that the Packers really liked were that he packs some power and his ability to bounce back, which are two things that have been on display all summer.
It’s also worth mentioning that holding for Carlson will be Daniel Whelan, another first-year NFL player. One reason that Whealn made the team over Pat O’Donnell was his improvement throughout training camp as a holder, but until we get to the regular season, there are going to be a lot of question marks around that entire operation.