NFC North 2025

[OldSchool101]

Yeah and without a first round pick I think the uptick concept or idea might be we see Gute sacrifice affording a resigning or two at the cost of bringing in a bonafide at worst CB2 level outside corner.

I’ve seen some chatter about the Chiefs backup CB Joshua Williams. He’s a 4th Rounder on expiring contract and KC is pretty deep at CB and might work a player trade. He’s said to be a good 3rd option on the rise. So more in the mold of a primary backup CB in his final year Rookie contract. Although in the mold of a Valentine type aggressive style perimeter CB. He fell to the 4th Round largely due to his DivII competition. He brings stellar size that would fit nicely in GB. Performed good at Senior bowl and had a Combine invite etc. Thinking along lines of a player trade

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

The Vikings just made a major move at QB, this should finally get that Lombardi in their Trophy case!

They have signed veteran QB John Wolford to their practice squad.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Yeah and without a first round pick I think the uptick concept or idea might be we see Gute sacrifice affording a resigning or two at the cost of bringing in a bonafide at worst CB2 level outside corner.

I can see Gute going after a starting CB via Free Agency, as well as throwing a couple of draft picks at the position. While I don't think he will break the bank in free agency on one, he may go after a veteran CB that had an injury or less than perfect team to play on in 2025.

 

[OldSchool101]

We’ve pushed in our chips and now common sense is to shore up any small holes before mid season. Fixing our weakest link makes a lot of sense. At 5-1-1 and aside from 2 or 3 opponents a very week to week Winnable schedule is in our future.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

We’ve pushed in our chips and now common sense is to shore up any small holes before mid season. Fixing our weakest link makes a lot of sense. At 5-1-1 and aside from 2 or 3 opponents a very week to week Winnable schedule is in our future.

3 Things I would like to see improve with the 2025 Packers.

1. Turnovers: This was supposed to be a big focus of the defense this offseason, they have only 4 takeaways thus far. The good news, they have only turned the ball over 3 times.

2. DB Play: Our secondary needs to get better. Our pass rush can only do so much, so when they can't get home, the secondary needs to do a better job in coverage.

3. OL Play : I thought with the signing of Banks and moving Jenkins to Center, our OL would be much improved. The inside of the OL hasn't been good at all, especially when it comes to run blocking.

Packers' IOL run block grade (via PFF)​

2024

• Elgton Jenkins - 61.4
• Josh Myers - 52.2
• Sean Rhyan 58.4

2025

• Aaron Banks - 49.7
• Elgton Jenkins - 59.4
• Jordan Morgan - 50.7

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

We’ve pushed in our chips and now common sense is to shore up any small holes before mid season. Fixing our weakest link makes a lot of sense. At 5-1-1 and aside from 2 or 3 opponents a very week to week Winnable schedule is in our future.

Not to **** in anyone's cornflakes, but the Packers 7 opponents are a combined 22-30-1. Now granted, 5 of those loses and 1 tie, have come courtesy of the Packers. But besides beating the Lions on opening day, the Packers haven't knocked off any top teams. Their win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh was a good one, but kind of offset by their loss to the Browns in Cleveland. I think they also have drawn a good schedule with having to play all the teams in the NFC East and AFC North.

That said, if you asked me in August if I would be satisfied with the Packers being 5-1-1 at this point in the season, I would have said "yes". The next month will tell us what we need to know about this team. With 2 of the 5 games being against the Eagles and Lions, as well as a 3rd being against the Queens, I would quote a Seinfeld character.....

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[milani]

Not to **** in anyone's cornflakes, but the Packers 7 opponents are a combined 22-30-1. Now granted, 5 of those loses and 1 tie, have come courtesy of the Packers. But besides beating the Lions on opening day, the Packers haven't knocked off any top teams. Their win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh was a good one, but kind of offset by their loss to the Browns in Cleveland. I think they also have drawn a good schedule with having to play all the teams in the NFC East and AFC North.

That said, if you asked me in August if I would be satisfied with the Packers being 5-1-1 at this point in the season, I would have said "yes". The next month will tell us what we need to know about this team. With 2 of the 5 games being against the Eagles and Lions, as well as a 3rd being against the Queens, I would quote a Seinfeld character.....

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Road wins at Arizona and Pittsburgh along with the tie in Dallas are very satisfactory and not necessarily expected. They may not be SB contenders but they are very competitive. I would not have been surprised had we lost one or two of these.

 

[Firethorn1001]

Can't play the "Haven't played anyone" game myself. Seems like every week the pre-game forum reads like we are playing teams that are dangerous and could (should) beat us. I mean, just last week we played an older QB with that was a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will and was going to kill us with a pencil.

