ESPN La Crosse 105.5

Taking next step on defense for Packers starts with pass rush

Paul Bretl | 1/16/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis.– It was an impressive first season for the Packers’ defense under first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, but taking that next step in 2025 starts with the pass rush.

“We’ve got to put in the work,” said Matt LaFleur on Tuesday.

Throughout the season, the Packers inconsistency when it came to pressuring the quarterback with just a four-man rush was a regular hurdle that the defense had to overcome. But particularly against the NFC’s best, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Detroit, all of whom have stout offensive lines, that inability to get home was magnified.

In the most recent matchups against these teams, Jalen Hurts was pressured on 33% of his dropbacks, according to PFF’s metrics. Sam Darnold, meanwhile, was pressured on only 31% of his dropbacks, and Jared Goff 28% of his.

For some context around those figures, Justin Herbert was pressured on 33.8% of his dropbacks for the entire NFL season and that ranked 25th out of 42 quarterbacks. A pressure rate of 31% ranked 32nd and a 28% pressure rate ranked 38th.

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Darnold and Goff in particular, would pick a part the Green Bay defense with that time in the pocket. Darnold was 26-of-30 passing for 315 yards with three scores. Goff would 26-for-30 as well, for 215 passing yards when kept clean with one touchdown and one interception.

“I would say in those known passing situations, get back on track, third and medium plus, guys got to be able to win one on ones and there’s certain things you can do structurally to help create some one-on-one opportunities for our guys,” LaFleur said. Typically, if you put a linebacker on the ball and you space it out so that each lineman is covered, you’re going to get a 5-0, and you’ll have five one-on-ones, but somebody’s gotta win.”

On the flip side, we saw the havoc that can come for an offense when the four-man front is able to get home regularly. Again, going back to that Eagles’ game, the Philadelphia front was putting steady pressure on Love throughout the game. That then allowed an extra defender to be in coverage and for the Eagles to sit in their two-high shell protecting against the downfield throw.

You put all of that together, and moving the ball through the air becomes a massive challenge for really any offense.

As eluded to, this was a season-long issue for the Packers–not something that only happened against the better teams, although it was magnified in these games. Their overall pressure numbers rank around the middle of the pack this season, while Green Bay would finish top-10 in sacks.

However, helping to inflate those figures was defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and either the blitzes or simulated pressures, to throw some eye-candy at the offensive line, that he sent to drum up some favorable matchups and disruption. When it came to the defensive front winning its one-on-one matchups, the Packers ranked 26th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric.

With Hafley needing to intervene to help generate more pressures on the quarterback, the trickle-down effect of that is that the entire defensive game plan on a week-to-week basis had to shift somewhat drastically, as LaFleur described, from what the original vision was for this unit.

What we saw this season was Hafley’s willingness to adjust based on how the defense was performing–an incredibly valuable ability and something he talked about since Day 1 when arriving in Green Bay. However, because of that, what we didn’t necessarily see was the true Hafley defense.

“I envisioned rushing four and playing three deep/four under a heck of a lot more and we ended up doing a lot of simulated blitzes and different pressures and playing a bunch of cover-2,” said LaFleur.

“But I think, again, you always evolve throughout the course of the season, through the offseason, but that was the foundation, I would say, of the defense. But I thought our guys did a great job of adjusting. I thought we were playing some pretty good football at the end.”

Pressuring the quarterback is the name of the game. When the defensive front is getting home, every single defender benefits from it. Pressures disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play, get the quarterback off his spot, and can speed things up, resulting in poor mechanics, bad decisions, and mistakes.

But when a quarterback has steady time in the pocket, that puts a massive burden on the the secondary as they now have to defend opposing receivers for three or four seconds at a time. That’s going to be a tall task for just about any unit, especially against the game’s high-powered offenses, which you’re bound to run into during the playoffs.

I’ve said it all season long, and I’ll say it once more, the ceiling for what this Packers’ defense can be is going to be determined by the play of their four-man front. In order for the defense to take a step forward in 2025–after what was an impressive first year under Hafley–a more consistent pass rush will be needed.

“I thought there was an incredible about of growth,” LaFleur said of the defense. “To be honest with you, in terms of maybe a vision of what we wanted to do and where we went to were kind of two different things. But I think that’s good coaching, right? You make the necessary adjustments and you put your guys in position and then ultimately those guys gotta go out there and execute. I thought Hafley did an outstanding job, and it’s not just Haf, it’s our entire defensive staff did a really good job with that.”

The offseason is a time for reflection and evaluation but LaFleur has already recognized that the Packers have to “do a better job” of featuring Kraft and the TE position.

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— Paul Bretl (@Paul_Bretl) January 15, 2025

Packers have to ‘do a better job’ in 2025 of featuring TE Tucker Kraft

Paul Bretl | 1/15/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The offseason is a time for reflection and evaluation, but Packers’ head coach didn’t need much time after the 2024 season ended to recognize that Tucker Kraft needs to be involved more on offense.

“100%,” said LaFleur on Tuesday when asked if Kraft can have a George Kittle or Travis Kelce-like impact in the Packers’ offense, “and I think that’s on us to make sure we find him and feature him because he is, I mean, when he gets the ball in his hands, you feel him. So, if there’s an area that we gotta do a better job on, I would say featuring the tight end.”

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Kraft had 70 targets and 55 receptions this season, so it’s not as if he was forgotten about in the passing game. He also led this Packers team in touchdowns this season. With that said, there were also nine games where he had three or fewer targets, and that’s a small role for such an impactful presence.

There is certainly more out there for Kraft in the passing game. If LaFleur believes he can have that Kittle or Kelce-like impact, then he needs more opportunities, particularly in an offense that was dealing with injuries and up-and-down play at the receiver position during the season.

Despite ranking 17th among all tight ends in targets, Kraft was sixth in receiving yards this season with 733, in large part due to his ability to pick up yards after the catch (YAC) and generate chunk plays. Kraft’s 13.3 yards per catch was the third-highest mark among tight ends and he led the position group in average YAC per reception.

“I talked about playing with violence and finishing and just being an (expletive)-hole out there,” said Kraft on Monday. “I think you turn the film on, you’re gonna see ‘85’ all over the field, just doing that. I’m just gonna come back and bring it again in 2025. You guys are gonna see the same thing, same goals I want to set out. I want to be the best blocking tight end in the NFL while also being that guy. I want to be the guy in Year 3. I have goals and aspirations.”

