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The Green Bay Packers lost to the Denver Broncos this weekend, but more importantly, the team lost pass-rusher Micah Parsons for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Expectations have adjusted from the Packers being a true playoff contender in a weak postseason slate to having a puncher’s chance in individual games in the role of the spoiler. So, how have analysts’ power rankings changed to reflect that? Let’s take a look.
In general, the Packers fell from about a top-5 team to a top-10 team across the board in power rankings after the loss of Parsons. The highest I’ve seen Green Bay ranked in a power rankings list is 7th, by USA Today’s Nate Davis. Here’s what Davis had to say about the Packers:
Will the loss of DE Micah Parsons to an ACL tear have a bigger impact on the Pack’s defense or its collective psyche?
Don’t expect a lot of non-Parsons analysis this week from the national media. Correctly, that’s taking up a lot of the airtime around the team.
For the most part, Connor Orr of Sports Illustrated has been the lowest analyst on the Packers throughout the year, but Green Bay jumped up to 4th overall in his power rankings last week…before dropping down to just 12th this week. Here’s what Orr had to say about the team:
The Packers have had non-stop blender games this month and now return to Chicago for another matchup against a Bears team that was one throw away from clipping them last time. Their ability to handle attrition will be on full display as the NFC North looks primed to shapeshift again.
Personally, I think Green Bay was much closer to blowing the Bears out than Chicago was to winning that game, as virtually every call went their way two weeks ago. Still, I’m not sure the Packers should be favored in Chicago this week, like how the books have it. We’re going to learn a lot about this team on Saturday.
