Best for Last?: Packers Finally Going to London

The potential opponents: NFC North rivals Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota along with the Cowboys, Giants, Patriots, Jets, Titans and Super Bowl-champion Rams.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will play a game in London during the 2022 NFL season, the league announced on Monday morning.

Though they played preseason games in Toronto in 1997, Japan in 1998 and Winnipeg in 2019, this will mark the Packers’ first international game that counts. The league’s other 31 teams already had played in London.

“We’re really excited about it,” Packers President Mark Murphy said on Monday. “We have so many great fans all over Europe and all over the world, that I think it’s really exciting for them to be able to see the Packers play in London. I know our fans here in the United States, obviously here in Green Bay as well, are going to be excited to be able to travel to see Packers play in London. This is obviously a huge initiative for the league. We’re pleased to be a part of it.”

The date and opponent have not been determined. It will be a home game for Green Bay, but the Packers were due to have nine home games, not the usual eight, because of the 17-game schedule. The expanded scheduled helped make the team’s belated overseas voyage possible.

RELATED: LONDON GETS PACKERS, NEEDS RODGERS

“The games in Green Bay are so important to the local economy that we’ve always been reluctant to give up a home game,” Murphy said. “The other side is, in terms of when we’re the visiting team, we travel so well that teams that would be hosting us are reluctant to give up a home game against the Packers. But with the league move to the 17-game season, we knew this was a possibility and we’re really excited about it.”

The potential opponents: NFC North rivals Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota along with the Cowboys, Giants, Patriots, Jets, Titans and Super Bowl-champion Rams.

The game will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. When Miami and Jacksonville played there last season, 60,784 fans were in attendance.

A ninth home game would have been a financial boon for the Packers, who routinely rank in the top 10 in the league in revenue even while playing in one of the league’s smallest markets. Murphy said the team was looking to host other “major events.” One possibility is the 2024 NFL Draft. Murphy said Green Bay, Detroit and Washington are the finalists; the site will be announced at the league meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., at the end of March.

Murphy figured the team would travel to London on Thursday and would get a bye the following week.

With eight regular-season games at Lambeau Field, the ticket breakdown will be six games for the Green Package and two games for the Gold Package ticket holders. The lone home preseason game also will be designated for Gold Package ticket holders.

The player reaction was mixed.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

— Adrian Amos (@_SmashAmos31) February 28, 2022

I meant yessss! 24hr flight can’t wait! 😂 body goina feel great! 😁😁 Let’s gooo #championshipmindset

— Adrian Amos (@_SmashAmos31) February 28, 2022

WE’RE GOING TO LONDON ✈️ 😎

— Allen Lazard 👑 (@AllenLazard) February 28, 2022

The Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers also will play international games in 2022.

The Buccaneers will play in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Munich, Germany, while the Cardinals will play in Mexico City, where they hosted the league's first-ever regular-season game outside the United States in 2005.

The Saints will play in the UK for the third time, having won on two previous occasions. The Jaguars previously announced that they will play a home game at Wembley Stadium in 2022.

“We are very excited to be staging five games outside the United States in 2022, and thank the clubs for their continued commitment to growing the sport internationally,” said Peter O'Reilly, NFL executive vice president of club business and league events. “Our fans in Germany, Mexico and the UK can look forward to seeing some of the most iconic names and biggest stars in the League and enjoying an incredible series of events.”

As part of the 17-game schedule, it was determined that, beginning with the upcoming season, up to four of the teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth regular-season home game would instead be designated to play a neutral-site international game each year.

Green Bay Packers’ 2022 Opponents

Here is a look at next season’s opponents. The dates and times for the games will be announced in the spring; the 2021 schedule was announced on May 12. Teams with an asterisk qualified for the playoffs.

Home: NFC North

Chicago Bears (6-11), Detroit Lions (3-13-1), Minnesota Vikings (8-9).

Home: NFC East

Dallas Cowboys* (12-5), New York Giants (4-13).

Home: AFC East

New England Patriots* (10-7), New York Jets (4-13).

Home: NFC North Winner

Los Angeles Rams* (12-5).

Home: Game 17 (Winner AFC South)

Tennessee Titans* (12-5).

Away: NFC North

Chicago Bears (6-11), Detroit Lions (3-13-1), Minnesota Vikings (8-9).

Away: NFC East

Philadelphia Eagles* (9-8), Washington Football Team (7-10).