 

[OldSchool101]

3 Things I would like to see improve with the 2025 Packers.

1. Turnovers: This was supposed to be a big focus of the defense this offseason, they have only 4 takeaways thus far. The good news, they have only turned the ball over 3 times.

2. DB Play: Our secondary needs to get better. Our pass rush can only do so much, so when they can't get home, the secondary needs to do a better job in coverage.

3. OL Play : I thought with the signing of Banks and moving Jenkins to Center, our OL would be much improved. The inside of the OL hasn't been good at all, especially when it comes to run blocking.

Packers' IOL run block grade (via PFF)​

2024

• Elgton Jenkins - 61.4
• Josh Myers - 52.2
• Sean Rhyan 58.4

2025

• Aaron Banks - 49.7
• Elgton Jenkins - 59.4
• Jordan Morgan - 50.7

Mostly agree. Although we are seeing a slight uptick in pass block. Morgan was a top 5 rated Guard this week overall. Although you are correct the Run blocking hasn’t been good. Last week in ESPN efficiency we ranked #26. I don’t think we ran very good to improve there at Pitt.

Most everything else I agree though.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Road wins at Arizona and Pittsburgh along with the tie in Dallas are very satisfactory and not necessarily expected. They may not be SB contenders but they are very competitive. I would not have been surprised had we lost one or two of these.

I agree with you on the Pittsburgh win, however I kind of disagree with the Dallas and definitely the Arizona game. Dallas was without CD Lamb that night and it showed. That was a super winnable game in Dallas and had it not been for some mistakes, we get the W, instead of a T. The Cardinals aren't that good of a team and catching them without Kyler Murray, well that should have been an easy W. Instead, we had to have a 4th Q comeback and an extraordinary kicking job by a guy that had never kicked for the Packer before.

I do however agree with you, that road wins are key in a successful season, and had it not been for laying an egg in the second half in Cleveland, this team would be undefeated.

 

[Voyageur]

You make your bones by beating contenders for the title on the road. That's still ahead for the Packers. The tie in Dallas was not a good showing. The loss to the Browns was a bad showing. At this point, we are "hopefully" a contender but until we show more on the road, we can't claim to be good enough to go into anyone's house and take them down. Obviously, the Browns proved that on any given day, with the right game plan as opposed to the Packers plan being anemic, we can end up their *****es. I'll reserve my judgement on declaring us a powerhouse when we start blowing out good teams on the road and the games to prove that are still ahead of us on the schedule.

I make it a point to look into the pool to see that there's water, it's clean, and there are no snakes before I dive in. It's just common sense.

 

[OldSchool101]

On that topic. Banks did finally crack the top 20 on Pass Block Win Rate, that’s an improvement from recent. A weaker Pitt D helped his cause.

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[milani]

I agree with you on the Pittsburgh win, however I kind of disagree with the Dallas and definitely the Arizona game. Dallas was without CD Lamb that night and it showed. That was a super winnable game in Dallas and had it not been for some mistakes, we get the W, instead of a T. The Cardinals aren't that good of a team and catching them without Kyler Murray, well that should have been an easy W. Instead, we had to have a 4th Q comeback and an extraordinary kicking job by a guy that had never kicked for the Packer before.

I do however agree with you, that road wins are key in a successful season, and had it not been for laying an egg in the second half in Cleveland, this team would be undefeated.

A lot that still needs to be reckoned is that the Packers are still the youngest team in the league 3 years running. Now that counts for something. A talented team can still produce negative results because of its combined inexperience. That will show often in road games, crunch time, prime time, and when there is media hype. A veteran team like Philly, Detroit, or KC can go into places and win even on off days because of their experience. We still faced a top veteran QB in Dallas and a stadium that filled near 100,000 on SNF with a larger than life team history and owner. Going into the desert in AZ has never been promising for the Packers. We lost 2 playoff games there with a veteran team. And the win in 2021 came due to a phantom INT that snatched victory from defeat. So in a sense, this young Packer team surprisingly showed its poise and resilience by continuing its unbeaten string in Dallas and standing tall against a Cardinal team that had lost 4 straight by just 9 points and was due.

