The Packers’ season was a huge success, but they fizzle out in Santa Clara.
The trend of a growing Packers team is upward, despite suffering another heartbreaking defeat at the hands of a well-known opponent on Saturday night.
Jacobson Zachary
Zachary Jacobson currently 0
The term “house money” most likely refers to the Green Bay Packers’ late-season playoff surge, which sent the NFL’s youngest team into a win-or-go-home competition against 13 other teams.
However, that is accurate.
Almost everyone agreed in the summer that the Packers’ goal for the 2023 season—which will be their first without Aaron Rodgers leading the team since 2007—would be to figure out just who the team’s new quarterback was. Although Jordan Love has played a limited role in the team’s operations, including running the scout team during practices, sparring exhibition reps, starting his first game as a professional on November 7, 2021, against the Kansas City Chiefs in lieu of Aaron Rodgers due to COVID-19, and providing a preview of what was to come on November 26, 2022, when he came in for an injured Rodgers during the fourth quarter of a loss to the eventual NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, there was not much evidence to support Jordan Love taking over the team.
This past weekend, the Packers should not have traveled to Santa Clara, California.
In the first quarter of the Divisional matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, Jordan Love attempted a pass. (Image: Getty)
It was only the second time in five seasons that they did not have a spot in the playoffs, so they should have been relaxing at home after a demanding regular season in which they won five, maybe six games. Love should have shown them just enough to make them want to see more, but not enough to make team executives laugh at the idea of selecting another first-round quarterback in April. Being the newest team in the league, the Packers should have found it difficult to learn how to win while also bearing the penalties of their inexperience, which could have included cuts or benchings.
Veteran players should already be accepting that they may have played their last game in Green Bay and that they probably will not have a spot on the roster next season, or at least the veterans that remain after the plethora of experienced departures last spring.
There should be a sense of uncertainty about the future, and this is appropriate. It is difficult to let go of a signal-caller who has dominated the team for 15 seasons, especially after he replaced his predecessor who held that position for 16 seasons prior. In actuality, four years ago, when Brian Gutekunst traded spots with the Miami Dolphins to move up from No. 30 to No. 26 in the first round and select a college quarterback whose junior season was marred by accuracy errors and interceptions aplenty, he jeopardized his position as general manager of the Packers. Particularly when you consider that three months ago, the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers team was just three months away from making it to the Super Bowl—a fitting cap to a fantastic first season under new head coach Matt LaFleur.
