Packers 2024 Season Thread

[HarveysWBs]

32 minutes ago, homer said:

Heard a rumor the issue is that Jaire doesn't want to play but he is cleared by the docs. 

If true, that’s bad news for all involved. Harder for the Packers to deal him, harder for him to convince a future team to give him a big money contract—this is why I’d be surprised if this was true. If he doesn’t want to play now, for this team, on a defense that is better than any we’ve had in over a decade, what would that say about JA? LaFleur has been covering for him, saying his speed numbers and practice film aren’t up to snuff yet, etc. Not sure they’d be doing that if they had cleared him.

But the famously conservative training staff not advising an IR trip for a guy who has now missed five weeks for a mild knee injury demands some kind of explanation. There is more to this story.

[CheezWizHed]

I really hope this isn't true.  JA has been frustrating these past two years, but he is still a great CB.  I figured last year was a bad case of the Joe Barrys, but if he still has attitude problems while playing on this team with a new DC that puts him in good places to succeed... well goodbye.  He can go play with De'vondre Campbell. 

[OldHeidelberg]

Alexander won't play if he is not 100%, I thought they said he still just didn't feel like himself last week. Everybody else plays through stuff like this but I am guessing he just doesn't trust the knee yet. He will be released in the offseason and someone will give him something like an 8 million one year prove it deal. In camp he will claim he feels healthy for the first time in years then he will pull hammy/quad/groin in like week 2 and miss a month.

I still hope he is back for the playoffs but he needs to get out there soon.

[adambr2]

I think it’s a fair statement to say that the 2024 Packers are a very good team that did not take the next step to being a top echelon team this year like we hoped they would, for 3 main reasons: 

1) Their rivals improved much more than they did.

2) Jordan Love did not improve to the level that we need him to to be a top tier team.

3) We have not gotten the results that we need out of the defensive linemen and linebackers that we’ve drafted, developed, and paid to generate enough pass rush to beat elite teams.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

11 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I think it’s a fair statement to say that the 2024 Packers are a very good team that did not take the next step to being a top echelon team this year like we hoped they would, for 3 main reasons: 

1) Their rivals improved much more than they did.

2) Jordan Love did not improve to the level that we need him to to be a top tier team.

3) We have not gotten the results that we need out of the defensive linemen and linebackers that we’ve drafted, developed, and paid to generate enough pass rush to beat elite teams.

I'm genuinely not sure how the defense is as good as it is with what feels like very, very little playmaking. It's not incredible but it's safely in at least the top half of the league and probably a little better...yet who on that defense do you find yourself saying, "OK, make a play here!" 

There's nobody. The alleged best player they have has barely played. There's McKinney, but he hasn't really done much big play stuff in the second half. Overall I think they've done a good job with the defense but they are badly missing some star power in the front 7 and the litany of early round picks have been, for the most part, hugely disappointing. 

Love is probably the most insignificant of the three points. Doesn't look like he's really taken a leap this year, but I think he's a championship quality QB and frankly we shouldn't require an MVP to win the Super Bowl. 

 

[adambr2]

Gute isn’t getting nearly enough criticism for the Packers’ inability to take that next step. He is at the front and center of all these defensive misses. There has been WAY too much investment in the defense to have this mediocre of personnel.

I think Hafley, despite not his best game today, gets about the best he can out of what he has.

You can’t take a Lukas Van Ness at #13 and get nothing out of it besides a mediocre rotational player. Can’t happen. It sets your franchise back, when you never get to pick that high and whiff at your one shot at it.

[adambr2]

6 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I'm genuinely not sure how the defense is as good as it is with what feels like very, very little playmaking. It's not incredible but it's safely in at least the top half of the league and probably a little better...yet who on that defense do you find yourself saying, "OK, make a play here!" 

There's nobody. The alleged best player they have has barely played. There's McKinney, but he hasn't really done much big play stuff in the second half. Overall I think they've done a good job with the defense but they are badly missing some star power in the front 7 and the litany of early round picks have been, for the most part, hugely disappointing. 

Love is probably the most insignificant of the three points. Doesn't look like he's really taken a leap this year, but I think he's a championship quality QB and frankly we shouldn't require an MVP to win the Super Bowl. 

 

I, too, would like to see a Packer team that doesn’t require elite QB play to win championships. So far, the returns on the defensive investments are not going to be good enough for that to happen. 

