The Packers are officially back this week. They visit the Minnesota Vikings week one at the US Bank Bird Killer Stadium hoping to open the season with an important win over a divisional rival. The Packers are without Micah Parsons to begin the season, which makes these first few weeks extremely important. Lets look at three potential headlines Packers fans should hope to see on Monday.
Jordan Love MVP Campaign Begins
Josh Jacobs is gone, MarShawn Lloyd hasn’t played a snap of meaningful football and the offensive line is shaky at best. So what do the Packers do? They let Jordan cook. By any metric you choose Jordan Love has been playing at a top ten level at the QB position going back to the beginning of last season.
The Viking’s have a tough defense to play against because their DC Brian Flores tends to send a large amount of complex blitzes. Jordan Love has been one of the best QB’s in the league against the blitz over the last two years. Additionally, he’s been the very best at handling cover 0 blitzes, which is one that Flores applies more liberally than almost any DC in the NFL.
With Tucker Kraft back in action and a streamlined WR group, I expect the Packers to come out passing early and often. The Vikings traded one of their best pass rushers in the offseason which could mean Flores blitzes even more than normal, and Love will be ready for it.
Gannon’s Packers Defense Version 1 Surprises.
The Packers and Gannon have both been clear since the beginning of training camp. There is the Packers defense without Parsons, and the Packers defense with him. Version 1 I expect will be a lot more smoke and mirrors than version 2. That doesn’t mean bad though. It means that I expect players like Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Edgerrin Cooper to be blitzing far more than they might be asked to later in the season.
Kyler Murray hasn’t played meaningful football in months, so I think opening up against a number of blitzes coming from every different direction could be enough to slow down this Vikings offense. Additionally, it’s now or never for Lukas Van Ness, who had a very strong training camp by all reports, to be that number one guy until Parsons is back.
Special Teams Don’t Make Things Worse
It’s far too early for me to assume the special teams unit is “fixed” but what we saw in the preseason was encouraging. I don’t expect anything spectacular from the unit, but I do think they won’t do something to cost Green Bay the game, which will be a nice change of pace from last year. Also Trey Smack continues to be perfect in game and doesn’t miss a kick on Sunday.