 

[OldSchool101]

A lot that still needs to be reckoned is that the Packers are still the youngest team in the league 3 years running. Now that counts for something. A talented team can still produce negative results because of its combined inexperience. That will show often in road games, crunch time, prime time, and when there is media hype. A veteran team like Philly, Detroit, or KC can go into places and win even on off days because of their experience. We still faced a top veteran QB in Dallas and a stadium that filled near 100,000 on SNF with a larger than life team history and owner. Going into the desert in AZ has never been promising for the Packers. We lost 2 playoff games there with a veteran team. And the win in 2021 came due to a phantom INT that snatched victory from defeat. So in a sense, this young Packer team surprisingly showed its poise and resilience by continuing its unbeaten string in Dallas and standing tall against a Cardinal team that had lost 4 straight by just 9 points and was due.

It’s still amazing that we’re youngest for 3 seasons. That an our QB didn’t even start for 3 seasons. How many NFL players across 32 teams can say that across 5.5 years they’ve played 2.5 years of games? Not an excuse it’s an interesting and a rare fact.

From there we can reasonably extrapolate their trajectory. We’re far enough along we’re seeing possible symbols or the personality of what this involves. of this inexperience. Each year until now we’ve started slow. In 2023-2024 we were 9-9 across the first 1/2 season.
Then 10-6 Down the last 8 game stretches of our first 2 seasons. A pattern can be seen. We gained a little more continuity as the season develops.

Currently we are not even 9 contests into the season. However we’ve already surpassed our 4.5 Win average over 9 weeks. We are currently 5.5 Wins in just 7 games. This shows an upward trajectory.
2023 9-8
2024 11-6
2025 12-4-1?? 13-3-1 14-2-1?
5 seed? 3 seed? 1 seed?

Meanwhile. The strongest NFC teams from last year? Downward trajectory. We’re not even at the 1/2 way mark and last years Top teams have already matched their loss totals. Let’s help them along in that direction a little more.

 

[OldSchool101]

The Packers have the Star QB, star RB, Star TE, star Edge, plus some really solid complimentary pieces. There’s zero reason we can’t hold the band together for 3-4 years. Even after that we’ll be competitive in our Division in most seasons and a nagging spouse in the others. You’d rather live on the corner of a rooftop in the desert than face us multiple times every year. Our down years we’ll be like that nagging spouse.

 

[Thirteen Below]

On that topic. Banks did finally crack the top 20 on Pass Block Win Rate, that’s an improvement from recent. A weaker Pitt D helped his cause.

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That Peter Skoronski, at Tennessee... he's the grandson of Bob Skoronski, the great tackle from the Lombardi Era. I've got his autograph somewhere.

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[Voyageur]

That Peter Skoronski, at Tennessee... he's the grandson of Bob Skoronski, the great tackle from the Lombardi Era. I've got his autograph somewhere.

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Nice guy. Quiet, unassuming, just played football at a high level, never seeking the limelight. Very much underrated. He was a team captain during the 60s and a steadying influence on the team. He played left tackle with the best of them and his blocking on the famed Packer sweep was what gave our guards a chance to pull out and lead our runners to the outside. A lot of people believe he should be in the HOF. I'm one of them.

He owned and ran a school supply company after he retired and was well respected in the community and business world.

Another guy who went into the sales field was Ron Kostelnik. He worked for a supply company during the off season. He rose to the top ending up their President if I recall correctly. During the 60s, I often went out to lunch with him in Milwaukee.

It was a ritual at least once a month since he and I had a favorite place on the Southside not too far from Allen-Bradley's facility with the large clock tower where they had these huge thinly sliced ham sandwiches. If I remember correctly, it was a German restaurant. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the place, but it was great.

Ron was another underrated player due to the Packers having so many stars at the time. He was a run stopper as a defensive tackle and was one person Lombardi and Bengtson knew could be counted on when they went to the 3-4 defense.

Both of these players were highly respected by Lombardi both on and off the field. Two of his favorite people on the team. They were two gentlemen who played the game and honored it.

 

[Heyjoe4]

We can agree to disagree, but given the amount of money that Banks was given, 4 year $77M, he has been a whiff so far. 2 more strikes and the batter is out.

I haven't been paying that much attention to him, but thought Banks was playing well. I know he missed time with injuries. Hobbs is certainly a miss so far, a big miss. I'm curious - what are you seeing, or not seeing from Banks?

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I haven't been paying that much attention to him, but thought Banks was playing well. I know he missed time with injuries. Hobbs is certainly a miss so far, a big miss. I'm curious - what are you seeing, or not seeing from Banks?

