Daily Norseman
In the third installment of my NFC North 2025 Forecast series, I’ll focus on the Green Bay Packers. My previous installments on the Bears and Lions can be found by following the links.
The Packers have continuity at the head coach and coordinator positions- Matt LaFleur returns his seventh season as head coach and offensive playcaller of the Packers, while Adam Stenovich returns as offensive coordinator and Jeff Hafley as defensive coordinator.
The Packers released their best, but oft injured, cornerback Jaire Alexander, replacing him with Nate Hobbs. Cornerback Eric Stokes was also not extended. The bottom line is the Packers reshuffled their defensive secondary with Hobbs and Keisan Nixon as outside cornerbacks, 2024 second-round pick Javon Bullard (kind of a Josh Metellus type) at slot cornerback, 2024 4th-round pick Evan Williams at one safety spot and All-Pro Xavier McKinney at the other. The Packers have been a heavy zone coverage (mostly Cover-3) team under Jeff Hafley last season, and judging by the cornerbacks they have this season, that is likely to continue. I don’t view Hobbs as an upgrade, although Alexander was injured so much last season that he wasn’t much of a factor.
Offensively, the Packers drafted wide receiver Matthew Golden in the first round, something they hadn’t done since 2002. Golden has looked good in training camp and figures to be their future WR1, but at the moment their top three receivers are Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, and Dontavion Wicks.
On the offensive line, the Packers did not extend center and former second-round pick Josh Myers, but acquired former 49ers left guard Aaron Banks on a four-year, $77 million deal. Banks was a better run blocker last season, but has never graded particularly well in pass protection according to PFF. His best season grade as a pass blocker was 61.0 (average). His 97.1 pass block efficiency grade ranked 32nd among starting guards last season. The Packers appear to be going with Sean Rhyan again at right guard (97.0 pass block efficiency) and are moving former guard/tackle Elgton Jenkins to center. Jenkins was the highest graded pass blocking guard last season. Zach Tom will start again at right tackle and was one of the best tackles in the league last season, while Rasheed Walker appears to be the starter at left tackle at the moment, although 2024 second-round pick Jordan Morgan appears to be pushing him for the starting job. Walker was one of the better pass blocking tackles last season, but struggled more in run blocking. Overall I’m not sure the reshuffle of the offensive line will move the needle much overall, but the Packers do appear to be beefing up the size of their offensive line and looking to improve their run blocking.
All these roster changes came in advance of the recently concluded Micah Parsons trade, which give the Packers a premier All-Pro edge rusher with versatility as an off-ball linebacker. They traded starting defensive...