The opportunity for Kraft that is out there doesn’t only come with more opportunities in the passing game, but in how he’s utilized–and this is two-fold. It’s, at times, making him one of the first reads in Jordan Love’s progression so he is more of a focal point in the passing game.

In addition to that, it’s moving Kraft around more and allowing him to attack different parts of the field. According to Pro Football Focus, of Kraft’s 70 targets, only 10 came 10 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage. However, particularly over the middle of the field–where tight ends can be a real mismatch–on those intermediate to deep routes, Kraft was 6-fo-6 when targeted on such throws, totaling 184 yards with two touchdowns.

So why as the season unfolded didn’t we see Kraft get more of those opportunities in the passing game that were just described?

In part, as LaFleur described, there is a learning opportunity here for him when it comes to how he incorporates Kraft into his game-plans. But, as is always the case, there’s more to it than just that.

There are the regular blocking responsibilities or chips that limit his route tree and the Packers were short-handed at the tight end position for much of the year with Luke Musgrave on injured reserve for a large portion of it, which left the Packers with Ben Sims and John FitzPatrick seeing more significant playing time.

“For a lot of reasons,” said LaFleur when asked why Kraft wasn’t featured more this season. “It just depends, going back to who you’re playing. A lot of times, especially in known passing situations, we were trying to help certain spots and typically I would say it’s usually the tight ends and the backs who get a bunch of that responsibility. That’s part of the reason.”

The Packers will spend the offseason diagnosing their own passing game and what went wrong in these final games of the season that resulted in the disjointed performances we saw. Featuring Kraft and expanding how he is utilized in the passing game won’t be the only solution, but it can potentially be a big part of that equation because of the mismatches he creates, his ability to pick up yards after the catch, and just the pure tenacity he plays with.

“I’m going to do everything I can in my power to stay healthy,” said Tucker Kraft of the upcoming offseason. “I was shorted of an offseason last year. I’m going to do everything I can to get on the same page and build that relationship and that trust (with Jordan Love) and get everybody in here on that strain of camaraderie and brotherhood. That’s what it’s going to take.”

What items fall on Jordan Love’s offseason to-do list for the Packers?

Paul Bretl | 1/14/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Jordan Love’s second year as the starting quarterback for the Packers was a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

Injuries during the first half of the season forced him to miss time and hampered his play, to a degree. Out of the play, we saw an impressive stretch from Weeks 11-15 where Love and the offense were heating up with five straight 30-plus point performances, only for both to cool off drastically during the team’s final three games of the season.

So what’s next for Love as he enters his sixth NFL season in 2025 and his third as the Packers’ quarterback? Well, there’s no one answer, but two things that Matt LaFleur described on Tuesday as areas of emphasis for Love will be on his footwork, specifically the consistency of it on certain plays, along with being a more vocal leader.

Footwork is the foundation for a quarterback’s success on any given play. As quarterbacks coach Tom Clements has said previously, he usually has a good idea of how the pass turned out by watching the quarterback’s footwork.

Footwork, the cornerstone of a quarterback’s performance, is more than just steps. It’s about executing the right drop to ensure timely throws, maintaining balance, and keeping the feet in constant motion. This synchronized movement with the quarterback’s eyes is crucial for a successful play. Any deviation from this can disrupt the quarterback’s mechanics, leading to inaccurate passes or mistimed plays.

In the Philadelphia game, specifically, LaFleur mentioned that on certain drops, Love’s footwork got a little loose, which can disrupt the timing and rhythm of the passing play, especially when the ball is supposed to be out quickly. This also wasn’t the first time throughout the season that this happened either. As Love navigated a knee and groin injury during the first half of the year, the lack of practice time hurt some of those fundamental components of playing the position.

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“I think just the one thing I did talk to him about was just the consistency of his footwork on some of these plays,” LaFleur said on Tuesday. “I think he would be the first to tell you the same thing because there were some instances throughout the course of the season and specifically in this last game where the rhythm and timing, especially when you have a rhythm play, like quick game for example, just that left-right footwork that we take just hitting your back foot and letting it rip.

“Or if you do take a hitch, you gotta take your checkdown, typically, or progress on. So I would say that, because I think that’s the foundation of great quarterback play is the fundamentals, the techniques, the footwork.”

Like any young player who steps into a more prominent role, Love has made strides when it comes to being a leader on this team. But as LaFleur said, there’s more out there for the quarterback in that regard, which includes being more vocal when things aren’t going how they should be.

A big contract or being the quarterback doesn’t necessarily make someone a leader. Now, I’m sure the hope internally for organizations is that element is a part of the equation, but it’s not a given either. However, with Love, beyond those aspects, he’s built up that emotional bank account within the locker room. He’s well respected, his even-keeled and relateable demeanor doesn’t display his status as the franchise quarterback, and he works relentlessly each day, which his teammates see.

That equity that he’s built up over time puts him in a position to be more vocal when things aren’t going right, to outwardly correct mistakes that are taking place, and to reset the standard if he’s sees that it’s slipping.

“I think the next step is just to continue to evolve as a vocal leader,” LaFleur said. “I think that just kind of comes with the position naturally. I think he’s taken steps to get there but I think he can really demand a lot because the locker room respects him and they respect him not only as a person but by the work he puts in. He’s a grinder. He’s one of the guys; I think that’s one of his best qualities is he is one of the guys.

“But they all respect him but I think, when things aren’t quite right, I think he can voice that, as well. When guys aren’t quite doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and he’s one of the guys to talk to about that. I just think it means more when it comes from your quarterback than it does from me or one of our other coaches.”

In a season that ended the way the Packers did, it can be easy to focus in on the negatives or what didn’t go right. But things certainly weren’t all bad for this Packers team either. They won 11 games, improving by two full wins over last year’s team, the defense took a big step in the first year under Jeff Hafley, and the offense was top 10 in scoring.

With Love specifically, he again showcased that he can operate at a high level–although, admittedly, the consistency of that is still needed–his decision-making greatly improved as the season went on, and he’s not easily rattled, even when down multiple scores.

However, where Love perhaps made the biggest stride this season was in his ability to avoid sacks and negative plays–something that LaFleur was really impressed by.

“I thought there was a lot of great moments,” said LaFleur of Love’s play. “Every year’s going to be a little bit different. The one thing that I’m so impressed by when I watch him play is his ability to avoid the sacks. There was many times, just his ability to slide in the pocket, manipulate that pocket, know where his checkdowns are and his outlets, or run up in the pocket. I think he’s got a really good grasp for that, really good feel, because you never want quarterbacks looking at the rush; you want their eyes downfield and you’ve got to feel that.”

