These Packers Will Provide the Fireworks in 2025

It’s the Fourth of July, and fireworks will fill the air from sea to shining sea on Friday night to commemorate the 249th birthday of the United States and independence from England’s flawed version of football.

For the Green Bay Packers, who will kick off training camp in 19 days, these players will provide the fireworks via explosive plays this season.

QB Jordan Love

Chicks dig the long ball, as the famous Nike commercial famously stated. So does Jordan Love.

Even while missing about three games due to injuries, Love ranked fifth in the NFL with 69 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus. Chicago’s Caleb Williams led the NFL with 75, so Love presumably would have led the league by a mile had he stayed healthy.

Love wasn’t sufficiently efficient on those deep passes; of 33 quarterbacks who threw at least 30 deep passes, he ranked 18th in completion percentage. (If you’re thinking, “What about drops?” he would have moved up only one spot to 17th.) Nonetheless, Love’s big arm should mean plenty of big plays.

WR Jayden Reed

The Packers don’t have a No. 1 receiver but they do have a “best” receiver. That’s third-year player Jayden Reed, who led the Packers with 55 receptions for 857 yards last season. Of all receivers who caught at least 34 passes (two per game), he ranked sixth with 15.6 yards per reception.

Reed doesn’t have imposing size or elite speed, but he’s been a big-time player in the deep-passing game. Last season, he caught 12-of-15 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. Of the 72 receivers who were targeted at least 10 times, his 80 percent catch rate was No. 1 in the league by a wide margin; no other player was at even 65 percent. Incredibly, Reed ranked 42nd in deep targets but sixth in yards on those deep passes. Obviously more than a deep threat, Reed ranked sixth among receivers with 7.1 yards after the catch per catch.

Reed ranks third in the 2023 draft class with 14 receiving touchdowns. Of his 17 total touchdowns, six covered at least 25 yards. If he can stay healthy and cut back on the drops, a 1,000-yard season could be within reach.

WR Matthew Golden

In the 920 area code, the two most famous combinations of numbers are 1265 for the Packers’ address on Lombardi Avenue and 4.29 for first-round pick Matthew Golden’s time in the 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine.

Golden’s speed showed up in his big-play production. Last season at Texas, Golden caught 13-of-22 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. Of all draft-eligible, major-conference receivers who were thrown at least 13 deep passes, Golden was No. 1 with a 59.1 percent catch rate. That should fit well with Love’s air-it-out style.

TE Tucker Kraft

Last season, 42 tight ends were targeted more than 30 times. The average pass to Tucker Kraft traveled 5.0 yards downfield, according to PFF, which ranked 37th. Nonetheless, Kraft ranked second in that group with 14.1 yards per reception, just a fraction behind George Kittle’s NFL-best 14.2. That’s because Kraft is a monster after the catch, with his 9.3 YAC average leading the league by a whopping 2.7 yards.

Kraft wasn’t used frequently on downfield passes. That needs to change, as he caught 4-of-5 with a league-best 28.4 yards per target.

LB Edgerrin Cooper

As a second-round pick, Edgerrin Cooper delivered a jaw-dropping rookie season. Even while finishing only 12th on the team in defensive snaps, Cooper ranked sixth on the team with 77 tackles and first with 13 tackles for losses. He added 3.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and one interception on defense and a team-high 10 tackles on special teams.

Cooper played barely 45 percent of the defensive snaps. And yet there wasn’t a single off-the-ball linebacker in the NFL – veteran or rookie – who could match Cooper’s 13 TFLs. Among the rookies, the runner-up in TFLs, Rams pass rusher Jared Verse, had 11 while playing 834 snaps. Cooper played only 491.

Cooper was one of only seven defensive players with at least 80 tackles, 10 tackles for losses and one sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery. The other six players on the list played at least 922 snaps.

If Cooper stays healthy, he could be in line for the first of many All-Pro seasons.

S Xavier McKinney

Xavier McKinney doesn’t just bring the fireworks. He brings enough fireworks to share with everybody.

In four seasons with the Giants, McKinney had nine interceptions. During his final season with the team in 2023, he had three interceptions and the Giants tied for third with 18.

In 2024, he signed with the Packers, who ranked 31st with seven interceptions in 2023. McKinney had eight by himself, helping Green Bay rank third with 17 interceptions while causing the Giants to plummet to 31st with only five.

All-NFC North Team

Tight ends | Receivers | Running Backs | Quarterbacks