GREEN BAY, Wis. – Any stock report involving the Green Bay Packers has to start with, well, the Green Bay Packers.
After a dismal 1-2 start, they are 3-2 following Sunday’s blowout win over the Chicago Bears. Here is a more specific look at who’s up and who’s down.
Stock Up: QB Jordan Love’s Deep Game
From Week 1 through Week 4, Jordan Love was one of 30 quarterbacks who had thrown at least seven passes 20-plus yards downfield. Love was 4-of-18 on those attempts. He ranked 26th with a 22.2 completion percentage, 25th with 8.0 yards per attempt and 28th with a 37.3 passer rating.
Against the Bears, Love was 6-of-8 (75.0 percent) for 258 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. He averaged 32.3 yards per attempt and finished with a near-perfect passer rating of 156.3.
With the Monday night game to be played, Love was one of 19 quarterbacks with at least three deep attempts in Week 5. He is first or tied for first in completions, completion percentage, yards, touchdowns and passer rating. He had more yards on deep passes than the next two quarterbacks combined. Heck, his deep-yardage count would rank 10th among all quarterbacks overall for the week.
“I felt like we were rolling, definitely, play after play, drive after drive, making big plays,” Love said after the game. “It’s definitely a good feeling when you’re having a lot of explosive plays (and) putting up a lot of points. Obviously, defense played a huge part in that, getting us the ball back with all those turnovers, keeping them out of the end zone.
“It’s one of those things we’ve talked about, it’s flow state – feels like you’re flowing out there – just play after play we’re making those. It felt good to be able to do that at home.”
Stock Up: Offensive Line
Jordan Love couldn’t have made all those deep throws – including his third-and-a-mile touchdown to Christian Watson – without the big guys up front. On that play, Love had about 4.6 seconds from snap to throw.
Laken Tomlinson has solved the team’s problems at left guard, where Aaron Banks has played 22 snaps in five games. Travis Glover solidified the issues at right guard, where Jacob Monk won the job but wasn’t good enough to keep it. At right tackle, Anthony Belton hasn’t allowed a pressure the last two games, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Packers don’t need to have a top-10 offensive line to win games on offense. Just look at the Chicago game for proof. Love just needs the time – which he got on Sunday.
With continued growth the expectation for Belton, left tackle Jordan Morgan and center Sean Rhyan, and with Tomlinson and Kevin Zeitler going to be the starting guards at some point, the arrow is pointed up in such a way that it could be a real strength by the end of the season.
“I thought Glove again went in there and did a really good job,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday. “So, we felt like two weeks in a row, our O-line’s played winning football for us.”
Stock Down: Run Game (Somehow)
In terms of yards allowed per carry, Chicago had one of the worst run defenses in the NFL. The Packers couldn’t take advantage, though.
After eliminating the kneel-downs by Tyrod Taylor, the Packers ran the ball 24 times for 72 yards. That’s exactly 3.0 yards per carry. They all count, obviously, but if you ignore Kaleb Johnson’s 23-yard run midway through the fourth quarter, the tally falls to 49 yards on 23 attempts, which is barely 2.0 yards per carry.
It’s not good enough. And any spin job to the contrary is nonsense. At some point, the Packers are going to have to run the football. Through five games, they’ve shown absolutely no ability to get that done. The blocking needs to get better, to be sure, but the running backs have to do a much better job of turning 1-yard runs into 3-yard gains.
Stock Up: WRs Christian Watson and Matthew Golden
Christian Watson caught six passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns and Matthew Golden caught six passes for 123 yards. That’s a combined 266 receiving yards, a preposterous number. Including Jordan Love, only seven quarterbacks had more total passing yards than Green Bay’s dynamic duo had on its own.
With Monday’s game to be played, Watson is fifth in the league with 474 receiving yards and Golden is eighth with 397.
“Obviously, we’re always trying to get our playmakers the ball, and those two guys are our best playmakers in that room right now,” LaFleur said. “So, if their number’s called and the coverage presents itself the way that it did, then they’re going to get opportunities.”