What the Packers couldn’t overcome against the NFC’s top opponents this season were the slow starts. A lack of execution and self-inflicted mistakes were often the root cause behind those woes, but as far as what contributed to those issues over and over again, that’s still an answer the Packers are searching for.

As LaFleur will often point out, the quarterback gets all the credit when the team wins and all the blame when the team loses, but in both instances, it’s a group effort to get to either of those points.

Throughout LaFleur’s conversation with the media on Tuesday, he referenced things that went wrong around Love against the Eagles that contributed to the offensive struggles. On the interception by Darius Slay, LaFleur noted that the receiver needed to do a better job of stacking the defender to help create a more open throwing window.

On the interception over the middle, the receiver was supposed to break in at 20 yards from the line of scrimmage but instead did so at 15 yards, throwing off the entire play design. LaFleur also noted the litany of dropped passes throughout the season, and that Love also dealt with steady pressure from the Eagles’ four-man front as well.

Now, none of that is to absolve Love of his up and down play this season. When asked if Love needed to perform better, without hesitating, LaFleur said, “absolutely.” But those examples provided by LaFleur provide context around the issues that the Packers’ offense ran into and showcase that it wasn’t any one player behind it all, but it was on everyone.

“You’ve got to maximize all your opportunities,” LaFleur said of the offense’s struggles. “You’ve got to execute. I can tell you specifically since it’s so fresh this last game, we didn’t do a great job, like there was pressure all day in the pocket in the passing game. There were some runs, there were some bad looks that we ran into, and there were other times when we had some running lanes and we don’t win our one-on-one, we don’t win our block. And that’s football. We’ve just got to collectively as a group – all of us, myself as much as anybody – we’ve got to be better.”

Growth, whether that be for an NFL quarterback or really anything we do in life, isn’t linear. Love’s play during the second half of the 2023 season wasn’t going to become his floor, just like his play over the final three games of this season isn’t his ceiling. Love is still an “ascending” player, as LaFleur said.

There are things to work on, areas that must improve if this team is going to prove that they can hang with the NFC’s best, and accomplishing that doesn’t only fall on Love’s shoulders, but across the offensive side of the ball the Packers have to improve.

“We gotta play better in those moments,” said LaFleur. “We can’t have the critical turnovers. We need everybody on the details. Because, I said this to our team for sure yesterday, but the details usually is what separates. It separates good from great and we have got to be on top of our details, everybody doing their individual whatever they’re asked to do. They’ve got to do their 1/11^th at a high level, otherwise it’s hard to win those games.”

After ‘rough year,’ Packers RB MarShawn Lloyd ready to help Josh Jacobs and offense in Year 2

Paul Bretl | 1/14/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Packers rookie running back MarShawn Lloyd is ready to turn the page and begin preparing for his second year in the NFL after dealing with injuries and setbacks throughout the 2024 season.

“Been a very, very rough year,” said Lloyd at his locker the day after Green Bay’s loss to Philadelphia.

Lloyd’s start to training camp was delayed due to a hip injury. A hamstring in the Packers preseason opener would keep him sidelined until Week 2 of the regular season, at which point he suffered a foot injury against Indianapolis.

That would land him on injured reserve. Then, as Lloyd was working his way back, he was hit by appendicitis. In his recovery from that, Lloyd would tweak his hamstring, which ended his season. He finished his rookie season appearing in one game and playing 10 snaps.

“Everything happens for a reason,” said Lloyd about the injuries. “So that’s the thing that went through my head. I’ve always tried to, okay, ‘why this happen, why this happen,’ but at the end of the day you just gotta go with it. Go with it, trust your guy, believe everything happens for a reason. Believe, have faith, and just hope for the best.”

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Helping Lloyd along as he navigated these injuries was Josh Jacobs. The two would drive over from Lambeau Field to the Don Hutson Center each day for practice, with Jacobs making sure that Lloyd “stayed in it,” as he put it, by providing pointers along the way and taking the rookie under his wing.

While rehabbing from the various injuries, Lloyd did everything he could off the field to stay engaged and familiarizing himself with the playbook, the weekly game-plans, and after a play was made, putting himself in each experience, thinking through what he might have done differently.

“Honestly just not being on the field I got better mentally, emotionally, being able to be there with the teammates,” Lloyd said. “Every practice, every meeting, I’m in every meeting. My coaches still give me the game test as if I’m playing. So I know the plays.

“Everything mentally is pretty good, so that’s the way I got better. Even though I wasn’t able to go out there and play, I still made sure like I was, when people made plays, I thought what I could have done different or just try to put myself in each experience.”

Just as Christian Watson and Eric Stokes did last offseason, Lloyd recently spent time at UW-Madison to get to the root cause of the soft tissue injuries. It was a full five hours doing a variety of exercises to find “deficiencies,” or areas that need to be strengthened.

Lloyd has already began the program prescribed to him after his visit to Madison.

“You’re just doing multiple different things to figure out how your body works,” Lloyd said. “Deficiencies in your body, seeing what’s stronger, what’s—really focusing on everything. Running on different treadmills to see how you run, to see if you’re running correctly, if there’s a problem with certain things. The science around it is crazy.”

The Packers selected Lloyd in the third round of this past April’s draft and he brings something “different,” as GM Brian Gutekunst put it, than the other running backs on the roster. Lloyd measures in at 5-9 – 220 pounds and has terrific burst–running in the 4.4s–and change of direction ability that is easily spotted on the practice field when the ball is in his hands.

Matt LaFleur views Lloyd as a back who can bring a change of pace to the running back position with his speed and also be someone who can impact the passing game as well, giving the Packers a “matchup nightmare,” as LaFleur called him during the offseason, out of the backfield.

Priority No. 1 for Lloyd this offseason is to get his body healthy so he’s physically able to do everything he needs to in order to prepare for the upcoming season. Although Year 1 in the NFL didn’t go as planned, Lloyd now knows what’s required on a daily basis from a preparation standpoint and he’s ready to put his foot on the gas to make sure that he can help the 2025 Packers as much as possible–something he’s very much ready to do.

“Josh had a really good year,” added Lloyd, “and I do think and I do know that I can help him a lot. He had a lot of hits on his body, I’m there to help and he knows that. It’s going to be fun when I get out there on the field to play with him.”

Packers’ Keisean Nixon ready to focus solely on boundary cornerback role

Paul Bretl | 1/13/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — After being named a two-time All-Pro as a kick returner during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Keisean Nixon is ready to focus solely on being a boundary cornerback.

