The biggest offseason needs for the Packers after surprising season

It was an improbable run by the Green Bay Packers and, frankly, they have no reason to hang their head despite a 24-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional round.

This was a team playing with "house money". From starting the season off 2-5 to not just making the playoffs, but demolishing the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round, this season was a rousing success for the Packers. 

Consider the facts: This was Jordan Love's first year as starting quarterback and he proved to be a worthy successor to four-time MVP and future Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers. 

Head coach Matt LaFleur proved that his offensive scheme is elite when it's followed "to a T". He also proved to be one heck of a leader in the post-Rodgers era, taking a team that looked lost at the beginning of the season and molding it into arguably the hottest team in the league by the time the playoffs rolled around.

Yes, there's a lot to like about the Packers moving forward, especially on offense where the stars of the team were either rookies (WR Jayden Reed, WR Dontayvion Wicks, TE Luke Musgrave and TE Tucker Kraft) or second-year players (WR Romeo Doubs and WR Christian Watson).

That's not to say the Packers don't have needs this offseason, though. 

Here are their biggest:

Starting Safety

Darnell Savage is a former first round pick but five seasons in he's proven to be inconsistent, at best, if not a liability in his worst moments. Strong safety Jonathan Owens is solid as a depth piece but not reliable as a starter, and the same can be said for rookie Anthony Johnson Jr. at this point of his development.

The fact of the matter is that Green Bay played all season without two true starting safeties — talent-wise at least. Whether through free agency (Budda Baker would be an interesting name) or high up in the 2024 NFL Draft — this has to be addressed heading into next season.

Left Tackle

Superstar left tackle David Bakhtiari will likely never play another NFL snap due to his chronic knee injury and with a $40M cap hit coming up in 2024, he'll likely be released. Rasheed Walker has come on as a potential solid replacement but he's not elite and Zach Tom could always slide over from right tackle to left tackle (Elgton Jenkins can do it as well). 

Green Bay has always invested well into this position (especially in the draft) and this will be another area of need this offseason — at least from a depth chart standpoint.

Defensive Coordinator

There's no world in which defensive coordinator Joe Barry should be retained. The Packers even have a convenient out with him, considering his contact has run up after this past season.

General manager Brian Gutekunst has pumped his defensive unit full of first-round talent and Barry has consistently found way to put his players in a bad position — which has led to underwhelming results over the past few seasons.

Whenever the Packers needed a big stop, Barry rarely could draw it up. That was never more evident than in the loss to San Francisco, when the 49ers were able to put together a 12-play, 69-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that took up 5:11 of clock and put them up 24-21 — which ended up being the final score.

Barry's units have had their moments, but they've consistently let the Packers down. The Packers have a young and dynamic offense and need a defensive coordinator who can get the most out of the talent on defense if they want to stay a playoff contender next season and beyond. 

Barry is not the answer.