However, as someone else pointed out in the game thread, your HC is this supposed offensive guru and your quarterback just got a massive extension. I think it’s absolutely fair to criticize the fact that in numerous big games this season, slow starts by the offense — slow to the point of being almost nonexistent in the first half, have put the defense in a really bad spot. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

How long will it take before there are whispers about MLF's job? My guess would be after next season if there isn't a deep run. I'm sure some people will laugh at that, like they did when I said something similar about Mike Budenholzer, but pro sports are incredibly fickle. I like MLF, but the postseason failure under Rodgers plus 3 seasons of Love would have to start those rumblings. Can only fire so many coordinators before it gets back to you. 

 

[HarryDoyle]

41 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

How long will it take before there are whispers about MLF's job? My guess would be after next season if there isn't a deep run. I'm sure some people will laugh at that, like they did when I said something similar about Mike Budenholzer, but pro sports are incredibly fickle. I like MLF, but the postseason failure under Rodgers plus 3 seasons of Love would have to start those rumblings. Can only fire so many coordinators before it gets back to you. 

 

They're already whispering the same thing in Buffalo. If they don't make it to at least the AFCCG, McDermott may not survive. He may even need a Super Bowl appearance.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

They're the youngest team in the league, stocked with draft picks and cap space, with a young QB locked up for years. I'm perfectly happy with the head coach, GM, and the team's trajectory. Didn't think 2024 was gonna be the magic year going in. Have no idea what planet the people raising doubts about MLF or Gute are living on. Perhaps their expectations were in the wrong place

[OldSchoolSnapper]

11 minutes ago, True Blue Brew Crew said:

They're the youngest team in the league, stocked with draft picks and cap space, with a young QB locked up for years. I'm perfectly happy with the head coach, GM, and the team's trajectory. Didn't think 2024 was gonna be the magic year going in. Have no idea what planet the people raising doubts about MLF or Gute are living on. Perhaps their expectations were in the wrong place

Earth. This is MLF's 6th season. He spent the first 4 with an MVP QB. He has a 68% regular season winning percentage and is 3-4 in the playoffs without winning the conference. I think both can be true: He is one of the best coaches in the league, but it is getting close to when people start asking if he can get the Packers over the hump. IMO, he is a developing a reputation almost like a Mike Budenholzer. A guy that is good to develop young talent and win regular season games, but there are really not many signature wins on his resume as a head coach. I would even say Mike McCarthy's teams showed up better in those games.

Nobody is saying he is on a hot seat today. But with another early dip from the playoffs, I think by next season those hot takes will start swirling. If they do it again next season, then I'd guess those conversations pick up some real steam.

What the Packers actually do about it is an entirely different story. As a club, they are probably one of the slower teams to pull big triggers like that. I like MLF, not advocating for his firing yet. But I think their diarrhea in marquee games this year has added fuel to the fire. 

All becomes moot if they do good stuff next month, though.

[homer]

 

 

[CheezWizHed]

12 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Love is probably the most insignificant of the three points. Doesn't look like he's really taken a leap this year, but I think he's a championship quality QB and frankly we shouldn't require an MVP to win the Super Bowl. 

Love is still very young in his ability to read D, adjust, and make plays happen.  He is a very good QB when things are there for him.... I don't see much in the way of adjustments, and he has very poor situational awareness. 

The result is very sporadic offense.  Sometimes he plays like he is on fire, but when he is being challenged, he doesn't change coverages, look for a quick "out", or hurt the blitzer's area. 

Yes, with a very, very good defense, you can win a SB with him.  But I think his chances are low until he can play "smarter" football.  You are going to have games where everything goes your way (Dallas last year), but then you have other games where it goes badly and I don't see a QB that can "will" his way to a win. 

Hopefully he will get there, but until he does, I think he has a very low chance of being a SB winning QB.  (Hopefully I'll eat those words). 

[adambr2]

1 hour ago, True Blue Brew Crew said:

They're the youngest team in the league, stocked with draft picks and cap space, with a young QB locked up for years. I'm perfectly happy with the head coach, GM, and the team's trajectory. Didn't think 2024 was gonna be the magic year going in. Have no idea what planet the people raising doubts about MLF or Gute are living on. Perhaps their expectations were in the wrong place

I expect that when you draft defensive players in the first round, especially as high as #13, they will be ready to contribute in meaningful ways sometime in their first couple years and not be liabilities. That seems like a reasonable expectation.