“I don’t know,” said Nixon when asked his thoughts on the new kickoff rule. “I’m kind of over it. I don’t really want to do it no more. There’s going to be talks with the coaching staff and stuff like that, but I think it’s over with for me.”

In 2022, Nixon eclipsed 1,000 kick return yards on the season, averaging 28.8 yards per return with a touchdown. In 2023, Nixon produced similar numbers, totaling 879 kick return yards on three fewer attempts while averaging 27.5 yards per attempt. In both seasons, no returner had more total yards than Nixon did.

However, this year, the dynamic kickoff wasn’t so dynamic for Nixon. After totaling 35 return attempts in 2022 and 32 in 2023, he had just 22 this season. Overall, he was still effective, averaging 28.3 yards per attempt.

“Naw. I’m kind of through with that,” Nixon reiterated when asked about returning kicks.

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This decision by Nixon also comes on the heels of him fumbling the opening kickoff in the Packers’ eventual playoff loss to the Eagles. Nixon was squared up on the return by Eagles’ linebacker Oren Burks, which jarred the ball free, and although it looked like Nixon did initially recover it, that wasn’t what the booth review saw.

The short field off the fumble then set up a quick three-play touchdown drive for Philadelphia, allowing them jump out to a 7-0 lead almost instantly and it again, put Green Bay in an early deficit.

“Hell, yeah, I had the ball. I got the ball back,” Nixon said. “When I was under the pile, they just started pulling my arms a part and then the ball popped back out.”

Defensively, Nixon transitioned from being the Packers’ nickel cornerback in 2023 to playing on the boundary for the majority of this season when Green Bay was healthy in the secondary.

On the year, Nixon allowed a completion rate of 66% on 86 targets and held opponents to just 9.3 yards per catch with six pass breakups and an interception. Among cornerbacks who played at least 375 coverage snaps, only seven had a lower yards per catch allowed than Nixon.

Although, prior to Week 4 of this season, Nixon was known as a nickel cornerback with the Packers, the boundary is where most of his NFL experience came from before arriving in Green Bay. Nixon is comfortable out there and ready to showcase what he can do when he has a full offseason to focus solely on that position, rather than adjust mid-year like he did in 2024.

“I’m just happy that I found an organization that really loves me and cares for me,” Nixon said. “I’m excited just to play outside corner for a whole year and know I’m going to play outside corner. That’s just really what it is. Focus on playing corner and locking up every team’s No. 1 next year.”

The Packers signed Nixon to a three-year deal last offseason, but in general at this position, there are some major unknowns for Green Bay as they enter the offseason. Currently Eric Stokes is set to be a free agent and we don’t know what the future holds for Jaire Alexander.

“I want to be CB1,” Nixon said. “CB1 is not doing kick returns. That’s just what it is.”

Packers head into offseason searching for answers after losing in similar fashion once again

Paul Bretl | 1/13/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Following a one-and-done showing in the playoffs that included ending the 2024 season on a three-game losing streak, the Packers will enter the offseason in search of answers.

The story that we saw unfold in Philadelphia on Sunday even was all-too-familiar to one that we had seen throughout the season. And not just one or two other occasions, but now six times in 2024.

Against the NFC’s best–Philadelphia, Detroit, and Minnesota–the Packers finished the season 0-6 with the game unfolding in each of those contests somewhat similarly: the offense would get off to a slow start, Green Bay would fall behind by multiple scores, and oftentimes at the center of those issues were self-inflicted mistakes, whether that be due to penalties or a lack of execution.

“I think that’s really the thing that hurt us in a lot of games,” said Jordan Love. “We talk about it, I feel like, a lot of the times this season and just feel like we’re not getting beat by the other team; we’re kind of beating ourselves.

“Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, stalled drives, things like that, I think it all comes back down to the details and execution – a lack of execution in some of those areas. So, something you’ve got to be focused on when you go out there and try and limit that stuff.”

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This season when facing playoff teams, the Packers had a record of just 2-6 and were minus-six in the turnover battle with a minus-3.4 points differential. However, if you watched those games, that score differential doesn’t accurately portray how the game unfolded.

In five of those six games against the Eagles, Lions, and Vikings, the Packers would trail at one point in those contests by at least two scores, forced to play catchup for the remainder of the game.

“I’m not sure,” said Love of the slow starts. “It’s something that we’ll look at and figure out in the offseason to clean up, but I mean, it’s pretty much comes down to executing and making plays out there and just wasn’t good enough.”

The slow starts on offense created a viscous cycle that was difficult to break from. The short possessions by Green Bay often put their defense in a bind, whether that be having to defend short fields or simply having to play a high number of snaps because the Packers’ offense couldn’t sustain drives.

Naturally, when facing high-powered offenses, the defense can only do so much and odds are, you’re going to fall behind. This then limited the Packers ability to really get into their gameplan as they played catch up early and negated their ability to lean on the run game and set up play-action opportunities to help the struggling passing game out.

This cycle and bizzaro complementary football would repeat itself over and over, making things more and more difficult.

“We gotta learn from it,” said Xavier McKinney. “There’s things we gotta do better with, things we gotta do a better job with and I think that we will.”

With a talented team that we’ve seen both this season and last get hot for stretches and be as difficult as anyone to defeat, the thought would be that a switch would get flipped at some point and we’d see this team take off. However, particularly over these last three games, it became more clear that this wasn’t going to be the case because there just weren’t any answers to what ailed this team.

“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason,” said Matt LaFleur of the slow starts, “because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times is disappointing.”

Despite the outcome, there is, of course, certainly still reasons for optimism moving forward. For the second season in a row, the Packers, as the youngest team in football, made the playoffs. They also had two more wins than they did in 2023, hit home runs in free agency with Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs, had key contributions from several rookies, the defense took a big step forward in Year 1 under Jeff Hafley, and they have talent throughout the roster.

However, for a team that came into 2024 with Super Bowl aspirations, while the arrow is still pointing up and there is absolutely reason for hope heading into 2025 and beyond, as we saw six times this season, the 2024 Packers’ weren’t yet ready to beat the best teams.

“We lost to some really good teams,” Love said. “We’ll look at those games but we’ve got to find ways to execute and win those big-time games like that. Obviously, this year we weren’t able to do that.

“There’ll be a lot of stuff we’ll look at, try and figure out what exactly the root of our problem is and areas we can get better. But, yeah, just wasn’t good enough against the really good teams in this league. It’ll be something we’ll focus on this offseason.”

