Sorry, Packers Fans, You’ll Hate This List

Jordan Love has been the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback for two seasons. They reached the NFL playoffs in both, including reaching the final eight in 2023.

Nonetheless, at Sports Illustrated, the Packers didn’t make Conor Orr’s list of a “dozen teams that could actually lift the Lombardi Trophy” this year.

What teams did make the cut? From the NFC, here’s who Orr listed, with a quick-hit clip of his more extensive analysis.

Detroit Lions. The Lions are the only team on Orr’s list from the “torture room” NFC North. Other than losing defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to the Jets and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the rival Bears, “the Lions appear to be better situated than they were toward the end of last season.”

Los Angeles Rams. “Davante Adams joins Puka Nacua in an offense that will play well off a defense that should evolve from spunky to elite.”

Philadelphia Eagles. If they keep their team-first mentality, “I don’t see how the Eagles aren’t still the best team in the NFC and, thus, have the best chance to return to the Super Bowl.”

San Francisco 49ers. So long as Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams are healthy, the Niners are not “much different from the dangerous team that nearly clipped the Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years ago.”

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “This team may be one of the more talented from front to back in the NFL if we were to assign each player a kind of Madden-like grade and take the average.”

Washington Commanders. “If what we saw from Jayden Daniels during his rookie season was merely the tip of the iceberg” and the defense improves, the Commanders could take the next step after reaching the NFC title game last year.

For what it’s worth, the Packers have the ninth-shortest odds to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel Sportsbook. They are behind the Eagles, Lions, Commanders, Rams and 49ers from Orr’s list but ahead of the Buccaneers.

The Packers went 11-6 last season, which was good enough to finish third in the powerhouse NFC North and earn the seventh seed in the conference. Of course, including the wild-card loss to the Eagles, they went 0-6 against the three teams that finished with the best records in the conference.

On paper, Green Bay should be better in 2025. General manager Brian Gutekunst upgraded the offense by adding beef to the line with veteran Aaron Banks and rookie Anthony Belton – aka Escalade, a “freak athlete” at his size – and addressed an underachieving receiver corps with first-round pick Matthew Golden and third-round pick Savion Williams.

So long as quarterback Jordan Love stays healthy and plays at some level approaching his dominant second half of 2023, the offense could be powerful.

Meanwhile, last year’s defense was Green Bay’s best since winning the Super Bowl in 2010. Nonetheless, there are some real questions on that side of the ball, starting with an inconsistent pass rush and whether the secondary can stop elite quarterback-receiver tandems.

The Packers will be counting on growth from within during Year 2 for coordinator Jeff Hafley.

“I think sometimes we played to the competition,” cornerback Keisean Nixon said. “I think as a defense, when you want to win a Super Bowl, it don’t matter who you play, you got to come out and play. We won 11 games last year, but we lost two games to three teams and then we lost to the Bears. The next step is to beat the teams that we lost to. The three teams we lost to twice were playoff teams, so what’ll get us over the hump is beat the teams we need to beat.”

Wrapping up minicamp, coach Matt LaFleur was asked what his team could accomplish.

“I don’t want to put too much out there,” he said, “but I think we’re capable of being a really good football team – a really good, competitive football team. But it’s not just going to happen. Again, it goes back to the work and, collectively, we need everybody to be their best individually in order to be the best team we can be. And it’s not going to be easy. We know that. But those guys have embraced every challenge we’ve put in front of them, so I’m excited about this group. But, ultimately, we’ve got to go do it.”

The quest to win the Super Bowl will begin with the first practice of training camp on Wednesday.