The Green Bay Packers sure didn’t like the way things ended for them in 2024-25. Of course, any team that doesn’t win the Super Bowl can say that each and every NFL season, but there was something extra disappointing about the way this Packers season ended in a whimper.
For the metrics of many “bottom-feeding” NFL teams, a chance to play in the playoffs is a success no matter how you look at it. That’s never been the expectation in Green Bay, though. Vince Lombardi wouldn’t have had it that way and there’s a reason they named the trophy after him.
General Manager Brian Gutekunst alluded to it in his end-of-season press conference. There needs to be an urgency to win a title in Green Bay, because it has been far too long since the Packers have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
“You always have some disappointments in the year. I think, for me, the thing that’s been on my mind as we’ve concluded this season is we need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,” Gutekunst said, per Eric Edholm of NFL.com. “These opportunities don’t come (very often). The life of a player in the National Football League is not very long. We’ve got a bunch of good guys in that locker room, got a bunch of talented guys in that locker room, and yeah, I think it’s time that we start competing for championships, right?”
There’s always extra disappointment in Green Bay whenever the Packers don’t even sniff winning it all because the team had unprecedented success at quarterback with two Hall of Famers in Brett Favre followed by (soon-to-be Hall of Famer) Aaron Rodgers. Even drafting Jordan Love as a developmental quarterback to sit behind Rodgers and having him be competent as a starter is a huge luxury and something that most organizations aren’t able to accomplish.
Speaking of Love, while he does have the potential to be a top 10 NFL quarterback, he did disappoint in 2024. He’s one of three who disappointed the most for the Packers in 2024.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love was just off
Love’s final stretch of the regular season put somewhat of a band-aid over what was a gaping wound of disappointment for much of the 2024 season.
He couldn’t help that he got injured in the season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles so that can’t be held against him. Neither can the fact that he did play much of the season banged up, which very well could have impacted his performance, and it certainly impacted his athleticism.
Still, there was a time when Love had thrown 11 interceptions in eight games. He cleaned things up at the end of the season and finished with seven games in a row without a pick. But then he completely reverted in the playoffs against the Eagles.
Love completed just 20-of-33 passes in the Wild Card loss for only 212 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. Combined with the game-sealing interception he threw against the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs last year (which was one of two) and there are unquestionably some doubts about whether or not Love is worth the massive contract the Packers gave him this offseason.
Rashan Gary was not elite for the Packers
The Packers paid Rashan Gary good money midway through the 2023 season with the hopes that he was finally becoming the star pass rusher they thought he could be.
They selected Gary with the 12th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft knowing that he was going to be a developmental player going as a somewhat “stiff” 4-3 defensive lineman to 3-4 outside linebacker. The Packers had Gary learn behind Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith and he went from two sacks as a rookie to five sacks in year two to 9.5 sacks in year three.
Gary appeared to be on the superstar pass-rusher track but a torn ACL took away much of his 2022 season. When he got his extension of October of 2023 he had 4.5 sacks and he finished the season with nine.
That’s apparently his ceiling, though, because even though he got better toward the end of 2024 he finished the season with 7.5 sacks and one in the playoffs.
That’s good for a secondary rusher, but for a supposed star who is making an average of $24 million a year, that’s just not going to cut it.
Jayden Reed did not break out for the Packers
Jayden Reed had a decent season for a depth wide receiver with 55 catches for 857 yards and six touchdowns. He led the team in receiving yards, which was good, and he did get involved in Matt LaFleur’s rushing attack from time-to-time.
The thing about Reed is that he flashed superstar potential as a rookie, but he never consistently showed that in 2024. He had big moments — he had three games with over 100 yards receiving — but he’d also disappear for long stretches of games and even over a few games in a row.
For instance, he finished the last five games of the season without a touchdown, which is frankly, silly, because he’s arguably Green Bay’s best overall offensive weapon.
Some of that is on LaFleur for arguably phasing him out of the offense or straight-up forgetting him, but a lot of it was on Reed’s lack of consistency in 2024. He still has that star power and he’s a game-wrecker when he’s on, but he needs to develop the consistency in 2025 to be taken seriously by defenses.