The 17-game projections are ridiculous. For Watson, it’s 1,612 yards and 20 touchdowns. For Golden, it’s 1,350 yards and seven touchdowns. Combined, they are approaching a 3,000-yard pace. That’s been done only four times in NFL history. Detroit’s Herman Moore and Brett Perriman combined for a record 3,174 yards in 1995, and Miami’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle were the most recent with 3,066 yards in 2022.
“It’s hard to stop two guys who can run all the routes and stretch the field like that,” Watson said. “If you try to, it’s going to give us other opportunities elsewhere. Obviously, we’ve got Tucker Kraft and we’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays. It’s just tough when you’ve got playmakers of the ability we have in our room and our offense, to stop it all.”
Stock Up: WR Savion Williams
The Packers kept six receivers on their initial 53-man roster and placed Savion Williams on injured reserve with an ankle injury. What would the Packers do once Williams was healthy?
Well, slot receiver Jayden Reed is on injured reserve and his backup, Skyy Moore, missed most of Sunday’s game with an injured ankle and there is a “little bit” of “short-term” concern, LaFleur said. That means there is a role available for Williams, who returned to practice last week.
Stock Down: Defensive Tackle Depth Chart
The Packers took the unusual step of keeping seven defensive tackles on their initial roster. Good thing. Warren Brinson is on injured reserve and now Javon Hargrave suffered a season-ending torn Achilles.
That means the Packers are down to five players: Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, Jonathan Ford, Chris McClellan and Anthony Campbell, who has missed the last three games with an ankle injury sustained at the Jets.
Big defensive tackle Jordon Riley, who suffered a torn Achilles in the December game at Chicago, is “pretty close” to returning to practice, LaFleur said.
Stock Up: Safeties
Everyone knew the strength of the team would be the triumvirate of safeties Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams and nickel Javon Bullard.
They were superb once again. Williams had 11 tackles and recovered a fumble, McKinney had the team’s first two-interception game since 2022 and Bullard’s deflection created McKinney’s first interception, which the offense turned into a 14-0 lead.
“I was kind of messing with him today,” LaFleur said. “He could have had a scoop and [score] on that fumble as well. He could have had three takeaways.”
Stock Up: P Daniel Whelan
Daniel Whelan did it again. His four punts averaged 55.3 yards. Two of them pinned the Bears at the 10 and 13. His lone touchback was a 75-yard bomb that stuck the Bears at the 10 because of a penalty on the return.
He’s up to 14 inside-the-20s this year – the most in the league – with two touchbacks. That’s a 7-to-1 ratio, much better than last year’s 2.25-to-1 ratio.
Stock Down: K Trey Smack
Trey Smack missed one extra point and two field goals, leaving seven points on the field. It would be a huge story had the Packers blown another game against Chicago.
Of the 32 kickers who have attempted a field goal this season, Smack ranks 31st with a 70.0 percent success rate on field goals. Smack is 7-of-10 on field goals and 9-of-11 on extra points. He and the 49ers’ Eddy Pineiro have missed a league-high five kicks; Pineiro is last in the league in field goals (5-of-8; 62.5 percent) and also has missed two point-after attempts.
LaFleur thought Smack was trying to “overcompensate” for the wind.
“That’s just one of those things I think he’s going to have to learn going through,” LaFleur said. “It doesn’t shake my confidence in him. I’ve seen him too much. I’ve watched him go out there and kick these almost 60-yard field goals. So, we’ve got a ton of confidence in him and I think he’s built the right way in terms of his mindset. I think you’ll see a guy that’s pretty determined. I don’t think he’ll be shaken up by that at all.”
Stock Up: Playoff Possibilities
The Packers were 1-2 following a horrific blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Now, they’re 3-2 and right in the thick of everything.
With Monday night’s game between the Bills (3-1) and Rams (2-2) to wrap up the week, the Packers are up to fifth in the NFC. It’s far too early to be concerned about such things, obviously, but the teams that are sixth (the Lions), seventh (the Bears) and eighth (the Seahawks) are 3-2, and the Rams would be 3-2, as well, with a victory over Buffalo.
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