Packers First Practice Reveals One Goal In Mind

When the Green Bay Packers were introduced prior to Super Bowl XLV in February of 2011, a video played over the narration of actor Sam Elliott.

Elliott had one line that stuck out before introducing the team.

“Expectations? In a city named ‘Titletown’ odds are they’re pretty high.”

That is true.

In Green Bay you either win, or you lose. There’s no such thing as second place.

The 2025 Green Bay Packers began training camp today after having lost for the 14th consecutive season.

Last year’s Packers entered training camp openly talking about getting to the Super Bowl.

You know what happened by now. They didn’t get there.

They didn’t come close.

In fact, they took a step backward from their 2023 campaign. They won two more regular season games, but were bounced in the Wild Card round after stumbling down the stretch, and lost each of their final three games.

Losing in such a fashion leads to a lot of questions, and usually, fair or not, that starts with the quarterback.

Jordan Love has a big year ahead of him. This is his third year as the starting quarterback. He had the built in excuse his first season of it being a rebuilding year.

His second season has the caveat that he played most of the year injured, and his receivers failed him.

This year? None of those excuses exist, and tight end Tucker Kraft made it pretty clear from the get-go the confidence level the Packers have in their team, and most notably, its quarterback.

“Greatness,” Kraft said when asked about what Love is capable of when he’s healthy.

He took it one step further merely seconds later.

“I believe Jordan is the guy that's gonna take us to a Super Bowl. That's it.”

The Super Bowl is the entire point of this game. It’s why the city is called Titletown. It’s why the trophy they hand out at the end of the Super Bowl is named after Vince Lombardi.

Mike Holmgren said following his team’s Super Bowl XXXI victory, “As important as it is to any other team, and any other player, it means more to us.”

While expectations for Love are high, that’s something he’s going to relish. For all that Love has been through during his young career, he was never going to fail because the lights were too bright.

The regular season success that he and the team has had needs to translate to postseason success, and Love knows that.

“It’s definitely time. Ever since I’ve been here, like you’ve said, we’ve been a team that’s done well in the regular season. I think that’s the standard here. We’ve got to go win those games.” Love said.

Those big games include an emphasis in the division, where the Packers have typically dominated but fell to 1-5 a season ago with their lone win coming on a blocked field goal as time expired at Soldier Field.

“Big emphasis on the NFC North. We’ve done a great job of that in the past, and I think obviously last year was our worst year in the NFC North. It starts there. It starts with going out and winning those games against the NFC North teams,” Love said.

“But I think obviously building upon that, once you get into the postseason, that’s the games that matter. For us to take that next step, it’s all about the work we put in every day. I think the consistency; we’ve had a lot of games where we’ve had some high moments and we’ve had some low moments. Just trying to be as smooth as possible, as consistent as possible and keep building as the season goes on and be at our best when that postseason rolls around and obviously try to be as healthy a team as possible. There’s a lot of things. I think it starts with just taking it one day at a time. When the regular season gets here, take it one week at a time.

“Obviously it starts with the NFC North, handling the division, and once playoff games get here, putting everything into it, having that focus that when these games get here, there’s no second chances. There’s no do-overs. Every play that we haven’t hit on in those playoff games before, we’ve got to make those teams pay and be able to capitalize. So I think it just starts with that consistency. We’re definitely trying to take that next step. That’s the focus and the goal that we talk about every day.”

Winning the North would be something the Packers have not done since 2021. Winning the division is usually part of becoming a championship team, something that Brian Gutekunst believes he’s helped build.

He was careful to note, however, that his team cannot take any shortcuts.

“Well, I think we’ve got a lot of talented guys in that room.” Gutekunst said.

“Before you’re a championship caliber team, you’ve got to go through a lot, right? This is Day 1, Day 1 of practice. Every year’s a different year. Certainly these guys have the capability of turning into that. There’s no doubt that’s their goal, and we’re excited to get started. But there’s a lot of work that has to happen before we get to that point where they’re a championship caliber team, but I like the group, I like the way they work, the way they sacrifice, certainly got great leadership in Matt – a lot of pieces that I think can turn into that, but it’s going to take time.”

Gutekunst may be right that it is going to take time, but his comments were part of a theme that was discussed throughout the team on the first day of camp.

The Packers have the pieces. They’re ready to put last year’s disappointment behind them.

They’re tired of losing.

They want to win.