Packers Report Card: Midseason Grades for Coaching, Personnel

The Packers are 6-3 at the bye with a one-game lead for the final playoff spot in the NFC. Here’s how Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst factor into the half-season success.

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, left, talks with coach Matt LaFleur before their game against the Texans. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers returned from their bye on Monday with a 6-3 record. The offense has fallen short of expectations while the defense has improved with Jeff Hafley and Xavier McKinney.

Our midseason Packers report cards continue with a look at the influence of coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst.

Coaching

Most teams would love to trade places with the Packers, but the reality is they’re closer to falling out of a playoff spot (the 49ers are 5-4) than catching the Lions (who are 8-1) in the NFC North.

LaFleur’s success this season started during the offseason with his decisions to hire Jeff Hafley as defensive coordinator and Aaron Hill as strength and conditioning coordinator.

Hafley’s defense has limited opponents to less than 20 points in four games, not including Detroit (pick-six in a 24-14 loss) and Houston (three scoring drives of less than 25 yards in a 24-22 win). That should be good enough to win most games.

With Hill radically changing the pre-practice routine, the Packers have been incredibly healthy by NFL standards. The Week 9 loss to Detroit was really the only game in which the Packers were banged up, with Jaire Alexander, Evan Williams and Josh Myers inactive.

Credit to LaFleur and the rest of the offensive staff for figuring out how to beat the Colts and Titans with Malik Willis in at quarterback. And credit to LaFleur, with the Packers on the ropes at Jacksonville, for allowing Willis to air it out for the decisive completion to Jayden Reed. Willis, of course, deserves credit for how well he’s played, but the coaches deserve praise for maximizing Willis’ skills in such a short period of time.

On the other hand, LaFleur and esteemed quarterbacks coach Tom Clements have had no success in getting Jordan Love past his turnover-prone ways. Love threw two interceptions in the first four series in the loss to the Vikings and chucked horrendous pick-sixes against the Rams and Lions.

Love has started 25 games. He’s not Patrick Mahomes or Jared Goff on the experience scale, but he’s not exactly a young quarterback, either.

LaFleur has done well in managing the workload of veteran running back Josh Jacobs. During the eight-game dash to the playoffs, it’s time to start honing in on Jacobs, Reed, Romeo Doubs and tight end Tucker Kraft as the team’s best playmakers.

The pressure will be on Hafley to find another gear for his defense now that the rest of the league has nine weeks of tape. One of his big advantages to start the season was he literally had no track record. There is one now. Teams have had a chance to adjust to Hafley. Now, it’s Hafley’s turn.

The key for the second half of the season will be creating a pass rush, which mostly disappeared the last two games. The Packers might not even get to the playoffs if Rashan Gary (2.5 sacks) and Kenny Clark (zero sacks) replicate their first-half production.

When LaFleur hired Rich Bisaccia as special-teams coordinator after the playoff debacle against the 49ers in 2021, the belief was the Packers had finally taken special teams seriously. Really, though, Green Bay’s special teams remain as mediocre as ever.

Maybe the arrival of kicker Brandon McManus and colder weather to give Keisean Nixon more opportunities will change the dynamic.

In the two biggest games of the season – home games against the Vikings and Lions – LaFleur’s team trailed 28-0 against Minnesota and 24-3 against Detroit. Based on those games, the Packers are much closer to pretender than contender.

There is a lot of work to be done, starting with eradicating the stupid penalties, getting Love on track and solving their woeful red-zone offense.

Grade: C.

Personnel

General manager Brian Gutekunst usually doesn’t get out of the kiddie pool in free agency, but he took the plunge with running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney.

McKinney has changed the defense with his production and leadership. He has six interceptions, almost as many as the entire defense had all of last season.

If replacing Darnell Savage with McKinney was the easiest decision ever, replacing Aaron Jones with Jacobs was much more difficult. Jones was a face-of-the-franchise type of player and, really, was the driving force behind last year’s playoff run.

Jacobs has been an upgrade, though. He’s averaging almost three-fourths of a yard more after contact per carry. Those tough-guy yards loom so large late in games and late in the season.

Moreover, his proven durability could loom large during the second half of the season. Jones, who will turn 30 in a few weeks, is on a career-high pace for carries and touches; will he be able to hold up for the Vikings’ playoff run?

The draft class has shown plenty of promise, especially rookie defenders Edgerrin Cooper, Javon Bullard and Evan Williams. Brought along slowly by Hafley, they need to be every-down players – or at least close to it – for the stretch run.

Early in training camp, Gutekunst signed Love to a record-setting contract extension. Through nine games, Love hasn’t been worth it, but the contract isn’t about nine games. 

Besides, like it or not, that’s the going rate for a talented young quarterback with a promising track record. What was he supposed to do? Trade Love in August and let Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt battle it out?

Gutekunst perhaps saved the season at the end of training camp by sending a seventh-round pick to Tennessee for Willis, who is responsible for as many wins this season as Love. That Willis had a 49.4 passer rating with the Titans and a 130.3 rating for the Packers is an organizational triumph.

Gutekunst was wrong to roll the dice on rookie kicker Brayden Narveson but right to sign veteran Brandon McManus once he was past some off-the-field allegations.  

The trade deadline came and went with the Packers being sellers for a second consecutive year with the trade of Preston Smith to the Steelers. Smith had one sack and two tackles for losses in his Steelers debut.

If this season ends with Green Bay’s secondary getting torched by some top quarterback-receiver combination, it will be fair to question why Gutekunst didn’t acquire cornerback Marshon Lattimore, who the Commanders landed for a third-round draft pick.

Grade: B.

More Green Bay Packers News 

A couple #Packers midseason report cards:
- Too many mistakes on offense: ⬇️https://t.co/MJExR0ciMi
- Never mind the turnovers, some encouraging signs on defense: ⬇️https://t.co/ImbB6SkA9w

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 11, 2024

Midseason report card: defense | Midseason report card: Offense | ESPN solves biggest weakness | Cheer for these teams this weekend | Predicting every game on rest of Packers’ schedule | How good are Packers after the bye? | Packers midseason awards | Wild half-season at QB for Packers | Updating the NFC playoff picture | Where’s the pass rush? | Edgerrin Cooper among midseason All-Rookie picks | Winners and losers for Packers at NFL trade deadline | On SI NFL power rankings