The message in the locker room after the game was to not forget this feeling. The feeling of defeat, the feeling of playing a mistake-riddled game when it mattered most, and letting that fuel the offseason ahead, as the Packers enter the coming months looking for answers to the same questions that plagued them throughout the season.

“Main thing on my mind is figure out how do we take that step, how do I help the guys take that step,” said Josh Jacobs. “But also, we got some guys – our locker room is gonna be different. We got some guys due for a contract this year. We don’t know what that’s gonna look like, how that’s gonna shake up. But I know I’m gonna try to get some guys here.”

All-too-familiar slow start and self-inflicted mistakes doom Packers again and end season

Paul Bretl | 1/12/024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Miscues, mistakes, blunders–all the above or pick your favorite verbiage, either way it sums up the Packers’ performance against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Slow starts have doomed the Packers repeatedly this season against the NFC’s best and that theme continued in the NFC Wildcard round of the playoffs.

“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason,” said Matt LaFleur post-game of the slow starts, “because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem, and for it to come up multiple times is disappointing. And I mean, this is one of the best defenses in the league, so give them some credit as well, and they played better than us. Bottom line.”

Things couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for the Packers with Keisean Nixon fumbling away the opening kickoff. On a short field, the Eagles’ offense scored on three plays, giving them the early 7-0 lead.

“When you come into somebody else’s house against a really good football team, you can’t start the way we did, and to fumble the opening kick and then, then turn it into a touchdown and be down 7-0 from the jump, it was obviously too much to overcome,” LaFleur said.

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The offense, which came into the postseason sputtering, continued to do so for much of the game. Through the first three possessions of the game for Jordan Love and Co., he was just 2-for-5 passing for 16 yards with an interception and another near interception on the first possession. The run game averaged just 2.8 yards per carry, the offense as a whole averaged a measly 1.5 yards per play, and the Packers converted only one first down.

“I think it’s collectively,” said LaFleur of the offense’s struggles. “I think we all share our part of blame in that, and it was tough tonight ‘cause they were playing soft zone, and really the entire game got basically a 6-1 front, played quarters, and we didn’t have a whole lot of luck running the ball like consistently, getting them out of that.”

Moving the ball through the air was always going to be a difficult task in this game. For one, the Packers’ passing game had been disjointed and out of synch for several weeks leading up to this game, but in addition to that, as we highlighted leading up to the game, Philadelphia boasts one of the more stingy pass defenses in football.

The Eagles entered the playoffs allowing a league-low 5.5 yards per pass attempt, illustrating their ability to limit big plays and the opposing quarterback’s efficiency. Philadelphia also ranked sixth in completion percentage and fourth in pass deflections.

As LaFleur said during the week, one of the challenges that comes with this Eagles’ secondary is how physical they play, forcing pass catchers to fight through contact, which can disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play. In this Vic Fangio-led defense, it forces opponents to string together long drives by limiting explosive pass plays.

Prime examples of this came on the drive that ended in a missed field goal and took 7-plus minutes off the clock. Then, on the drive where Brandon McManus made his attempt, which took 12 plays and nearly 6 minutes of game time. This style of defense requires the offense to be patient, efficient and play mistake-free, something the Packers have been unable to do.

Love would finish the game with another out-of-sync performance, completing 20-of-32 passes for 212 yards and a very modest 6.6 yards per attempt with no touchdowns and three interceptions.

“You’ve got to earn the right to get them out of that soft shell,” LaFleur said. “And we never did. You’d like to be able to lean on some of the things in the run game and it was just a little bit of a struggle. But, you know, we’ll take a look at it and we’ve got to come up with better answers and I think it all starts with staying ahead of the sticks, though, and being efficient on offense.”

Adding to the passing game’s burden was the inability to lean on the run game, which has often been the catalyst for the offense this season.

Against a stout Philadelphia front, it was tough sledding between the tackles for the Packers’ defense. Josh Jacobs would finish with 81 rushing yards on 18 carries, good for an average of 4.5 yards per attempt. However, and not to discount it but to paint a more accurate picture of how the game went, 31 of Jacobs’ 81 yards came on one run. Otherwise, he averaged under 3.0 yards per attempt.

The trickle-down effect of not moving the ball steadily on the ground is that it puts the offense behind the sticks and in obvious passing situations. It also doesn’t force the Eagles’ out of their Cover-2 shell so downfield opportunities for the passing game aren’t presented.

“We’ve just got to be more efficient is what I’d tell you,” LaFleur added. “If teams are going to play that soft coverage like that, you’ve got to be able to convert the third-and-shorts, and there were a couple times obviously at the end of the game, we got an out cut where we’re open and we ended up out of bounds. It’s all the little details that really make a difference in terms of just being able to convert in a lot of those critical situations.”

Contributing to those described woes was losing left guard Elgton Jenkins early due to injury. With him sidelined, it exposed the lack of depth that the Packers have on the offensive line as the Packers had to rely on rookie Travis Glover initially, before switching to Kadeem Telfort after Glover was penalized three times in the first half.

Along with the run game struggles, Love was pressured on just shy of 39% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus’ initial metrics. For some context, over the course of the season, that would rank as the fourth-highest rate among quarterbacks.

“Just felt like we didn’t have any rhythm, felt like we were just shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Josh Myers. “We were getting penalties, we were turning the ball over. All the stuff you can’t do against a team like that, you can’t do.”

Losing the turnover battle 4-0 and having the described issues persist throughout the course of the game is already enough to leave in defeat, particularly against an opponent of the Eagles’ caliber. But you add in that the Packers tied a season-high with eight penalties for 85 yards and oftentimes, any sort of good that might have been manufactured was wiped away.

This also included two of those penalties coming in the form of unnecessary roughness penalties on the defense in the fourth quarter of the game, giving the Eagles’ offense an additional 15 yards in both instances on two drives that ended in points.

“You got to be disciplined at all times,” LaFleur said of the penalties. “And I get it, football is an emotional game … but bottom line is, you got to keep your emotions in check, and you can’t do anything to put yourself in the cross hairs of the officials, and you never know how they’re gonna officiate that. So we just got to be better. Bottom line.”

What kept the Packers in reach for much of the game was the play of the defense. As he does, Saquon Barkley was productive with 117 rushing yards on 25 carries, but to a degree, that’s going to happen. What the Packers defense didn’t let the Eagles do was control the game on the ground.

Even with a lack-luster pass rush, the Packers’ secondary held it’s own against the Eagles’ dynamic pass catchers. Jalen Hurts would throw for just 131 yards and had a stretch where he went from the 1:20 mark in the first quarter to the 4:33 mark in the third quarter without a completion.

