The Packers are banking on Jordan Love taking another step, but the real question might be whether the pieces around him are good enough to let that happen.
Green Bay’s offseason changed the shape of the offense. Some of Love’s most reliable weapons are gone, whether through free agency or trades, and the offensive line is heading into what looks like a transition year. That leaves Love with a lot more to carry, and it puts extra weight on a season that already feels loaded with pressure.
Head coach Matt LaFleur is in the spotlight, too. He enters 2026 after back-to-back first-round playoff exits, and that kind of finish doesn’t buy much breathing room. If the Packers are going to get where they want to go, the offense has to look a lot sharper than it did at times last season.
There is still a path to a dangerous passing game. If second-year receiver Matthew Golden makes a real jump and Christian Watson stays healthy while continuing his rise among the league’s top pass catchers, Love and the Packers could still put up serious fireworks through the air. That’s the optimistic version of this team, and it’s not hard to see why people are holding onto it.
But not everybody is sold on the ceiling.
CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin ranked the supporting casts and offensive setups for all 32 quarterbacks, and Love landed with the Packers at No. 13 overall, in the “above average” tier. Dubin noted: “We had two more ties in the next two spots,” Dubin writes, for CBS.
“The Saints and Packers got to their ranking in different ways, with Green Bay’s edge at play caller (Matt LaFleur vs. Kellen Moore) making up for New Orleans’ advantage along the offensive line, while we gave the same grades to each of their pass-catching and running back rooms.”
That line points straight at the heart of the issue. Green Bay’s offensive line may end up deciding everything, and LaFleur is going to have to build a more balanced attack that eases the burden on Love while also creating downfield chances for the playmakers. If that doesn’t happen, the Packers could find themselves leaning too hard on a quarterback who may be asked to do too much.
This feels like a season that could define what LaFleur and Love are really capable of together. If the line wobbles and the young weapons don’t come along fast enough, the Packers’ biggest concern won’t be whether Love is ready. It’ll be whether the supporting cast is.
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Nixons value has always been tied to his playmaking, but this one also reopened the broader debate about how much freedom he should have to freelance in key moments. The sequence was messy before it became memorable, with a breakdown in coverage creating the kind of split-second opening that can decide a rivalry game, and it left the Packers once again weighing whether Nixons instincts are exactly what they need or part of a larger gamble. [Read more 🡒]