As far as your other points, that’s the way of the business. I haven’t looked it up, but I would guess that MLF is one of the longer tenured head coaches in the NFL. No matter what their regular season accomplishments are, you simply don’t see 10+ year head coaches in the NFL that don’t even have a Super Bowl appearance to their name. It’s the exact same reason that McDermott’s seat is warm in Buffalo despite all their regular season accomplishments.

[kestrel79]

I think Gutey can take a little blame here. Man looking back on our past 4-5 drafts and some of the misses in the 1st round...just imagine if we got some people who would of hit on. We'd be sitting pretty good with a TJ Watt right now.

MLF yeah he just seems to choke in the big games. Get a little too cute with the play calls, dumb challenges, poor clock management.

That Saints game just seemed like the playbook was wide open, lots of crazy stuff that worked. Yesterday it just seemed like we had to claw for every catch and completion. Maybe that was Minnesota's D but also we just felt off.

But hey if they can get hot and play like that Dallas game last year we have a chance. Just need to get a pass rush going, man that is killing us. Getting some DBs back should help too. 

[adambr2]

4 hours ago, kestrel79 said:

I think Gutey can take a little blame here. Man looking back on our past 4-5 drafts and some of the misses in the 1st round...just imagine if we got some people who would have hit on. We'd be sitting pretty good with a TJ Watt right now.

Agree with all this, but the TJ Watt miss falls on the shoulders of the late Ted Thompson.

[LouisEly]

7 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

A guy that is good to develop young talent and win regular season games, but there are really not many signature wins on his resume as a head coach.

So we don't want a coach who is good to develop young talent when we have the youngest team in the league, and we expect him to win big games with the youngest team in the league.  Got it.

[Brian]

I hope SF cleans the Lions clock tonight in a blowout. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

10 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

So we don't want a coach who is good to develop young talent when we have the youngest team in the league, and we expect him to win big games with the youngest team in the league.  Got it.

I think we want a Super Bowl. He hasn't impressed in playoff games and other marquee games.  

This whole "youngest team" schtick is getting kinda dumb while we're on it. Less than 2 years separate the youngest and oldest teams. It's a difference of 25.2 and 27.1 from youngest to oldest. People act like we're talking about 13 year olds here or something. 

I haven't seen anyone mention that maybe the Packers shouldn't be so young and they have undervalued veteran presence to the point that they could have achieved more by now with an above average end instead of Lukas Van Ness. 

Not really that great when your hottest young commodities aren't playing meaningful snaps until year 4. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

2 minutes ago, Brian said:

I hope SF cleans the Lions clock tonight in a blowout. 

The Lions can take the game off if they want. Means nothing as long as they beat Minnesota. 

[HarryDoyle]

Detroit's defense is not going to hold up in the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if they lost to the Bucs in the first round if that's the matchup.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I just don't believe this is Detroit at its best, but I also don't think they're going to win the NFC. Just too banged up. 

Taking emotion out of it, Minnesota seems most balanced and firing on all cylinders. I have a mental block believing Darnold is the real deal but they are getting hard to deny at this point. I will cling to the dream they choke it away. 

Minnesota vs. Detroit is very possibly the divisional game as well. It is going to be a very entertaining NFC playoffs. 

[LouisEly]

MLF today said that knee swelling is the issue with Alexander.

Cue the David Bakhtiari consternation.

There is also the condition that a team can't cut a player who can't pass a physical due to football-related injury without paying him for the next season.  Alexander is due ~$17.5M in cash next year including workout/roster bonuses, and it's unlikely that they'll bring him back at that salary.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

10 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

 

This whole "youngest team" schtick is getting kinda dumb while we're on it. Less than 2 years separate the youngest and oldest teams. It's a difference of 25.2 and 27.1 from youngest to oldest. People act like we're talking about 13 year olds here or something. 

It's not schtick, it's a fact. And if placed in the proper context the value in that fact is that improvement and growth can be expected from these players. It also means that it is perfectly acceptable for said younger players not to climb to the top of the mountain on their first 1-2 go-arounds. It's not like they're young just for the sake of being young either. They're young because they're timing their build with their new franchise QB. It's somewhat stunning that this has to be pointed out. This script has been written many times over. They're in the gaining experience, growing and improvement, identify their core phase. The reason for optimism and oddity of hot takes like yours is that they've set themselves up for multiple go's at it. Those who don't wind up being part of a championship core can be dispatched and replaced all while successful core pieces still hold long term value. THAT is why quality youth, which the Packers have an abundance of, matters. 

[homer]

MLF is on starting QB #2. He has a long leash.