Good afternoon, everyone. Well, we made it to kickoff week for the NFL. The Green Bay Packers will take on the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday September 11 to start their season. I’ll focus on that game in my next post. For this one, I want to talk about what happened with the Packers during the off-season. Without further delay, let’s get started.
The first order of business in the minds of many Packers fans, including me, was replacing the Special Teams coordinator after the disaster that was the loss to the 49ers in the divisional round last season. To sum the loss up, there were three major mistakes by the unit: a blocked field goal at halftime, a blocked punt that was picked up by the 49ers for a touchdown, and only having 10 players for the final field goal of the game, which the 49ers won 13-10. As a result, Maurice Drayton was relieved of his duties. To replace him, the Packers hired Rich Bisaccia, who has been an assistant coach in the NFL for 20 years with various teams. Most recently, he was with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders as a Special Teams coordinator. He did a great job as the interim coach for the Raiders in 2021. Rather than keep him, the Raiders let him go. As a result, the Packers were able to get him. I have hope that he will coach the unit to a much better season than the last couple of years under Drayton and Shawn Mennanga.
Next was the matter of who was coming back and who was leaving. The biggest question mark, like last year, was where Aaron Rodgers was going to go. There were rumors of him going to the Broncos, especially with offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett leaving the Packers to become the head coach in Denver. Thankfully, Rodgers and the Packers agreed to a 4-year extension to his contract that all but guarantees that he will stay a Packer for the rest of his career. Davante Adams is another story. The Packers did have enough money to give him a contract extension, but the thing was that Adams didn’t want to be in Green Bay anymore. Yes he did sign the tender, but the Packers then traded him to the Raiders, reuniting him with his college QB Derek Carr. I’m happy for Davante, but I don’t think that he’ll get even close to a Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The second receiver who left Green Bay was Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who went to the Chiefs in free agency. 2 other major departures were Za’Darius Smith, who went to the Vikings, and Billy Turner, who went back to Denver to protect their new QB Russell Wilson (who was traded by Seattle to Denver). On the plus side, defensive stalwarts De’Vondre Campbell, Rasul Douglas, Preston Smith, and Jaire Alexander all got contract extensions to stay in Green Bay. Adrian Amos and Aaron Jones had their contracts restructured to give the Packers more cap room. Hopefully they get and extension for 2023 and beyond.
As for newcomers via free agency and the draft, there were a number of those. In free agency, the Packers got a couple of players. Defensively, they got Jarran Reed, who was most recently with the Chiefs. I hope that he can contribute well and help Kenny Clark in the defensive front. Another former Chief that came to Green Bay was wide receiver Sammy Watkins. Luckily for Watkins, he gets to keep playing with a great quarterback (he had Patrick Mahomes throwing to him in Kansas City). The Packers’ new punter is Pat O’Donnell, who used to play for the Chicago Bears and, therefore, is accustomed to punt in cold and windy conditions (plus snow and rain). In the draft, the Packers selected Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt (both from Georgia) in the first round to help with the defense. In the second, fourth, and seventh rounds, the Packers selected wide receivers Christian Watson (from North Dakota State), Romeo Doubs (from Nevada), and Samari Toure (from Nebraska). 3 of their picks were OL Sean Rhyan (3rd round from UCLA), Zach Tom (4th round from Wake Forest), and Rasheed Walker (7th round from Penn State). The other two defensive rookies that they drafted were Kingsley Enagbare from South Carolina in the 5th round and Jonathan Ford from Miami (FL) in the 7th round. Thankfully, all of these players are on the 53-man roster. In addition, they got their new long snapper Jack Coco via undrafted free agency. Who knows how big of an impact these players will make in their first year. I wish all the best for these rookies regardless.
The coaching staff is mostly intact, with Matt LaFleur still head coach and Joe Barry coaching the defense once again. With the departure of Nathaniel Hackett, the Packers promoted Adam Stenavich to offensive coordinator and Luke Butkus to OL coach. Like I said earlier, I hope Rich Bisaccia coaches the heck out of the Special Teams unit. I want to talk about Matt LaFleur for a second. Since he was hired in 2019 to replace Mike McCarthy as head coach of the Packers, he has been a candidate for Coach of the Year in each of the last 3 seasons. I feel like this is the year that he gets it. Yes, he has Aaron Rodgers, but he has found ways to get the receivers open, even when injuries (or COVID-19) have limited the offensive attack. I give him partial credit for Aaron Rodgers’ back to back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021. This season will be a huge challenge, as the offense is without Davante Adams (who, as mentioned earlier, was traded to Las Vegas). In addition, there’s still some questions with the offensive line (though David Bakhtiari is optimistic about starting on Sunday). If he can coach the Packers to another 13-win season with the challenges on offense, plus the defense doing their thing and Special Teams not being full-on garbage, then the award is his.
Overall, I’m looking forward to the Packers season starting in a few days. The offense might go through some growing pains early, but I’m confident that the defense, led by Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, Preston Smith, Jaire Alexander, De’Vondre Campbell, Rasul Douglas, and DC Joe Barry will make opposing offenses pay in numerous ways. I’m optimistic that the Special Teams unit will be better under Rich Bisaccia. It’ll depend on how the players execute their assignments. We made it to games that matter. I’ll be going over the game against the Vikings later. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great day. Go Pack Go!
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