Overall, the Eagles’ offense averaged just 5.3 yards per play and had a six possession stretch after their opening touchdown that the Packers gifted them where they punted five times.

“I thought defensively, I thought we played winning football,” said LaFleur. “It’s just offensively and on special teams we had too many mistakes, and we can’t overcome those against a really good football team.”

The Packers’ 2024 season concluded with them going 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams and the story that we saw unfold in Philadelphia on Sunday evening was all too familiar to the one we had seen numerous times this season and particularly as of late.

Inconsistencies, undisciplined play, an out-of-whack passing game, a lack of execution, and a slow start once again did this Packers team in. But unlike those previous occasions, there won’t be an opportunity to bounce back or right the ship. The season is over.

Packers’ defense experienced ‘a lot of growth’ and ‘gone a long way’ since Week 1

Paul Bretl | 1/11/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — September 6th was just over four months ago. In the grand scheme, that’s not a lot of time. However, in the NFL, that period of time is an entire season. 18 weeks worth of ups and 18 weeks worth of downs. There’s disappointment–that just comes with the territory–but hopefully overall there has been growth.

For the Packers’ defense, September 6th was Green Bay’s first game of the 2024 NFL season, which took place in Brazil and against the Philadelphia Eagles. That was also the first time that this unit was in a live game that had meaning while under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.

Personnel-wise since then, there have been changes, as is the case with most teams. Evan Williams didn’t play a snap that week. Javon Bullard was still at safety and not at the nickel. The defense hadn’t yet had to overcome playing without Jaire Alexander and Edgerrin Cooper played just 11 snaps that week. And oh yeah, Brenton Cox, a now key member of the defensive end rotation, was a healthy scratch.

However, going beyond who was on the field in that Week 1 matchup compared to now with the NFL playoffs just about here, perhaps and even bigger change for this Packers’ defense has been their growth within Hafley’s scheme, allowing them to not only operate at a higher level, but to do a lot more as well.

“A lot of growth,” said Xavier McKinney when asked about the defense then vs. now. “We’ve learned the scheme a lot more. We play calls a lot better. The details of where we’re at Week 1 a lot different than what they are now. I think we’ve gone a long way from where we were Week 1 and it’s pretty cool to see like if you watch Week 1’s game, even the calls that we were calling, it wasn’t as much as we do now because we’ve grown in the system.

“Haf has done a great job of making sure that we know what’s going on through each and every call and it’s given us the ability to call more stuff and go out there and just play.”

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For whatever reason, Hafley’s defense was dubbed a simple system. But that’s not the case at all. Perhaps there is less on the plates of the defenders compared to other schemes, but there is incredible nuance and detail to what they are being asked to do, and like with anything, mastering it takes time.

Although we all want results in whatever it is that we do as quickly as possible, switching over to a new defensive scheme takes time–far more time than just OTAs and training camp. While, yes, all of the installs are made during that time of the year, as we’ve heard Matt LaFleur reference in the past, it’s one thing to know the playbook, it’s another thing to be able to go out and execute your responsibility on the field when everything is moving at lightning speed.

And even when a player may be comfortable with what they’re being asked to do, each offense every week is going to attack the defense differently, giving the defenders new looks that they have to react to in real-time within the scope of what is being asked of them. It’s also not as if the playbook implemented in August is the same playbook now either. As Hafley has said, it’s constantly evolving and changing as the season progresses, adapting to the challenges that the upcoming opponent presents and so the Green Bay defense doesn’t become predictable.

Think about it this way–you start a new job, and while what’s being asked of you on a weekly basis is within the scope of what the job description entailed, there are constant moving parts that can put new responsibilities on your plate depending on what the week looks like. Some of these changes may be dictated by your department, or perhaps, it’s another part of the organization that you have to adjust to. For most, there is going to be a learning curve that comes with all of this.

“You watch these guys,” said defensive backs coach Ryan Downard, “first year in a system, regardless of what system you’re running, obviously the common thought is it’s a simpler system so they should play faster. And once they learn the details and the rules, then they can play fast, but there’s a process to that, and it still is very detailed. So while we might not be doing quite as many techniques, the techniques that we are using are very detailed. That’s the best way to put it, I guess from being in a couple different systems and this one most recently.”

It’s also not as if the players are the only ones doing the learning. The coaching staff has been doing the same from the perspective of learning each player’s skill set, specifically, what they do best and how to leverage those abilities within Hafley’s scheme and weekly gameplan.

Then for Hafley himself, in his first season as a defensive coordinator, there’s a learning curve for him as well as he adapts and adjusts on the fly to what opposing offenses are throwing at him and how to make sure that he his maximizing his player’s abilities and putting them in consistent positions to be successful.

“We were talking about watching that first game and we were just joking,” said Hafley. “We got here almost a year ago, and we kind of just all moved in here together, got to learn each other, figured it out what we wanted to do, who we wanted to be, learn our players, so there’s a lot of, I have a lot of appreciation for all the hard work that defensive staff has done from the quality control guys to the assistant position coaches.

“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into that, so I give those guys a lot of credit, and then I give the players a lot of credit. Kind of going into OTAs, we started out doing some stuff and we’ve had to evolve and grow and the way they’ve gotten better and bought in and jelled together, it’s been a lot of fun to be around.”

All offseason, we frequently heard the terms “fast and physical,” which is the play-style and mentality that Hafley wants his defense to exude. In part, that’s a mentality, but achieving that type of play also stems from confidence and the preparation that goes into each week.

Overthinking can be debilitating not only in football but also in sports in general. As running backs coach Ben Sirmans says, if you think, you stink. When overthinking, oftentimes, a player will slow down rather than reading and simply reacting to what’s unfolding. That overthinking can occur when something is new and trying to process what is happening in real time while still playing within the scope of what your role calls for.

But, on the flip side, when there is confidence and a truly deep understanding of what you’re being asked to do, there is less thinking and just more reacting to what the offense is doing. This ultimately unlocks that fast and physical play-style.

As one would hope, as the season has progressed, so has the Packers’ defense. The comfort and confidence in the system as more reps, both on the practice field and in-games, takes place is leading to that aforementioned fast and physical play-style.

“I think there’s a lot of guys starting to hit that stride,” said Jeff Hafley in Week 15. “I think guys are gaining confidence in themselves, they’re gaining confidence in the scheme because they know what they’re doing and they’re getting more confidence in what they’re doing and when you have more reps over time that usually happens.”

