Packers Report Card: Midseason Grades on Offense

The Packers are ninth in points scored. Jordan Love has made too many mistakes and hasn’t gotten much help from his friends.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs has been an excellent addition. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are 6-3 and well on their way to returning to the playoffs. At the midpoint of the season, let’s hand out some midterm grades on offense.

Passing Offense

The passing attack has been explosive. It just hasn’t been consistent.

The Packers entering Sunday are second in the NFL with 32 passing plays of 20-plus yards. The Ravens are first with 35 but have played one more game.

Green Bay is sixth in yards per pass attempt and second in sack percentage. Last year, Jayden Reed led the team with 793 receiving yards. With eight games to go this year, he has 620 yards, putting him on pace for 1,171, which would make him Green Bay’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Davante Adams in 2021.

Those are the highlights. The bad – or, at least, the disappointing – outweighs the good.

The Packers gave Jordan Love a $220 million contract extension at the start of training camp, which briefly made him the highest-paid player in the NFL. With great money comes great expectations, which he has failed to meet.

Of 35 qualifying quarterbacks, Love is 32nd in completion percentage (61.3) and 33rd in interception percentage (4.2). Love and Seattle’s Geno Smith have thrown a league-worst 10 interceptions; Smith has thrown 102 more passes. Added together, Love is 22nd in passer rating.

Yes, Love has played hurt. Yes, knee and groin injuries have impacted the numbers. Injuries don’t impact decision-making, though. Scouts questioned his decision-making at Utah State, which is what makes the pick-sixes against the Rams and Lions particularly troubling. 

With 25 career starts, the inexperience factor increasingly holds little weight. It’s not as if Malik Willis, who showed up at the end of August, is a grizzled veteran. He has zero interceptions – and hasn’t been close to throwing one. Washington Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels has thrown only two.

The completion percentage isn’t all Love’s fault. According to Pro Football Focus, 36 quarterbacks have had at least 140 dropbacks. Love has had 9.8 percent of his passes dropped, fifth-most from that group.

According to PFF, 169 players (not just receivers) have been targeted at least 20 times. That encompasses Green Bay’s top six players. From that huge group, Dontayvion Wicks has the highest drop percentage and Reed has the ninth-highest. By volume, Reed is tied for a league-worst seven drops and Wicks is tied for third with six. Even Romeo Doubs has three.

Detroit’s Jared Goff has had one dropped pass all season. Love has had 16 passes dropped and Willis three.

The drops notwithstanding, Reed has been a stud. Of 88 receivers to be targeted at least 25 times, he is sixth with 2.63 yards per target and sixth with 7.9 yards after the catch per catch. Wicks, on the other hand, is 70th with 1.21 yards per target.

On passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield, Reed has caught a ridiculous 9-of-10, according to PFF. Christian Watson, on the other hand, is 2-of-9.

Tucker Kraft has emerged as one of the best in the NFL at his position. He leads NFL tight ends with 9.5 YAC per catch, nine missed tackles and a 139.1 passer rating when targeted and is second with 13.4 yards per catch.

The protection generally has been strong. Green Bay’s line ranks eighth in ESPN.com’s pass-block win rate and seventh in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency.

Of 71 offensive tackles with at least 200 snaps, right tackle Zach Tom ranks eighth in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-protecting snap. He has allowed one sack. Left tackle Rasheed Walker is 35th and has allowed two sacks.

Of 72 guards, Elgton Jenkins is sixth (zero sacks) and Sean Rhyan is 32nd (three sacks); Jordan Morgan (zero sacks) would have ranked 47th had he played enough snaps. Of 34 centers, Josh Myers is 24th (but zero sacks). Running back Josh Jacobs has struggled in pass protection but Chris Brooks has been a brick wall.

The fate of this season, plain and simple, will depend on Love throwing it to the right person and that right person catching the ball.

Grade: C-minus.

Rushing Offense

Swapping Aaron Jones for Josh Jacobs might not have been the most popular decision among the fans but it’s hard to quibble with the results.

Jacobs is third in carries (158) and yards (762). His 4.82-yard average ranks 12th among running backs. Jacobs is on pace for 1,439 rushing yards. That would be the third-best mark in franchise history behind Ahman Green (1,883 yards in 16 games in 2003) and Jim Taylor (1,474 yards in 14 games in 1962).

With the Raiders, Jacobs led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards in 2022. In 2023, he rushed for 805 yards, averaged 3.45 yards per carry and 2.35 yards after contact, broke 28 tackles and had nine runs of 10-plus yards. Those were AJ Dillon-level numbers. So, given how Jones dominated down the stretch last year, it was fair to wonder if the Packers had signed an over-the-hill running back.

Instead, in 85 fewer carries than last season, Jacobs is just 43 yards off last year’s final tally and his average is plus-1.37. He has averaged 3.73 yards after contact, broken 33 tackles and had 20 runs of 10-plus yards.

The mark of a good running back is what he can do on his own. Of 47 backs with at least 50 carries, Jacobs is fourth in yards after contact per carry.

After fumbles in back-to-back games to start the season, he has zero the last seven games.

Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks have provided quality depth. Given how well they’ve played, it will be interesting to see how rookie MarShawn Lloyd is reintegrated once he returns to the roster.

Right tackle Zach Tom and tight end Tucker Kraft are key parts in the run game, though the Packers rank just 23rd in ESPN’s run-block win rate. For run-block penalties, Jenkins, Walker and Kraft have been guilty of three, Sean Rhyan of one and Josh Myers, Tom and Jordan Morgan of zero.

More than anything, when the Packers have needed to run the ball – Week 2 against the Colts the most obvious example – they generally have been able to do it.

Grade: B-plus

Special Teams

The special teams “offense” consists of field goals and returns.

The Packers are 27th in average on punt returns (7.4 yards), 24th in average starting position following an opponent kickoff (28.8-yard line) and 31st in field-goal percentage (75.0).

That, for some cutting-edge analysis, is not very good.

At least new kicker Brandon McManus made two game-winning field goals; he also missed a field goal in the rain against Detroit.

Against Houston, Keisean Nixon’s indecision on a punt return resulted in a turnover and Reed retreated about a half-mile to catch a punt at the goal line and was tackled inside the 5. Nixon, the two-time All-Pro returner, has a long of just 37 yards on seven kickoff returns but at least had a 39-yard punt return.

In total special-teams penalties, the Packers’ total of eight is one more than the league median.

Grade: D-plus.

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