The Green Bay Packers rest and recover during the team’s Week 10 bye. At 6-3, the Packers are assured of a playoff spot, but Matt LaFleur’s team needs to start improving in some key areas to catch fire at the end of the season and play their best football.
The 2024 Packers are good. They are one step away from being great. With eight games left, the Packers have time to get things in order before the postseason.
Here’s what the Packers Wire staff thinks LaFleur’s team needs to improve on its bye:
Zach Kruse: Pass consistency, pass rush and coverage
The Packers’ offense is on the brink of something great – much like it was this time last year – but the overall operation lacks consistency. Jordan Love didn’t protect the football or be consistently true, likely due to two lower-body injuries, and the receivers – namely Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed – dropped far too many passes. It’s sporadic for play design or opening play to be an issue in a passing game. This is a good thing. It’s time to sort out some recurring issues, be more consistent overall, and gain momentum down the stretch. A dominant passing game can solve most problems. Defensively, the Packers need one of two things – more quick passing from the front four or more consistent support from the back end. The Packers aren’t getting enough from Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark and Lukas Van Ness. Haste should be a strength, not a question mark. Perhaps the bye week will assist provide some answers. In the second division, a cornerback opposite Jaire Alexander (who has already missed two games due to injury) looks like a potentially fatal flaw. Can Keisean Nixon, Eric Stokes or Carrington Valentine go the distance? If the Packers can combine explosiveness with consistency in the passing game and get a little more out of the pass rush or a little better coverage from the second cornerback spot, this team will be a top NFC contender in January.
Brandon Carwile: Love Intercepts
Jordan Love needs to be smarter with the ball in the second half of the season. Despite missing two and a half games, he leads the league in steals with 10 fewer than he threw in 17 games last season. Now Love actually made multiple picks early in the 2023 season, only to have the tables turn and fall to the ground. However, it is unwise to bet on this happening again. Not every interception is solely the quarterback’s doing, but Love needs to stop putting the ball in danger, even if it means taking a sack or sacking the ball. The pick-six he threw in his own end zone against the Rams was one of the worst plays of his career until he followed it up with a game-changing pick-six in Sunday’s loss to the Lions. Love still has some learning to do, which is understandable since he’s only starting school in second grade. But knowing when to accept that the game is over is a valuable skill that must be learned sooner rather than later if the team wants to compete for the Super Bowl this year. Let’s hope that he will exploit the farewell week for self-development and insightful reflection. But if the interceptions continue, the Packers’ season could end like last year’s playoff loss to the 49ers, with Love throwing a late-game pick.
Brennen Rupp: Mistakes we made on our own
They just need to get out of their own way. The Packers shot themselves in the foot too many times in the first half of the season. They were able to overcome the wounds they themselves had inflicted on the Jaguars. If they can’t deal with red zone penalties, interceptions and Jordan Love drops, they won’t be able to make the playoffs. If they can limit their mistakes, this team could look like an unstoppable force in the second half of the season.
Greg Williams: Interceptions, penalties, quick passes
The Packers are having a solid season, but there are a few areas they need to improve. Jordan Love has shown his ups and downs, but he needs to be more careful with the ball to avoid them. The team also struggles with penalties that often leisurely their progress and hurt them in close games. Defensively, edge rushers need to step up, especially now that Preston Smith has been traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s only so much Rashan Gary can do, so I’d like to see a lot more from Lukas Van Ness. It will be compelling to see if they can put enough pressure on the other team’s quarterback to assist the entire defense. Improving in these areas will be key for the Packers to become one of the best teams in the NFC.