Away: AFC East

Buffalo Bills* (11-6), Miami Dolphins (9-8).

Away: NFC South Winner

Tampa Bay Buccaneers* (13-4).

NFL Key Dates for 2022

March 1-7

Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

General manager Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur will talk to reporters on March 1. Player workouts will be later in the week. Teams are allotted 45 formal interviews. “It’ll be good to see the guys live and have a little bit better feel once we get to the Combine,” Gutekunst said. “But it’s another good offensive line class, which is good. I thought the offensive skill positions were deeper than they have been maybe in the past. The pass rush group is deeper than it has been in a while. Overall, I think it’s good. I think it’s an interesting year because there were so many guys that opted back in to play in the college season, so the numbers are way up across the board, especially in the bottom half of the draft. I think the numbers are much bigger than they have been in the past.”

March 8

Deadline to use the franchise tag strikes at 3 p.m. (Central).

The Packers could use it on All-Pro receiver Davante Adams. “It’s obviously a tool that’s made available to us,” Gutekunst said. “If we need to use it, we certainly will. I think we’d love to come to an agreement before that, but it is a tool to be able to protect tone of your star players. But at the same time, that’s not the way [we’ve done business]. We like to exhaust all options before we get to that point. But it is a tool that’s available to us.”

March 14-16

Beginning at 11 a.m. (Central) on March 14 and ending at 2:59:59 p.m. on March 16, clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into contract negotiations with, players who will become unrestricted free agents upon the expiration of their 2021 player contracts at 3 p.m. on March 16. This is what’s called the “legal tampering period.” Aside from Adams, linebacker De'Vondre Campbell is Green Bay's top free agent.

March 16

The league-year begins at 3 p.m. Teams must be in compliance with the $208.2 million salary cap at this time.

“The pandemic certainly threw a wrench into everything as far as the salary cap numbers,” Gutekunst said. “They’d be so steady [in their annual increase] for so long. You kind of had that comforting feeling of where it’s going to be. When that got changed, with where our team was at, it made it a little more difficult. We’re very hopeful we’re coming out of that. We’re excited to get out of that. We got a really good football team and we’re excited to add to that this spring and see where we can go.”

March 16

Trades can be made beginning at 3 p.m.

April 18

The Packers can begin their offseason workout programs.

April 22

Deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets with other teams.

The Packers have one restricted free agent, receiver Allen Lazard. “He knows what kind of player he can be and he’s continuing to push that envelope every week,” veteran Randall Cobb said before the playoffs. “You see it in practice, you see it in meeting rooms, you see him taking notes, his attention to detail, and we get onto the practice field and his attention to detail with practice and then it comes down to opportunities, and he’s made every single one of them. You love to see it. I think his stock’s continuing to go up. His rise, it’s beautiful.”

April 28-30

The NFL Draft will be held in Las Vegas, with the first round on April 28, the second and third rounds on April 29 and the fourth through seventh rounds on April 30.

Last year’s first-round pick was used on cornerback Eric Stokes, who had an excellent rookie year. “When he was pressed into a little bit more duty than I think we might have thought he would, he obviously performed at a very good level,” Gutekunst said. “I really liked his demeanor. It’s probably a lot more to who he is but also coming from Georgia and the way he competed at that level the last couple years, I just don’t think it was too big for him. Even through his struggles, which every player in the National Football League goes through, he didn’t blink.”

May 2

This is the deadline for teams to exercise the fifth-year option on their 2019 first-round draft picks.

For the Packers, that’s outside linebacker Rashan Gary and safety Darnell Savage. “We’re not there yet,” Gutekunst said when asked about those players on Wednesday. “Obviously, both those guys have done a really good job for us. They’re coming into their own and becoming leaders of our defense. So, we haven’t made any decisions on that but both pretty good players.”

May 6-9 or 13-16

Teams can hold their three-day rookie orientation camps during this period – either Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday. Last year, the Packers held their rookie camp during the second of those blocks.

Aug. 4

Football is back with the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night.

Aug. 5-6

Packers legend LeRoy Butler will get his Pro Football Hall of Fame Gold Jacket on Aug. 5 and be enshrined in the Hall of Fame on Aug. 6.

Sept. 8

The NFL season will kick off, presumably with the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams hosting the Thursday night opener.

Sept. 11

This is the first Sunday of the NFL season. Green Bay opened on the road in 2019, 2020 and 2021.