The Athletic recently published an article where they deemed the Green Bay Packers to be one of the NFL’s underrated teams. When I saw this at first all I thought was “yeah, everyone is sleeping on them,” but then I thought about it a little deeper. Why does no one respect what they’ve built? How are they flying under the radar again? It might be time to wake up.

Offseason Moves

Let’s take a look at what the Packers did in the offseason and decide if they got better or worse (fair warning though, they definitely got better). We could talk about the few negative outlooks about the Packers, but there’s certainly more positives to look at when all things are considered.

Offensive Line

The Green Bay Packers front office moved on from long time left tackle David Bakhtiari in the offseason, which at face value seems like a big problem. What Packers fans know, however, is that Bakhtiari barely contributed on the field at all last season. Any addition to the offensive line would be an upgrade over an empty spot, and first round Jordan Morgan will surely be enough to at least fill a position that was already vacant to begin with during an otherwise successful 2023 season.

Running Back

Another big departure happened when running back Aaron Jones was released at the beginning of the new league year. This hole in the roster, however, was addressed hours before the news about Jones ever went public.

Josh Jacobs, a running back who is three years younger than Jones and has had a more productive career thus far, is set to join a Green Bay Packers team that is in a much better situation than his previous club. Add in a cheap deal for AJ Dillon and a third round draft choice being used on USC running back MarShawn Lloyd, and the Green Bay Packers run game is in an even better spot than last year.

Linebacker

One other small change is the move from veteran De’Vondre Campbell to rookie Edgerrin Cooper, who was considered the best linebacker in the 2024 draft class. This change could go either way, we all know that growing pains happen with rookies, but De’Vondre Campbell seemed to be descending from his prime anyway, so this was a necessary change for the future.

Safety

This was quite possibly the biggest win for the Packers in the offseason. Darnell Savage and Rudy Ford made up a safety room that at the best of times could make some splashy plays, and at the worst of times was the biggest liability on the defense. Xavier McKinney was the best available free agent at the start of the new league year and the Green Bay Packers inked a deal to place him amongst the highest paid safeties in the NFL.

Having an elite playmaking safety in Jeff Hafley’s new defense gives the Packers all the room they need to be aggressive up front and wreak havoc on opposing offenses. Add in a second round pick on safety Javon Bullard, as well as a fourth round pick on safety Evan Williams and this is a very promising position group for the Packers.

What we Already Know

Jordan Love is a baller. Even if the guy isn’t the next Aaron Rodgers, he was exactly what he needed to be last year in terms of his ability to lead the offense, spin the ball nicely, and win games. He took a team that had zero expectations to win all the way to the playoffs. Not only did they get to the playoffs, they demolished the #2 seeded Dallas Cowboys and they went to Santa Clara and went down to the wire with the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers.

Not only do we have to respect what Love has done, we have to acknowledge the accomplishments of the young pass catcher around him. I’ll first let former NFL wideout Chad Johnson speak to the talent of that group in these two tweets:

Obviously we know the Packers have some talented young receivers, and we also know that they’re such a balanced group that no one is even considered the “number one option.” This is a great problem to have, it allows for a hot hand approach and it gets rid of the problem of needing to force feed a certain player in order to make the offense work correctly. Each player will certainly try their hardest to stand out as the number one option, but that’s the beauty of this situation.

Finally, the Packers have two young tight ends in Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft who both showed up in big moments last year. There are legitimately six or seven pass catchers on this Green Bay roster who have established themselves as young, hungry, and talented players with a lot left to accomplish in their careers.

Outlook for 2024

At the end of the day, the Detroit Lions took the NFC North last season, so it’s ultimately still theirs to lose. However, there will certainly be a better battle for that title this year, and the Packers are more prepared than most people think when it comes to taking that fight on in 2024.

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Zack is a college student and cheesehead from California. When he’s not in class or writing, you can find him talking about the Packers on Twitter at @Zack_Upchurch.

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