The Packers’ 1-2 start has been ugly enough to drain the air out of the first three weeks, but there are still reasons this season isn’t close to finished. Green Bay has problems - the offensive line, the defense, the injuries, the running back room - and nobody is pretending otherwise. Still, this isn’t a team that has run out of answers.
The biggest reason for optimism starts where it usually does in Green Bay: at receiver. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden are giving the Packers exactly what they wanted when they reshaped the room in the offseason.
Watson is healthy again and producing like a difference-maker, with 17 catches for 284 yards and four touchdowns. Since coming back from a torn ACL last October, he’s played in 13 games and piled up 52 receptions for 895 yards and 10 touchdowns.
His 81-yard catch-and-run touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 was a reminder of how dangerous he is once the ball is in his hands.
Golden is making his own case fast. The rookie has 15 catches for 253 yards and a touchdown through three games, and he already has Jordan Love’s trust.
His route-running has stood out, and he’s not wasting chances when the ball comes his way. At his current pace, he’s on track for 1,433 yards and six touchdowns.
There’s also real progress on the edge, where Lukas Van Ness is starting to look like the player Green Bay hoped it was getting when it took him in the first round in 2023. He has 2.5 sacks and six quarterback hits already, and the summer buzz around him is carrying over into the regular season.
Van Ness had another sack in Week 3 wiped out when Michael Penix Jr. got rid of the ball before going down, leading to an intentional grounding call. The production is showing up now in a way it didn’t last year, when injuries kept him from building any real momentum.
That matters because Micah Parsons’ return is getting closer. No, he can’t play on the offensive line, but the Packers know what he means when games tighten up late.
Last season, he was the closer, the guy who changed the final moments at Lambeau. Green Bay was 9-3-1 before his injury and 1-6 without him, which tells you everything about how much he mattered.
Week 6 has been mentioned as a possible return point, though that still sounds more like hope than certainty.
The schedule may help buy time. Next up, the Packers could catch two teams dealing with backup quarterbacks.
Tampa Bay lost Baker Mayfield to a dislocated thumb in its loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and it’s unclear how long he’ll be out, though it’s hard to imagine him being close to 100 percent next Sunday. If he can’t go, undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels would start in Week 3.
Daniels flashed in the preseason, but this would be a major jump.
Then comes a Week 5 meeting with the Bears, who may be without Caleb Williams. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Williams has a Grade 2 hamstring injury expected to sideline him for three to four weeks, which would put him only three weeks removed from the injury by then. Neither matchup is automatic - the loss to Atlanta made that clear - but both would give Green Bay a real chance to get to 3-2 and build some traction.
The bigger picture around the NFC North helps, too. The division doesn’t look locked down by anybody.
The Bears could be down their quarterback. The Lions, despite their reputation and an elite offense, nearly got pushed around by the Jets.
And the 3-0 Vikings have been winning while being outgained by 244 yards, a number that Kevin Seifert noted is the second-worst differential for a 3-0 team in NFL history.
There’s also the Packers’ own history under Matt LaFleur. Slow starts have not always been the end of the story.
In 2022, they dropped five straight and fell to 3-6 before nearly clawing into the postseason. The next year, with Jordan Love in his first season as the starter, they worked back from 2-5 and 3-6 and reached the divisional round.
Those teams looked rough at points, too.
So yes, Green Bay has plenty to clean up during its mini-bye. But a bad opening month doesn’t automatically define the season. The Packers have enough talent, enough time, and enough upcoming opportunities to change the conversation.
In Other News...
Packers Captains Just Weighed In As Matt LaFleur Heat Builds
With the Packers sitting at 1-2 and trying to steady themselves before a Week Four meeting with the Buccaneers, the conversation around Green Bay has shifted quickly from expectations to urgency. Protection issues up front and another late-game stumble have put Matt LaFleur under an uncomfortable spotlight, but some of the locker rooms most visible voices tried to push back on the idea that the season is veering off course.
Xavier McKinney and Tucker Kraft both expressed confidence in LaFleur, saying the team trusts its coach and believes it can still improve. They also acknowledged the frustration that followed the Week Three loss, which has only sharpened the pressure outside the building, but inside the locker room the emphasis remains on getting the details cleaned up and finding a way to turn the season around before the noise grows louder. [Read more 🡒]
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 🡒]