Packer Central

17 Days Until Training Camp: 17’s the Unmagical Number

Can the Green Bay Packers rebound into the playoffs with Jordan Love replacing Aaron Rodgers. Yes, because the bar has been set low.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – When Aaron Rodgers won his first NFL MVP in 2011, the Green Bay Packers scored 35.0 points per game. At the time, with Rodgers throwing 45 touchdown passes in 15 games, it was the third-highest scoring average in the Super Bowl era.

In 2022, they reached 35 points just one time and scored 42 touchdowns in 17 games.

Those extremes show just how far the mighty had fallen.

With 17 days until the first practice of training camp, the biggest question surrounding the Packers is how Jordan Love will do in his first season as the team’s starting quarterback. Can the Packers actually be better with Love in 2023 than they were with Rodgers in 2022.

Maybe.

Last season, the Packers scored 17 or fewer points in seven of their 17 games. That’s as many as the previous three seasons combined. They went 1-6 in those games last year. Had they scored a modest 24 points in those games, they would have added four wins, finished 12-5 and tied the Vikings for the NFC North championship.

Defense allegedly wins championships but it’s hard even getting to the playoffs without offense. The Packers were one of 17 teams that scored 17 or fewer points in at least seven games. Only three made the playoffs – Tampa Bay as the under-.500 champions of the NFC South – and none of those teams got out of Wild Card Weekend.

Can Love guide the Packers to the playoffs in 2023? Perhaps, because there’s so much room for improvement on offense.

Rodgers and the passing attack never got going last year. Whether it was the absence of Davante Adams or Rodgers’ age and injury, the four-time MVP looked like just another mediocre quarterback for most of the season.

In 2022, he topped a 100 passer rating in three of 17 starts and never hit 300 passing yards. Contrast that to 2011, when he hit a 100 rating in 13 of 15 starts and topped 300 yards eight times, or 2021, when he reached a 100 rating in 11 of 16 games and surpassed 300 yards in four games.

While matching Rodgers’ career would seem to be an impossibly high bar for Love, the bar is much lower in terms of meeting and surpassing what Rodgers did in 2022.

Potentially weighing in Love’s favor will be the offensive line, which looks healthy and strong ahead of camp. And while the receiver corps and tight ends are incredibly young without Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs should be further ahead as they enter Year 2. Love’s athletic ability should be an asset, too.

“Everyone who’s been here has been able to see the standard that’s been set by the guys that have been here before,” Love said during OTAs. “I think we just continue to do that and carry it over with great practice habits, try to build that consistency every day and just being able to give it everything you’ve got at practice every day, not taking any reps off and not taking any rep for granted.”

If Love is even average – remember, Rodgers finished a middle-of-the-pack 16th in passer rating last year – the Packers will contend for a playoff spot. If he’s better than average as he grows alongside Watson, Doubs and the rookie tight ends, the Packers could be the surprise of the NFL.

Countdown to Packers Training Camp

18 days until training camp: LaFleur’s magic touches?

19 days until training camp: 19 1,000-yard challenges

20 days until training camp: 20 reasons for optimism

21 days until training camp: 21 Packers rookie tight ends

22 days until training camp: Fourth of July fireworks

23 days until training camp: No. 23, Jaire Alexander

23 days until training camp: Projected depth charts

24 days until training camp: Big question at kicker

24 days until training camp: From No. 1 to No. 24 in red zone

25 days until training camp: Big question at cornerback

25 days until training camp: From No. 1 to No. 25 in tackling

26 days until training camp: Big question at safety

26 days until training camp: The key to the defense is No. 26

27 days until training camp: Big question at inside linebacker

27 days until training camp: 27 sources of inspiration

28 days until training camp: Big question at outside linebacker

28 days until training camp: At least they’re consistent

29 days until training camp: Big question at defensive line

29 days: Keisean Nixon’s surprise stardom

30 days until training camp: Big question at offensive line

30 days until training camp: 30th in key defensive stat

31 days until training camp: Big question at tight end

31 days until training camp: A killer No. 31 ranking

32 days until training camp: Big question at receiver

32 days until training camp: 32nd-ranked receivers

33 days until training camp: Big question at running back

33 days until training camp: No. 33, Aaron Jones, is a great player

34 days until training camp: Big question at quarterback

34 days until training camp: Plus-34 in turnovers

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Bill Huber
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.

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