Five Packers Who Could Be First-Time Pro Bowlers

Jordan Love is an obvious selection as a Packers player who could be a first-time Pro Bowler. Here are four more players who could earn postseason honors.

Bill Huber | Jun 22, 2024

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) reacts after a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in the first quarter for their playoff game AT&T Stadium. / Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – CBS Sports named “20 candidates to become first-time Pro Bowlers in 2024.” An obvious selection was Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love.

“Few gunslingers were as dazzling down the stretch in 2023,” Cody Benjamin wrote, “and now Love has another full offseason of prep under his belt, armed with a young and versatile wide receiver corps. His big arm could be a big-play machine.”

Love, indeed, dazzled. During the final eight games of the season, 33 quarterbacks threw at least 100 passes. Love ranked first at plus-17 touchdowns vs. interceptions, first in yards and second in passer rating. If he puts up those type of numbers throughout the season, he won’t just be a Pro Bowler. He’ll be an NFL MVP candidate; he’s tied for the fifth-shortest odds at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Love isn’t the Packers’ only young standout. Here are four more players who could be potential first-time Pro Bowlers.

DE Rashan Gary

Gary has put together a few good seasons. The Packers are paying him to be dominant. Now that he’s a year beyond the torn ACL and there’s a new defensive scheme, will this be the year when Gary becomes that game-changing force?

Gary is coming off a season of nine sacks and two forced fumbles. In five seasons, he has 31.5 sacks and five forced fumbles. He was 16th in PFF’s pass-rush win rate, down from eighth in 2022 and third in 2021.

“I feel like just less things to have to think about,” Gary said of coordinator Jeff Hafley’s defense. “Having a younger team. We have a lot of guys who can play fast but we just need them to not think so we cut off their brain a little bit and allow them to pin their ears back and go. I feel like up front that’s what they’re allowing us to do in this scheme.”

S Xavier McKinney

When McKinney has been healthy, he’s been really good. In his two healthy seasons, he’s totaled 209 tackles, eight interceptions and 21 passes defensed. Last season, he was one of six players with 100-plus tackles, three-plus interceptions and 10-plus passes defensed.

With the Packers, the hope is he’ll be the missing piece on a defense that’s been good at times but not consistently excellent since 2010.

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“We know what our goal is,” McKinney said. “We know what we want to accomplish. Obviously, I wasn’t here last year – they can speak on that more than I can – but for me, I’m just coming in and helping anywhere that I can, being that piece that I know they need me to be, and also making the guys around me better. Like I said, we know what our end goal is.”

WR Jayden Reed

The Packers have a bunch of gifted receivers, but it was Reed as a second-round rookie who led the team in receptions, receiving yards and total touchdowns.

With a year of experience in the NFL and alongside Love, Reed could be chasing 80-plus catches, 1,000-plus yards and double-digits touchdowns. Will that be enough to break through in the loaded contingent of NFC receivers? Well, if Love flourishes and the Packers win 12 or 13 games, yes.

“Obviously, you see what happens when he gets the ball in his hands,” Loe said at minicamp. “Just the progression he’s made throughout the season last year and then, obviously, now he’s making even more strides. He’s a phenomenal player and I think he’s going to have a bigger role this year.”

TE Luke Musgrave

Reed might face an uphill climb to be a Pro Bowler at receiver. Not so much for Musgrave (or Tucker Kraft, for that matter) at tight end.

Last year’s NFC Pro Bowl tight ends were Sam LaPorta of the Lions, Jake Ferguson of the Cowboys and George Kittle of the 49ers. They caught 86 passes with 10 touchdowns, 71 passes for five touchdowns and 65 passes for six touchdowns, respectively.

Even while missing six games with a lacerated kidney, Musgrave caught 34 passes for 352 yards. Extrapolate that over 17 games, and you wind up with 53 receptions for 544 yards. That’s not great but, same as Reed, now that the young quarterback and the young tight end have time on task, bigger and better things could be ahead.

Not that Musgrave is in it for the honors.

“I want to be the best I can be,” he said at minicamp. “I think I shine through in the in the pass game a little bit more than I do in the run game, but I just want to be the best I can be and help the offense.”

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— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 20, 2024

Published Jun 22, 2024|Modified Jun 22, 2024

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.