The Green Bay Packers are 1-2, and the mood around the team has already turned sharp. After a rough start and a Week Three home loss that brought boos at halftime, questions are piling up about what this group really is - and whether head coach Matt LaFleur has the locker room or is feeling the heat.
But inside the building, the message is a lot steadier.
Captains Xavier McKinney and Tucker Kraft both pushed back on the idea that the Packers are unraveling. McKinney said he understands why fans are frustrated, but he thinks the situation can swing fast.
“Everybody needs to calm their nerves,” he said. “I understand.
It’s week 3. S*** could look completely different.”
Kraft, meanwhile, made the team’s position on LaFleur plain and simple. “We trust Matt.” He added that the sentiment comes from “everyone” in the locker room.
That’s the line from Green Bay as it turns its attention to Week Four against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: get on the same page, clean up the mistakes, and start playing better football. The Packers haven’t looked anything like the Super Bowl-caliber team many expected in the offseason, especially on offense, where the line has been among the worst in the NFL. They’ve also carried over the same late-game mental errors and lack of fire that have followed them in recent seasons.
For now, the players are insisting the fix is still in front of them. The fans, though, are clearly running out of patience.
In Other News...
Tucker Kraft Tries To Walk Back A Frustrating Packers Moment
Tucker Kraft spent the days after the Packers loss to the Falcons trying to straighten out a postgame moment that landed poorly with part of the fan base. The tight end said his frustration was really aimed at the way the game unfolded, not at Green Bay supporters, and he admitted his wording could have been better after emotions spilled over in the aftermath.
Krafts clarification matters because the Packers are already under scrutiny for the product they put on the field, and the last thing the team needed was added noise around a defensive comment directed at its own crowd. He pointed to Christian Watsons response as a better example of how to handle the situation, a small but telling sign that Green Bays players know the line between venting frustration and turning it inward. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Love Now Has To Answer For A Packers Offensive Mess
Jordan Loves first three weeks have been a mix of promising numbers and obvious frustration, the kind of start that makes it hard to separate the quarterback from the offense around him. He has thrown for 844 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions, but the production has come with uneven efficiency and eight sacks, while Green Bay has had to work through injuries up front and a rushing attack that has not done enough to steady things.
Brent Sobleskis Week 3 grade of a D for Love against Atlanta only adds to the pressure on a unit that has looked out of sync at times. For the Packers, the bigger question now is not just whether Love can keep stacking up touchdowns, but whether he can keep answering for an offense that has too often made his job harder than it should be. [Read more 🡒]
Packers-Bears Just Lost Some Juice At The Worst Time For Green Bay
The buildup to Packers-Bears in Week 5 has taken a hit, with kickoff moved up to Noon CT after the matchup was bumped out of FOXs Game of the Week window. A mid-afternoon slot would have given one of the leagues oldest rivalries a little more stage time, but the broadcast shift reflects the reality around both teams: injuries have dulled some of the star power and trimmed the national appeal.
For Green Bay, the timing is hardly ideal. The Packers are already sitting at 1-2 and trying to steady themselves amid uncertainty about key contributors, so losing a little spotlight only adds to the sense that this is a game with more pressure than pageantry. Chicago still brings plenty of history to the rivalry, but this version of it arrives without quite as much juice as the league likely hoped. [Read more 🡒]