The not playing part hasn't helped, but injuries are a part of the game, so hard to down grade him for that. His run blocking hasn't been very good at all. His pass blocking grade is also all over the place. I guess the bottom line for me is that for what the Packers paid for him, he so far is an average, if not less than average, NFL guard. We can only hope he stays healthy and as he gets more comfortable in the offense, he plays like the Packers hoped that he would.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

On that topic. Banks did finally crack the top 20 on Pass Block Win Rate, that’s an improvement from recent. A weaker Pitt D helped his cause.

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That would be great, if the Packers didn't pay top money in free agency for Banks. It is easy hindsight, but at this point, I would have rather have seen Gute spend that money on a CB. I hope Banks keeps playing better and shuts me up.

 

[Magooch]

Not to **** in anyone's cornflakes, but the Packers 7 opponents are a combined 22-30-1. Now granted, 5 of those loses and 1 tie, have come courtesy of the Packers. But besides beating the Lions on opening day, the Packers haven't knocked off any top teams. Their win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh was a good one, but kind of offset by their loss to the Browns in Cleveland. I think they also have drawn a good schedule with having to play all the teams in the NFC East and AFC North.

That said, if you asked me in August if I would be satisfied with the Packers being 5-1-1 at this point in the season, I would have said "yes". The next month will tell us what we need to know about this team. With 2 of the 5 games being against the Eagles and Lions, as well as a 3rd being against the Queens, I would quote a Seinfeld character.....

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You're not wrong, but at the same time IMO we are really pretty middle-of-the-pack (no pun intended) when it comes to opponent W/L record...
Right now our opponents have a combined win percentage of 0.425, but other alleged "contenders" like the Patriots, Bills, and Colts are all sub-0.400. In looking at other "contenders" (I'm limiting this to teams with 5+ wins), the average opponent win percentage is 0.489, so we are just a touch behind average there.

And it's true that we haven't knocked off a bunch of top teams yet...but by and large no other teams are doing that yet, either. We are currently tied with the Rams for 3rd in strength of victory at 0.459, behind the Eagles (0.533) and Chargers (0.474) but ahead of the Lions (0.447), 49ers (0.444), Buccaneers (0.400), Seahawks (0.389), Chiefs (0.378), Colts (0.352), Broncos (0.344), Patriots (0.319), and Bills (.256)

It is time to put up or shut up though... we are close to average, slightly above it when looking at remaining strength of schedule... Looking forward for that same group of 5+ win teams, here's the remaining SoS:

1. Chiefs 0.558
2. Colts 0.554
3. Eagles 0.537
4. Packers, Lions 0.527
6. Broncos 0.515
7. Rams 0.514
8. Chargers, Seahawks 0.507
10. Bills 0.487
11. 49ers, Buccaneers 0.471
13. Patriots 0.362

 

[OldSchool101]

That would be great, if the Packers didn't pay top money in free agency for Banks. It is easy hindsight, but at this point, I would have rather have seen Gute spend that money on a CB. I hope Banks keeps playing better and shuts me up.

Yeah. Two separate thoughts here. One is so far Banks has been a relative regret. Second thought is he just had his best game in 2025. He still has a long ways to go to live up to his expectation overall. At just shy of $20m yearly you need better results than Banks has provided so far in 25’

In other news. The Bears just signed Royce Newman to their PS. I do recall several NFC teams had some more moderately priced FA signings at OL that are playing really good. Heck Josh Myers is having possibly his best season and he’s dirt cheap. I don’t blame trying to better our OL but I still think there were better options for less $$ than Aaron Banks sniffing $20m yearly.

 

[Krabs]

The Vikings just made a major move at QB, this should finally get that Lombardi in their Trophy case!

They have signed veteran QB John Wolford to their practice squad.

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[Krabs]

Yeah. Two separate thoughts here. One is so far Banks has been a relative regret. Second thought is he just had his best game in 2025. He still has a long ways to go to live up to his expectation overall. At just shy of $20m yearly you need better results than Banks has provided so far in 25’

In other news. The Bears just signed Royce Newman to their PS. I do recall several NFC teams had some more moderately priced FA signings at OL that are playing really good. Heck Josh Myers is having possibly his best season and he’s dirt cheap. I don’t blame trying to better our OL but I still think there were better options for less $$ than Aaron Banks sniffing $20m yearly.

I was much higher on the Banks signing than Hobbs. Hobbs made no sense to me. Banks was a proven vet. Right now, he is just kind of okay. Teams always have to pay free agents more than what they are worth. That's just the name of the free agent game. Let's see what happens as the season goes and just hope for health.

 

[gopkrs]

Not knowing them, I was happy with both. You know, I trust in Gute. But if neither of them turn out to be worth the value; it will be tough to trust him in the future. For me, players with a track record, should be a relatively sure thing.