Packer Central

NFL Power Rankings: Bears Are Wary of Packers

With the start of the 2023 NFL season just days away, here's where the Green Bay Packers stand in this batch of 13 national power rankings.

Bill Huber

NFL Power Rankings: Bears Are Wary of Packers
NFL Power Rankings: Bears Are Wary of Packers /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – NFL power rankings this time of year are equal parts prognostication, previous year performance and preseason overreaction. The Green Bay Packers were mediocre last year with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback but showed some potential with Jordan Love at quarterback in three exhibition games.

With the 2023 season set to start on Thursday and with the Green Bay Packers kicking off a new era at the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the NFL intelligentsia has produced a batch of fresh power rankings for your amusement.

The consensus for the Packers? Mediocre.

Starting with the home team: At Sports Illustrated, Conor Orr ranked the Packers 18th. The offense’s “growth potential” is huge, Orr wrote. A key part of that will be rookie tight end Luke Musgrave, whose package of pass-catching athleticism and willingness to block in coach Matt LaFleur’s offense could be a “code breaker.”

In the NFC North, the Packers are ahead of the Bears and Vikings but behind the Lions, who are ninth. The Rodgers-led Jets are 10th.

Here are 12 more power rankings.

NBC Sports Chicago: 14th. Bears insider Josh Schrock can’t believe the Packers might have another quality quarterback. However, he notes, Love doesn’t have to be great. With a veteran offensive line and defense, a Love who’s a “tick above” the 2022 vintage of Rodgers could be enough to lift the Packers to the NFC North crown.

The Bears are 22nd. While he said quarterback Justin Fields has taken a big jump, there are significant questions in the trenches.

The Athletic: 16th. Under the best-case scenario, it’s Love giving the Packers a third consecutive excellent starting quarterback while Rashan Gary and Jaire Alexander lead a top-10 option. So, much to the dismay of Bears and Lions fans, the Packers continue to rule the NFC roost. The worst-case scenario? Fields running wild as the Bears clinch the division at Lambeau in the finale.

Pro Football Talk: 16th. Mike Florio isn’t buying a collapse.

Pro Football Focus: 18th. The writer, Amelia Probst, notes the Packers moved on from Rodgers, Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Robert Tonyan and replaced them with a first-year starting quarterback and a bunch of rookie receivers and tight ends.

Jordan Love
Jordan Love (Photo by Wm. Glasheen/USA Today Sports Images)

Touchdown Wire: 18th. A few preseason games had the writer, Jarrett Bailey, changing his tune about the Packers. “If would be hilarious if Love is actually really good and the rest of the NFC North drops to their knees and screams to the heavens asking what they did to deserve this.”

Fox Sports: 19th. Writes David Helman: "Is it weird if I have more faith in the young, unproven offense than the defense that's famously loaded with eight first-round draft picks?"

ESPN: 20th. Beat writer Rob Demovsky said general manager Brian Gutekunst is the man on the hot seat. After all, it was Gutekunst who drafted Love and traded Rodgers. Whatever happens next is on Gutekunst.

ESPN (Mike Clay): 22nd. The offense will be a “work in progress,” Clay said as part of his big season preview.

NFL.com: 21st. Eric Edholm was intrigued by a potential Jonathan Taylor trade. Then he got to the crux of the matter. The Packers went 6-10 in Year 1 under Rodgers before starting a long run as Super Bowl contenders. Could the same play out with Love?

The 33rd Team: 22nd: The Packers could win the division. Or, they could end the season with a top-five pick. A “manageable” first five games before the bye will plot the team’s direction for the season.

Pro Football Network: 23rd. The Packers are incredibly young on offense. No receiver or tight end on the roster entered the NFL before 2022. And Joe Barry remains defensive coordinator, “much to the chagrin” of the fans.

Finally, there’s the view from sportsbooks. At FanDuel Sportsbook, for instance, the Packers have the 16th-shortest odds at +4000 to win the Super Bowl. In the NFC North, the Lions are +2100, the Vikings are +3500 and the Bears are +6000. The Jets with Rodgers are +1800. Those are the eighth-shortest odds, just ahead of Detroit.

Green Bay, by the way, is a 1-point underdog at FanDuel for Week 1 at Chicago. It’s one of the tightest spreads of the week and lowest totals (43.5 over/under).

At SI Sportsbook, Green Bay also is +4000 to win the Super Bowl but they have the longest odds to win the NFC North.

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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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