Packer's 2026-27 Season

[adambr2]

9 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

I get that you don't have confidence in MLF or his opinions... but pick any LG in the league (starter, backup or PS) that has started for a couple years in the league.  You don't think it is a stretch to say that person couldn't switch to RG and be no worse than Monk starting?  

Seems like MLF could say they sky is blue and you'd debate it right now. 😉

I think in general, his last half season has gone so poorly, and his line has performed so poorly, that he’s lost the benefit of the doubt, and his words and actions will be more heavily scrutinized until he’s either fired, or earns the benefit of the doubt again. 

That certainly isn’t specific to me, 

[Jopal78]

44 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I think in general, his last half season has gone so poorly, and his line has performed so poorly, that he’s lost the benefit of the doubt, and his words and actions will be more heavily scrutinized until he’s either fired, or earns the benefit of the doubt again. 

That certainly isn’t specific to me, 

I’ll defend LaFleur a bit. He’s has been supplied with a lot of mediocre talent (remember when folks thought they were Super Bowl contenders until Parsons went down?!), 9-7 and a fringe playoff team is about fair for the talent he had to work with.  The Packers really  should’ve fired Gutekunst when he thought Parsons was the final piece to a championship team, and MLF would be gone now too. Rather they burdened themselves with expectations that a mediocre roster and Parsons could win the NFC

[patrickgpe]

With Williams out and the Packers playing poorly, Bears / Packers flexed to noon. 

[adambr2]

37 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

I’ll defend LaFleur a bit. He’s has been supplied with a lot of mediocre talent (remember when folks thought they were Super Bowl contenders until Parsons went down?!), 9-7 and a fringe playoff team is about fair for the talent he had to work with.  The Packers really  should’ve fired Gutekunst when he thought Parsons was the final piece to a championship team, and MLF would be gone now too. Rather they burdened themselves with expectations that a mediocre roster and Parsons could win the NFC

It’s kind of a chicken or egg argument. Are the Packers bad because the drafted players are fine but they are poorly coached and schemed, or is it just bad picks and bad scouting?

I think it’s some of both, but when it comes to the offensive line, I put it much more on coaching. Guys are frequently missing assignments, out of place, blocking nobody, while two free runners move in untouched to Love. That seems closer to the coaching side to me. 

In addition, there have been a number of offensive linemen drafted by Gute who didn’t have a ton of success here but went on to become successful starters elsewhere. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

3 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

I’ll defend LaFleur a bit. He’s has been supplied with a lot of mediocre talent (remember when folks thought they were Super Bowl contenders until Parsons went down?!), 9-7 and a fringe playoff team is about fair for the talent he had to work with.  The Packers really  should’ve fired Gutekunst when he thought Parsons was the final piece to a championship team, and MLF would be gone now too. Rather they burdened themselves with expectations that a mediocre roster and Parsons could win the NFC

So the Packers should have fired BK when they were 9-3-1 positioned as a 1 seed. They should have just listened to your sage advice that they were actually quite bad, which of course you waited until after the season to proclaim. Got it.

That said, the Packers are bringing in lots of random guys for an OL that was 'fine' all summer. Sure looks like they are kicking tires on anyone with a pulse, aka what should have been happening in June and July. Honestly inexcusable on the part of the GM. 

Both suck, honestly. LaFleur sucks, but I don't think this season is a glowing example of why. We have the prior 6 years for that. This season, as bad as it is, is the probably the one he's least responsible for.

The real tragedy is that I'm not really sure the Packers aren't just fine right now with a good OL. All things flow from there. Love is fine. Watson is good. Golden looks good. Kraft hasn't done much of anything, but he certainly was a good player. There's the RB nightmare, but what part of this team is really terrible other than the OL? And it's very, very, very bad.

[Jopal78]

24 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

So the Packers should have fired BK when they were 9-3-1 positioned as a 1 seed. They should have just listened to your sage advice that they were actually quite bad, which of course you waited until after the season to proclaim. Got it.

Look, the Packers have won one game since Parsons was injured. Any way you cut it, teams that are amongst the most talented in the NFL don’t collapse to one of the worst teams in the league with one injury no matter how big. 

The GM has never drafted well, but had Hall of Fame QB play to cover for the shortcomings of the players he drafted. 

Who is even the last guy the Packers drafted that didn’t do anything on Green Bay and had success elsewhere (Cole Van Lanen, JK Scott?). So it’s tough to blame coaching exclusively. 
 

He’s drafted some okay player but none who would be amongst the Top 5 at their position in the NFC let alone NFL. 
 

