How Injuries and Missed Opportunities Derailed the Packers’ 2025 Season
The Green Bay Packers didn’t just blow an 18-point halftime lead at Soldier Field in the Wild Card round-they unraveled in real time. But truth be told, the collapse didn’t start in Chicago. It started weeks earlier, when the injury bug didn’t just bite-it devoured the Packers’ season.
Injuries are part of the game. Every team deals with them.
But for Green Bay, it wasn’t just about who got hurt-it was about how much of the foundation crumbled as a result. By season’s end, the Packers had $92.15 million in average annual salary sitting on the sidelines.
That’s the fifth-highest total in the league, according to Over The Cap. And it wasn’t just depth pieces-these were cornerstone players.
Micah Parsons, with his $46.5 million APY, was the centerpiece of the defense. Elgton Jenkins, a $17 million-per-year anchor on the offensive line, was another major loss.
And while players like Tucker Kraft don’t carry massive cap hits-his average was just $1.38 million-their absence was still felt. It all adds up.
The injury toll didn’t even stop with the guys on IR. Zach Tom missed the final four games of the season, including the playoff loss, despite staying on the active roster. That’s a critical blow to an offensive line already stretched thin.
To put it in perspective, the Seahawks had the lowest injury-related APY in the league at just $8.85 million. The Patriots weren’t far behind at $14.99 million.
Those two teams? They’re meeting in Super Bowl 60 next week.
Several other playoff teams-Philadelphia, the Rams, Carolina, Denver-also stayed relatively healthy, landing in the bottom six in injury-related salary. Denver did lose starting quarterback Bo Nix in the AFC Championship, a brutal blow that likely ended their title hopes, but they got that far in large part because they avoided the kind of attrition that crippled Green Bay.
Among the top 10 teams in injury-related salary, only the 49ers joined the Packers in making the playoffs. The rest-Cleveland, the Jets, Kansas City-watched from home. There’s a pattern here, and Green Bay fit it all too well.
Still, injuries don’t excuse everything. The Packers had no business losing either of their two games in Chicago-Week 16 or the Wild Card round.
Even with key players out, they built commanding leads in both. And in both, they gave them away.
The playoff meltdown was particularly painful. Up big at the half, Green Bay had the game in hand.
They just needed to finish. But the offense stalled, the defense cracked, and special teams didn’t help-just like in the regular-season matchup, where a botched onside kick and three missed field goals from Brandon McManus let the Bears back in.
Even if they had survived Chicago, the Packers weren’t built for a deep postseason run. Too many hits, too many key losses.
Someone was going to land the knockout punch eventually. Chicago just got there first.
If you’re looking for the turning point, rewind to that game in Denver. Green Bay had a two-score lead.
Then Jordan Love threw a pick. Christian Watson got hurt on the play.
Zach Tom left the game and never returned the rest of the year. Micah Parsons tore his ACL.
Kraft, Wyatt, Jenkins-they were already out. From that moment on, the Packers didn’t win another game.
Five straight losses to close the season.
There’s enough blame to go around-coaching decisions, missed plays, execution breakdowns. But at the core of it all was a roster that simply couldn’t stay healthy.
And when you lose $92 million worth of talent to injury, you’re not climbing many mountains. Not in this league.
The Packers didn’t just fall short of the Super Bowl-they never really had a shot. Not with the way 2025 unfolded.
It was a season where everything that could go wrong, did. And in the end, the final five-game losing streak wasn’t just a slump.
It was the inevitable conclusion to a season that had been slipping away for weeks.