Yes, I think it’s highly likely that once again, the Packers will beat those inferior opponents, get a 6th or 7th seed, and be one and done in January.
Here is my issue — at the end of the 2023 season, when the Packers came within a hair of the NFC Championship, they looked like a team on the drastic rise. The improvement from the first half of 2023 was extreme. The “rebuild” was clearly coming to an end, and expectations were high coming into 2024.
Stagnation, and even decline, certainly weren’t expected. “They’re young, they’ll improve even more!” was the cliche line repeated.
Fact is, Gute hasn’t done a good job at all of complementing the young talent on this team with any experience. When the expectations were non-existent, that was fine. Now, not so much. The goal isn’t to have the youngest team in the NFL every year. It’s to win a Super Bowl.
I think we can all agree that, a year and a half later after the 49er playoff exit, not even being among the top 5 teams in the conference as far as who should realistically have expectations of achieving that goal this season., is certainly disappointing.