It’s a mess, and they gave an extension to a GM who could very well have a losing record since Rodgers left depending how this season goes (7 games over .500 ‘23- present) . Certainly not a team on the precipice of greatness 
 

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

8 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Look, the Packers have won one game since Parsons was injured. Any way you cut it, teams that are amongst the most talented in the NFL don’t collapse to one of the worst teams in the league with one injury no matter how big. 

The GM has never drafted well, but had Hall of Fame QB play to cover for the shortcomings of the players he drafted. 

Who is even the last guy the Packers drafted that didn’t do anything on Green Bay and had success elsewhere (Cole Van Lanen, JK Scott?). 
 

He’s drafted some okay player but none who would be amongst the Top 5 at their position in the NFC let alone NFL. 
 

It’s a mess, and they gave an extension to a GM who could very well have a losing record since Rodgers left depending how this season goes (7 games over .500 ‘23- present) . Certainly not a team on the precipice of greatness 
 

 

Hard to say any of this is wrong...but the biggest thing keeping this team from being in the playoffs right now is its OL. That's 5/22 players which is a very big deal, and imo the most important position group, collectively, on the field. It's worse than it was last year, and some of that is the direct result of some very odd decisions when it came to who stays and who goes. With ZBB out is there a single player on this offensive line that would start for 50% of the league? That's insane.

The current Bears team had the worst OL in the league two years ago and they were a bad team. I'm just having a hard time looking at the current team and thinking yeah, that's a huge hole. I don't really see that anywhere on offense other than the debacle at RB. The defense doesn't have a lot of big stars, but it does seem about league average.

[Jopal78]

21 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Hard to say any of this is wrong...but the biggest thing keeping this team from being in the playoffs right now is its OL. That's 5/22 players which is a very big deal, and imo the most important position group, collectively, on the field. It's worse than it was last year, and some of that is the direct result of some very odd decisions when it came to who stays and who goes. With ZBB out is there a single player on this offensive line that would start for 50% of the league? That's insane.

The current Bears team had the worst OL in the league two years ago and they were a bad team. I'm just having a hard time looking at the current team and thinking yeah, that's a huge hole. I don't really see that anywhere on offense other than the debacle at RB. The defense doesn't have a lot of big stars, but it does seem about league average.

But it’s not that they just had line problems this year. They’ve been bleeding talent on the OL since 2021 when they knew Bakhtiari’s knee was shot, and just kept rolling with mostly mid- round picks and UFDAs: Newman, Myers, Runyan, Nijman, Wallace. Again illustrating the  internal over estimation of the talent on their roster. 

[homer]

4 hours ago, adambr2 said:

It’s kind of a chicken or egg argument. Are the Packers bad because the drafted players are fine but they are poorly coached and schemed, or is it just bad picks and bad scouting?

I think it’s some of both, but when it comes to the offensive line, I put it much more on coaching. Guys are frequently missing assignments, out of place, blocking nobody, while two free runners move in untouched to Love. That seems closer to the coaching side to me. 

In addition, there have been a number of offensive linemen drafted by Gute who didn’t have a ton of success here but went on to become successful starters elsewhere. 

I don't have time to look right now but I think that line against Minnesota had 4 guys with less than 30 starts combined.

[Jopal78]

41 minutes ago, homer said:

I don't have time to look right now but I think that line against Minnesota had 4 guys with less than 30 starts combined.

Rhyan has 31 starts and 50 games played

Morgan has 16 starts and 26 games played

Belton has 8 starts and 17 games played 

Jennings has 1 start and 5 games played

Burton made his first start in his 2nd game

 

[JosephC]

The Journal-Sentinel is reporting that the Packers brought in Kevin Zeitler for a visit.  However, Zeitler made it clear that he has no interest in playing for the league minimum, or anything close to the league minimum.  The number is not out there, but Silverstein is speculating (though league sources) that the number is probably in the 6-8 million range.

[patrickgpe]

Kevin Zeitler has signed. It would appear that definitely for the Bears game the Packers will have 2 new Gaurds in Zeitler and Tomlinson. Becton may be playing RT in the near future. 

[homer]

My question is why didn't they sign a couple of vets during training camp.

[igor67]

Can anyone recall a team 3 games into a season needing to sign 2 offensive linemen not caused by injury? Small credit to management for accepting reality that they screwed up bad. But the real shareholders need to remember the part where they screwed up on football 101 badly.

[patrickgpe]

14 minutes ago, homer said:

My question is why didn't they sign a couple of vets during training camp.

I am wondering if the loss of Jon-Eric Sullivan really hurt the Packers. Gutey said he was happy with the OL room and was worried about loosing practice squad players to other teams. I think most fans had the concern that the OL depth was very thin. Maybe loosing that voice in Gutey's ear is an issue. 

