The Green Bay Packers have done a lot of things right over the past two decades. Despite that, they have only one Super Bowl win to show for it. While there are hundreds of small things that go into a team having that kind of success, injury luck may be one of the biggest.

Last season was the latest in a storied history of the franchise doing everything right, only for injuries to derail everything when it matters the most. It wasn’t just last year though. Looking back further shows a franchise that has had some of the poorest injury luck imaginable.

Micah Parsons and Tucker Kraft’s injuries would be on this list if not for the fact that we all just lived through it less than a year ago.

Nick Collins & Jermichael Finley

No Packers fan needs a reminder about how good Nick Collins was. In the three years prior to his career ending injury, Collins made both the Pro Bowl and All Pro teams. This culminated in an iconic interception return for a touchdown in the Super Bowl win against the Steelers. Collins would go on to play only two more games in his career before a neck injury suffered against the Carolina Panthers.

While the Packers offense continued to be lights out for much of 2011, losing Collins was something the defense never recovered from. You could argue that it was the start of a decade of underwhelming play on that side of the ball until Jeff Hafley’s arrival in 2024.

Jermichael Finley was not the player that Nick Collins was, but his injury may have had nearly as profound of an effect. After losing Finley to a neck injury against the Cleveland Browns, the Packers spent years trying to replace his presence in the middle of the field. Martellus Bennett, Jimmy Graham and Lance Kendricks were just a few past their prime players Green Bay trotted out to try and fill that hole.

Why did this matter so much? Because with Finley Rodgers had a go to guy in the middle of the field. Without him, and in failing to find a replacement, Rodgers willingness to throw over the middle declined every year as the Packers offense stagnated, eventually leading to the end of the McCarthy era.

David Bahktiari

Unlike the previous two, you can point to this injury as the single most devastating moment to the Packers odds of making another Super Bowl in the Rodgers era. The Packers had just come off stomping the AFC South leading Titans for their fifth straight win.

They followed that up with two more decisive wins against the Bears to close out the season, and then against the Rams in the playoffs. Unfortunately the Bucs were the exact kind of team you don’t want to face without your all pro level LT.

While the loss to the Bucs stung, what hurt even more was that the game against Tennessee was essentially the last time Green Bay would have Bahktiari’s services. His knee was never right again and while he gave fans one last iconic moment in flipping off the Bears, his loss started a chain reaction on the line that Green Bay is still trying to figure out today.

Brett Favre & Aaron Rodgers

While the previous examples have all been about the bad, some injuries do come with silver linings. In the Packers case two injuries helped inform decisions that would alter the course of the franchise for the better.

Brett Favre suffered a throwing arm injury against the Dallas Cowboys in 2007 that gave the Packers a glimpse of the next 18 years of quarterback play.

Aaron Rodgers suffered a rib injury against the Eagles in 2022 that let Packers fans know they wouldn’t be relegated to the QB wilderness when Rodgers time was over.

Do things play out the same way if those injuries don’t happen? Impossible to say. But the GM’s responsible for overseeing both of those transitions sited those games as giving the team confidence in moving on from franchise legends.