The Green Bay Packers’ offense is drawing the spotlight, and one NFL analyst thinks the answer starts in the backfield.
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report pointed to Green Bay’s “offensive backfield” as the team’s biggest strength, with Jordan Love and Josh Jacobs giving the Packers a foundation plenty of teams would envy. Love remains one of the better quarterbacks in the league, while Jacobs gives Green Bay a true workhorse runner.
But Knox also flagged a problem that could hang over the Packers early next season: the pass rush. Superstar Micah Parsons is expected to miss the start of the 2026 season while recovering from his ACL tear, and there’s no clear timetable yet for his debut. That leaves a major hole for a defense that already watched its season swing hard after Parsons went down.
Parsons tore his ACL last season against the Denver Broncos in Week 15. Green Bay didn’t win again after that and then fell to the Chicago Bears in the wild-card round of the 2026 playoffs.
The roster around Love has also changed. Romeo Doubs left for the New England Patriots in free agency, and Dontayvion Wicks was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason. That leaves Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Savion Williams, Skyy Moore, Jakobie Keeney-James, Isaiah Neyor and Will Sheppard as the pass-catching options on the board for Love.
Love, who signed a four-year, $220 million deal with Green Bay in 2024, is now the player under the brightest microscope. He finished last season with 3,381 passing yards and 23 touchdowns while completing 66.3% of his throws. Across his career, the 27-year-old has 11,535 passing yards and 83 passing touchdowns, and he’s 27-20-1 as a starter.
The Packers open the 2026 season against the Minnesota Vikings, and Love’s own words suggest he’s focused on the details of playing cleaner in the pocket.
"My biggest thing that I've noticed since I got back is just my feet in the pocket, trying to be as smooth and consistent as possible," Love said. "When I go through my reads, get into my hitches and not getting antsy, not getting to that point where you're trying to move through the pocket too fast.
Just staying calm, staying relaxed, move through my reads. If I've gotta move around in the pocket, keeping those movements pretty tight and not kind of running into where guys might be peeling off and able to hit you."
Green Bay hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the 2010 season, and its last playoff win came during the 2023 season. With Parsons sidelined to start the year, the pressure is on Love to look like the star the Packers paid for.
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