The end result of that steady growth and progression is a defensive unit under Hafley that ranked among the best in several key statistical categories. The Green Bay defense will head into the postseason ranked sixth in scoring, third in yards per rush, 11th in yards per pass attempt given up, and fourth in takeaways.

All of that isn’t to say that this group has reached its ceiling–there are certainly still areas for improvement. It would also be naïve to think that the Eagles’ offense has experienced growth of their own since Week 1 and that high-powered and well-round unit will provide a big challenge on Sunday.

But having said that, while yes, it is a rematch between the Packers and Eagles, and many of the players who starred in the season opener will again take the field this week, from a confidence, comfort, play-call, and execution standpoint, this version of the Green Bay defense doesn’t look like the one we saw four months ago.

“The coolest thing for me is I do think we’ve gotten better,” said Hafley. “I really think we’ve improved, and I think it’s a really good foundation and a good starting point. And I believe we can be even so much better. And I know our players believe it and we believe it and that’s really the cool part. So I think there’s a strong foundation, but it’s about winning and getting our players better. And I do believe we’ve done that.”

Packers pass rush plan vs Eagles: A look at the challenge and decisions ahead

Paul Bretl | 1/10/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — How will the Packers’ pass rush handle Eagles’ quarterback Jalen Hurts and his mobility? Will they take a similar approach to what they did in Week 1, or choose to be more aggressive?

Rewinding back to the Packers’ season opener in Brazil against Philadelphia, Jeff Hafley wanted his pass rush to take a more controlled approach, where the emphasis was on keeping Hurts in the pocket.

In that regard, it worked. While Hurts would finish the 2024 regular season leading all quarterbacks in rush attempts, along with totaling 630 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, in that Week 1 matchup with Green Bay, the Packers held him to only 33 yards on the ground on 13 attempts.

“I thought Week 1 our D line did a really good job of keeping him in the pocket,” said Jeff Hafley. “He didn’t rush from many yards. He didn’t escape.”

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But for every pro, there is a con. Although the Packers were able to keep Hurts in the pocket, their pass rush was unable to generate steady pressure with a more conservative–for lack of a better term–approach. As a unit, the Eagles offensive line was credited with surrendering only nine pressures the entire game, per PFF. That’s a pressure rate on Hurts of just over 23 percent–which for an offensive line, anything under 30 percent is a good day.

Even when the Packers sent some blitzes in that first matchup, which they did from both the linebacker and nickel positions, those pressures didn’t get home quick enough, and as Matt LaFleur mentioned after the game, coverages were blown on the back end in several of those instances.

The Packers wanted to make Hurts stay in the pocket and if he was going to beat them, do so with his arm–which is often what happened. Hurts was 20-of-34 passing in that game for 278 at an efficient 8.2 yards per attempt with two touchdowns to two interceptions.

So will Hafley flip the script in this rematch and try to pressure Hurts early on?

“Well, it depends how they’re going to try to attack us,” said Hafley. “Are they going to run it more, or are they going to let him start to throw it early in the game? We’ve gotta do some things differently. I think each week we’ve tried to throw some different stuff at people, and I think we need to do some of that early in the game, make him see a couple different things and throw him off a little bit.”

Not only against the Eagles in Week 1, but all season, the Packers’ pass rush has been inconsistent. By ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric, the Packers will finish the regular season ranked 26th. In terms of pure pressure rate, they rank 16th, which in part, is a product of the manufactured pressures that Hafley has created through blitzes or simulated pressures.

Not to discount the schemed-up component behind those pressures, but that’s almost certainly going to have to be a part of the equation this week, to some degree, given the Packers’ struggles to get home with only four. And when those blitzes are dialed up, the defense is then down a defender in coverage.

Adding to the difficulty of this matchup is that awaiting the Packers’ defensive front is one of the best offensive lines in football, with the Eagles entering the postseason ranked sixth in pass-block win rate.

“They’re huge,” said Hafley of the offensive line. “They’re really well coached. They know what they’re doing. They’ve got great length, they’ve got size. They stay on their double teams. They’re good at their gap scheme runs, I think it’s a really good combination of their scheme and their players.”

To find out what can happen when a pass rush fails to drum up pressure against a high-powered offense, we only have to look back two weeks ago to when the Packers faced Minnesota. In that contest, Sam Darnold was under pressure on only 31% of his dropbacks and from a clean pocket, he completed 26-of-30 passes for 315 yards with three touchdowns. And when the Packers did attempt to blitz, they too often didn’t get home, leaving their secondary short-handed against a very good group of pass catchers.

Again rewinding back to Week 1, we saw a similar outcome for the Packers’ secondary. In that game, the dynamic duo of AJ Brown and Devonta Smith combined for 12 receptions for 203 yards and a touchdown–and that was with the Packers having Jaire Alexander at cornerback.

So this is the conundrum that the Packers’ defense will face on Sunday–try to keep Hurts in the pocket and hope that your four-man rush can get home and that you can hold up on the back end or send pressure and let the front pin its ears back, knowing that opportunities for Hurts to extend plays and go off script will exist?

To state the obvious, neither alternative will guarantee success. The first option puts the burden on what has been an inconsistent pass rush and a short-handed secondary to potentially have to hold up in coverage longer. While, on the flip side, telling the front to let it rip doesn’t mean they will get home against a stout offensive line, and it’s not as if blitzing has slowed Hurts all that much this season. According to PFF, when blitzed, Hurts is completing 64% of his throws at 7.2 yards per attempt with seven touchdowns to just one interception.

“He (Hurts) had the one scramble at the end of the game that was costly when he did get out, when we pressured, we had an open B gap to the right side,” Hafley said of Week 1. “I think I’ve watched it 100 times now. There’s got to be a little bit of both, and I think I’ve learned from that, just like I’ve learned a lot over the year.

“I think our whole staff’s learned a lot. We learned who the players are. We learned what we can do. We’ve had to evolve away from some of the things maybe that we’ve come into thinking we were going to do. And, you know, ultimately, we want to win games and keep the score down.”

There is good and bad with each approach and by no means does Hafley have to only choose one or the other–the situation can dictate what he dials up. But in order to have those opportunities where those types of decisions can be made, the Packers have to earn the right to rush the passer by containing Saquon Barkley and the running game on early downs, which is obviously a challenge of its own.

The first game of the season was now roughly four-plus months ago, which in the NFL can be a lifetime. In that timeframe teams can change and evolve drastically, and that goes not only for the Packers defense but the Eagles’ offense. So how the Packers go about defending the Eagles in the NFC Wildcard round will likely be different because of that time element, but the question in regards to how to rush Hurts is still there–Green Bay’s approach just might differ.