[GAME05]

I can just see it, Parsons comes back in Week 8 and turns around a 2-6 team to finish 8-9. Miss the playoffs but the second-half turnaround is enough to convince Policy that it was all a matter of unfortunate injuries and the status quo is just fine. Plus the third-round tackle we pick up is going to change everything next year.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

36 minutes ago, homer said:

My question is why didn't they sign a couple of vets during training camp.

Because they have an incompetent GM who is doing June's work in October. The ghost of Aaron Rodgers let these buffoons believe that they could "just figure it out" with their patchwork OL and telling guys "yeah just go play over there."

[OldSchoolSnapper]

6 minutes ago, GAME05 said:

I can just see it, Parsons comes back in Week 8 and turns around a 2-6 team to finish 8-9. Miss the playoffs but the second-half turnaround is enough to convince Policy that it was all a matter of unfortunate injuries and the status quo is just fine. Plus the third-round tackle we pick up is going to change everything next year.

I don't think this is that unlikely of an outcome even if they go like 5-12. It's just not a stretch to me to listen to them drone on about the importance of consistency and working together etc.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, igor67 said:

Can anyone recall a team 3 games into a season needing to sign 2 offensive linemen not caused by injury? Small credit to management for accepting reality that they screwed up bad. But the real shareholders need to remember the part where they screwed up on football 101 badly.

It’s a panic move but I wonder if they will even make a difference. Zeitler was sitting at home waiting for a certain dollar amount or ready to retire. Becton is always hurt and was sitting at home rehabbing a shoulder injury, and Tomlinson was released last December and despite a decade of starting experience couldn’t find a job on a 53 man roster. 
 

Not even being in football shape, I doubt Zeitler or Becton will even be ready to play for 3-4 weeks. 

[JosephC]

Silverstein missed the estimate on Zeitler as the deal is reported to be 4.05 million, below the 6-8 million speculated, but he was right in that Zeitler didn't sign for a measly, near-minimum salary money.  Adding Tomlinson to the roster was easy, because they had a corresponding roster move in putting Tom on IR.  I'm interested to see who's out when Zeitler is added.  John Williams seems to be the most likely candidate, but Donovan Jennings is older and was such a disaster that it wouldn't surprise me if he was the guy who is out.

Becton could wind up at RT, as suggested by patrickgpe.  However, I get the feeling that the league, Packers included, are looking at him as a guard only at this point.  I think Belton gets a long leash and Becton is only a RT option if Belton is poor over the next 4-5 game stretch.  Obviously, an injury would also open the door for playing time.  Travis Glover still might be their best third tackle option.  If Glover is the one who is released when Zeitler is added, then I'm wrong about Becton and he probably is added to the roster in a week to be the third tackle.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

14 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

It’s a panic move but I wonder if they will even make a difference. Zeitler was sitting at home waiting for a certain dollar amount or ready to retire. Becton is always hurt and was sitting at home rehabbing a shoulder injury, and Tomlinson was released last December and despite a decade of starting experience couldn’t find a job on a 53 man roster. 
 

Not even being in football shape, I doubt Zeitler or Becton will even be ready to play for 3-4 weeks. 

I think that's a stretch. Zeitler was refusing to play for anyone at league minimum and allegedly in shape. I'd guess Tomlinson and Zeitler are playing next week at the latest.

[JosephC]

17 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

It’s a panic move but I wonder if they will even make a difference. Zeitler was sitting at home waiting for a certain dollar amount or ready to retire. Becton is always hurt and was sitting at home rehabbing a shoulder injury, and Tomlinson was released last December and despite a decade of starting experience couldn’t find a job on a 53 man roster. 
 

Not even being in football shape, I doubt Zeitler or Becton will even be ready to play for 3-4 weeks. 

Morgan/Tomlinson/Rhyan/Zeitler/Belton is definitely nothing to get excited about.  Tomlinson has always been a short-area mauler, very limited player when it comes to movement.  He was actually named to the Pro Bowl once, never really could figure out how that happened (probably the same reason Keisean Nixon was a Pro Bowler), but he's always been average at best.  Zeitler was top-notch five years ago, but he is somewhere in average to below-average territory now.  But one thing for sure, if these two old guys aren't totally beat up to the point where they can't play...then they are still an upgrade over Jennings and Monk who can't play and Burton who can't play YET or who can't play NFL guard and should be a center (time will tell).  

[OldSchoolSnapper]

These are stop-gap signings to prevent Love from being killed. They have street FA pretending to be NFL players at the moment. They are, at least, long-tenured vets that have been able to play football. At their age, the time away may be good for all involved. Hopefully they are healthy for the time being. And maybe ignite a fire in at least one of the existing players that they need to fight for a job despite being handed one this summer. Disaster doesn't begin to describe it and it's at the hands of Gutekunst.