Packer Central

Packers’ Final Record? Sports Illustrated Picks Every Game

What will be the Green Bay Packers’ final record this season? Who will they play in the playoffs? Sports Illustrated has the answers after picking every game.

Bill Huber

Packers coach Matt LaFleur, with GM Brian Gutekunst in the background, vs. the Baltimore Ravens.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, with GM Brian Gutekunst in the background, vs. the Baltimore Ravens. / Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the fifth year, Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr picked every game for the upcoming NFL season. Last year, his picks were “abysmal,” but he pretty well nailed the Green Bay Packers; his 10-7 prediction was off by one win.

This year, Orr used his crystal ball and Excel spreadsheet and determined the Packers would finish with …

Drum roll please …

A 12-5 record.

That tied the Detroit Lions for the NFC North title.

A 12-win season would blow the over/under win total out of the water – the Packers’ over/under is 9.5 at FanDuel Sportsbook.

A Lions sweep of the Packers is the difference in the North.

“Otherwise,” Orr wrote, “the Packers’ season sets up quite nicely with a navigable schedule and what I would project as some coin-flip wins over Matt LaFleur’s protégés, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan. The difference is a defense that finally turns the corner after ‘getting it right.’ LaFleur’s defensive coordinators have been his Achilles heels since entering the league. New DC Jeff Hafley tips the scales.”

Hafley’s defense, indeed, will be the key to the season.

Under former coordinator Joe Barry, the Packers last season finished 10th in points allowed – their first top-10 finish since 2019 (ninth) and second since 2010, when they finished second in points allowed en route to winning the Super Bowl.

However, the Packers haven’t finished in the top 12 of total defense and points allowed in the same season since 2010.

The cupboard is well-stocked with the addition of veteran safety Xavier McKinney, rookie safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams, and rookie linebackers Edgerrin Cooper and Ty’Ron Hopper. As expected starters, McKinney and Bullard will bolster a veteran corps that includes cornerback Jaire Alexander, defensive end Rashan Gary and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

Who knows what it means but Hafley’s defense – even with a watered-down lineup and greatly reduced playbook – finished the preseason ranked third in total defense, sixth in rushing defense and fifth in passing defense, along with sixth in yards per play, second in rushing yards per play, third in first downs per game and fifth in interception percentage.

“Just the mentality of that was definitely something that we had to ask ourselves, if we felt like we had the personnel to switch to that style,” LaFleur said last week of changing from Barry’s conservative 3-4 scheme to Hafley’s aggressive 4-3 system.

“I certainly think we do when you look at our guys on the edge like RG and P (Preston Smith) and JJ (Kingsley Enagbare) and (Lukas) Van Ness. Some of the younger guys like (Brenton) Cox and (Arron) Mosby are doing a great job, and then internally with Kenny Clark and Devonte Wyatt has really excelled in this scheme. T.J. (Slaton) has done a great job. So, all those guys collectively have done a good job. 

“If we didn’t feel like we had the personnel, I think it would be harder to make that move.”

Under Orr’s projection, the Packers would visit the NFC South-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card playoffs.

Detroit, Green Bay and Chicago qualified for the playoffs from the NFC North, with the Bears sneaking in by beating the Packers in the finale at Lambeau.

Click here for the full story.

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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.