Will the Packers reach the Super Bowl?

What do the Green Bay Packers need to accomplish with the roster to reach another Super Bowl in the Aaron Rodgers era? It troubles me that the Packers organization having had back to back Hall Of Fame quarterbacks for the last 30 plus years have only two Super Bowl wins to their credit. A lack of recognizing that it takes a mix of veteran free agents and successful draft picks to build a championship team has plagued the organization. Draft and develop works if you have multiple high first round draft picks. That only happens as a result of a losing record. Somewhere along the way the Packers decided that winning records were more important than Championships. They thought you could win games by outscoring every opponent. What they found out on multiple occasions, that’s neither possible or probable. Good defenses scheme to stop an offense and that’s what happened to the Packers. Here we are in the twilight of Aaron Rodgers’ career wondering how to return the Lombardi trophy to Green Bay.

In 2019 Brian Gutekunst made bold moves to improve Mike Pettine’s defense. He must continue that trend in 2020, plus add weapons to the offense. Kansas City outlasted San Francisco with a solid but not great defense, and a potent offense which eventually wore down the 49ers. The Packers must find a speedy slot receiver to challenge LBers downfield, defensive line help, to slow the run game, a versatile offensive lineman, and a solid middle linebacker. Once again these players will have to come from both the draft and free agency. It is comforting to know that Gutekunst, unlike Thompson before him does not fear free agency. All we can do is follow along through the NFL Free Agency, Combine, Draft and see the outcome.

The XFL began it’s first games February 8th, 2020. There are some notable ex-Packers in the new league. Linebacker Carl Bradford is on the Houston Roughnecks roster, Former coach Winston Moss is the Head Coach and GM of the Los Angeles Wildcats, while Dujuan Harris is their RB, Punter Justin Vogel is with the New York Guardians, while QB Joe Callahan is on Team 9 which is a league wide practice squad. There are other ex-Packers, but I felt these were the most recognizable.

The Packers will be playing a First Place schedule in 2020 and will have to travel to both San Francisco and New Orleans. With the North Division most likely improving next season, a repeat of 2019 will be a difficult task. At a quick glance though 11-5 does appear to be quite possible. Before making any final predictions, let’s examine the outcome of this off season and leave the predictions for April/May.

As Always, Go Pack Go!

PackerGreg