The Packers are heading into 2026 with plenty to prove, and one NFL Media analyst believes the margin for error in Green Bay is getting thinner by the day.
Nick Shook ranked the NFC North as the top division in football and suggested the Packers could be slipping behind Chicago and Detroit as the season approaches. That’s a sharp warning for a team coming off two straight first-round playoff exits and carrying real pressure to turn Jordan Love and a young, still-developing roster into a deeper postseason threat.
Shook pointed to Green Bay’s 2025 issues as the reason for the concern. He wrote that Matt LaFleur responded by reworking the offense, cutting the receiving group down to players who know their jobs and using offseason work to reinstall the scheme from the ground up. He called it a needed reset for a team that looked stale last season and kept coming up short in key late-season spots, including at Denver and in two losses in Chicago.
“The talent remains - although Josh Jacobs’ off-field transgressions have created an uncertain outlook for the backfield - but the trust isn’t quite there for the Packers as of now. That can change quickly.”
That’s the heart of the warning. Green Bay still has the pieces, but Shook made clear that talent alone won’t be enough if the Packers don’t clean up the issues that derailed them a year ago.
He added that Love may need to take a major step forward, Micah Parsons has to stay healthy, and the younger players on the roster need to make real progress. If that doesn’t happen, Shook wrote, January could bring “a winter of discontent and potential changes” in Green Bay.
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