“It feels like so long ago,” said Hafley of Week 1, “but we did some really good things that we like, but then there’s some things where we have to do different, and there’s going to be a time and a place for when we want to go hard at ‘em and when we’ve got to keep him in the pocket. But we certainly need to play better and coach better than we did at that game, because we need to win this game.”

Potential return of Evan Williams gives Packers secondary continuity vs high-powered Eagles’ WRs

Paul Bretl | 1/10/2025

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The possible return this week of safety Evan Williams would give the Packers’ secondary some welcomed continuity as they go up against the high-powered Philadelphia wide receivers.

Williams suffered a quad injury during the Packers’ final practice before their Week 16 matchup against New Orleans. He has been sidelined since, and at that time, Matt LaFleur mentioned that the team would “hopefully” get him back for the playoffs.

Williams has been back at practice the first two days this week, practicing in a limited fashion, which still leaves his status for Sunday’s game a bit up in the air. However, there does seem to be some optimism that Williams can be available against Philadelphia.

“It’s good to have him back,” said Xavier McKinney about having Williams back at practice. “I think we’re getting the majority of our guys back, too, especially on the defensive side, so it’s good to be back out there with everybody and have everybody get back healthy, so yeah, it’s always good when we get our guys back.”

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Staying engaged while sidelined and working through an injury not only includes operating in the meeting rooms as if he was going to start that week, but on the practice field, while the starting defense is on the field, as Williams described, you could find him on the other side of the field, aligned as if he were in on that play–seeing the offensive personnel, making the calls to himself, and going through the progressions as if he were in the game.

“It’s really all about being a part of something so much bigger than yourself,” said Williams, “and understanding that you’ve got guys that depend on you, you’ve got guys that would, in the same situation, do everything to get back on that field. It’s the mutual trust and mutual love for each other and just understanding that even when you’re out, you have a role on this team.

“You have a role to pick everybody up if you’re not playing, if you’re not suited up. You have a role to do your utmost to come back. Yeah, that’s how I’ve taken it these past three weeks. Even though I haven’t been on the field, you try your utmost when you’re on the sideline to pick guys up in situations and give them clues on possibilities they can make plays and stuff. It’s just the love for each other.”

Not only with Williams being out, but due to other injuries over the last month, the Packers have seen quite a bit of movement on the back-end. Javon Bullard has missed time, which has then required Keisean Nixon to move back into the nickel position, and after initially asking Zayne Anderson to fill Williams’ role at safety, he suffered a concussion against Minnesota in Week 17.

In that game, the injury then led to Bullard having to make the in-game switch from nickel to safety–a tall task for any rookie–and then against Chicago, the Packers chose to keep Bullard at the nickel and gave rookie Kitan Oladapo his first NFL start next to McKinney.

Throughout the year, the Packers cross-train their defenders so that if injuries do arise, any needed position changes aren’t foreign to those players. There are also steps taken off the field in meeting rooms to help facilitate any potential position changes by keeping players familiar with different roles. But with that said, at a position group–the defensive backfield–where communication is always at a premium, there is something to be said for maintaining as much continuity as possible.

“If guys get a chance to work together over the long-haul they start to understand what the other one’s going to do in the moment without even really looking at him, it’s more of a feel,” said defensive backs coach Ryan Downard. “So the more that you have groupings together, I think that they’re going to be better off or at least smoother off the get-go.

“I will say, what I try to do at practice is, of course, in a gameplan and in a game week, I try to keep guys working together that we might project as being the guys that are going to work together in a game, but also try to mix guys in so that they work with one another. So that if we get into a game and guy gets a chinstrap, then the next guy is ready to go in and he can function and they’re compatible with each other.”

If Williams can go this Sunday, that continuity component will return to the Packers’ secondary. He will return back to his starting spot next to McKinney, while it will allow Bullard to continue focusing on one position–the nickel–and at boundary cornerback, the Packers can continue to rely on Nixon and Carrington Valentine, with Eric Stokes providing depth off the bench.

Williams has appeared in 12 games this season and did not play in the Packers’ season opener against Philadelphia in Week 1. He’s been a sound tackler and stout in coverage, allowing a completion rate of 56% at just 10.2 yards per catch with two pass breakups and an interception. Opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of just 69.7 when targeting him.

However, Williams’ impact on a play starts pre-snap with the aforementioned communication component and making sure everyone is aligned correctly and knows the call if adjustments have to be made. Having Williams on the field also frees up the Packers to have McKinney take on different roles because of the trust in Williams to patrol the back end.

“Evan is such a smart football player,” said Jeff Hafley, “and it comes so easy to him, and the communication back there it’s just like nice calming factor when he’s back there. I think for X too, it allows X to kind of not have to do it all, where it allows X to say all right, I’m going to play ball now. But I’m grateful for those guys who stepped in, they did a nice job.”

Naturally, Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ running game will garner a lot of attention, but this offense also has arguably the best wide receiver duo in football in AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. Combined this season, the two have totaled 155 receptions, for just shy of 2,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

In addition to Brown and Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert was an extremely efficient target this season, while Barkley saw his share of opportunities in the passing game as well. As a collective unit led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles finished the regular season ranking fourth in yards per pass attempt–showcasing the offense’s efficiency and ability to create big plays through the air.

“I think it starts with probably getting your hands on them pretty early,” said Williams about defending Brown and Smith. “Don’t wanna give them too much space off the line. When they get free releases and get to the second level, they can be dangerous and i mean, you’ve seen it this whole year, so yeah, I think getting hands on ’em early and just being detailed in all our approaches, getting to the right alignment, having the right keys pre-snap, I think all those things will allow us to be pretty successful.”

Williams and McKinney will have to be instrumental in helping the Packers’ cornerbacks against this group of pass catchers, but the defensive front can lend a big hand as well. Pressuring Hurts so that the defensive backs aren’t in coverage for extended periods of time will be crucial as will finding a way to contain Barkley, which can then put the offense behind the sticks and in predictable passing situations, where the defense often has the upper hand.

The obvious challenge with this Eagles’ offense is that they can win in a variety of ways. As a defense, if you’re successful at limiting one element, there are still multiple ways that Philadelphia can still attack you. However, any potential success for Green Bay is going to have to include being buttoned up on the back end, and having Williams back in the mix not only provides that aspect because of his own play, but his presence provides more versatility in the secondary and continuity.