Packer Central

Six New Year’s Resolutions for Packers

For the Green Bay Packers, the playoffs are on the horizon and the offseason could start sooner than anyone wants. Here are six New Year’s resolutions that would guarantee a happy 2025.

Bill Huber

Green Bay Packers Jordan Love gestures as he walks off the field after the win against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
Green Bay Packers Jordan Love gestures as he walks off the field after the win against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. / David Banks-Imagn Images
In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are 11-5 and headed to the playoffs, though you wouldn’t know it after yet another big-game loss.

The Packers, in case you’ve been buried beneath a mountain of wrapping paper or enjoyed too much holiday cheer, are 0-5 against the NFC’s three heavyweights. In their final game of the 2024 calendar year, the Packers lost 27-25 at the Minnesota Vikings, a final score as deceivingly close as the Packers’ 31-29 loss to the Vikings earlier in the season.

The Packers will ring in the near year at home against the Chicago Bears before hitting the road for the playoffs.

Here are six New Year’s resolutions for the Packers in 2025.

1. Beat the Bears

Chicago started the season 4-2. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was being fitted for his Hall of Fame Gold Jacket and Super Bowl parade routes were being planned.

Since their bye, the Bears are 0-10. If Packers coach Matt LaFleur can improve to 12-0 against Chicago, it would extend the Bears’ losing streak to a single-season record 11 consecutive games.

The Packers, to state the obvious, have dominated this rivalry for three decades. It still matters, though. During the blowout win over the Saints a couple weeks ago, a “Bears Still Suck” chant started at Lambeau.

The Bears really, really, really, really, really, really suck this year. The Packers must keep it going.

2. Cold Champagne? No, Hot Piss

In the first halves of their four losses to the Lions and Vikings, the Packers were outscored 75-20. That’s just too tall a mountain to climb against really good teams – and probably an impossible mountain to climb on the road in the playoffs.

Before a noon game against the Bengals in 2021, LaFleur famously said, “[The team] has got to wake up with their piss hot.”

It’s one thing to have ice water in your veins. It’s quite another to have ice water in your urine. For some reason, the Packers have not been prepared for the intensity of the moment against elite teams.

LaFleur has got to figure that out – preferably before wild-card weekend but sometime before September would be good.

3. Beat the Eagles

On Monday, LaFleur lamented the “sloppy football” played against the Vikings.

“There was a lot to clean up,” he said.

That’s been the reality following all of Green Bay’s big division losses. Start slowly against an elite team once or twice, that’s understandable. Doing it in every game? That’s a problem.

LaFleur tried to deflect the criticism.

“Every game is a big game,” he said. “This is the National Football League. There’s a margin of error that is razor thin, and when you’re playing good teams, you got to be better. And there was a handful of plays in that game, they go the other way, then maybe you have a different outcome. But that’s just the reality of our league. But every game is a big game, and every team is capable of beating another team. There’s great examples each and every week.”

LaFleur finally came around to the reality of the season, though.

“Obviously, we’ve lost to three of the best teams in the league five times, and that is frustrating, because I think we’ve had opportunities in every one of those games to win the game and we haven’t done that. So, that’s why I have to answer these types of questions that are bothersome. But I respect it.”

If the Packers can earn that big-game victory in the wild-card round, suddenly a run to the Super Bowl becomes realistic.

4. Spend, Spend, Spend

The Packers are 11th in effective cap space for 2025, according to OverTheCap.com. Accounting for the draft class and building a 51-mman offseason roster, the Packers have $49.6 million of cap space.

So, that’s the good news. The bad news is the Vikings, Bears and Lions all have more cap space.

To keep up in the division, general manager Brian Gutekunst is going to have to spend.

5. Add a Superstar Receiver

The Packers haven’t drafted a receiver in the first round since 2002. Could this be the year?

Probably not. The history is too great to ignore and the team has more pressing needs.

However, while the Packers have a bunch of good receivers, they don’t have a great one. The NFC is loaded with elite receivers. The Vikings’ Justin Jefferson is a difference-maker, even when he’s not getting the ball, as was the case in the first half on Sunday.

Moreover, it’s always smart to draft a year in advance. After the 2025 season, Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson will be free agents.

As a roster, the Packers have a bunch of good players. Great players win games, though. Do the Packers have a passing-game player who is more than just good?

Besides, imagine the roar from the fans at the draft if their beloved Packers added a stud receiver to their offense.

6. Party Like It’s 1999

In the 1999 draft, in response to having to deal with the Vikings’ Randy Moss, then-general manager Ron Wolf used his first three draft picks on cornerbacks Antuan Edwards, Fred Vinson and Mike McKenzie.

The Packers need to select cornerbacks early and often in the upcoming draft. On Sunday, Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold threw for a career-high 377 yards. He threw three touchdown passes in both games against Green Bay.

Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes were supposed to be the Packers’ long-term answers at cornerback. At this point, it’s fair to wonder if the perpetually injured Alexander will play another game for the Packers. Stokes hasn’t broken up a pass since his rookie season.

Keisean Nixon has been solid in his move to perimeter cornerback and Carrington Valentine has shown some flashes, but if you’ve got to deal with the likes of the Vikings’ Jefferson and Jordan Addison, the Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Eagles’ A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith – along with all the great or potentially great quarterbacks – you need the horses in the secondary to match up.

Plus, look at the 2025 schedule. In out-of-division games, the Packers will host the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels.

Great quarterbacks win Super Bowls. Therefore, it stands to reason that great cornerbacks are a necessity. The Lions drafted two and signed two. The Eagles drafted two. The Packers need to do the same. 

Latest Green Bay Packers News 

Jaire Alexander surgery; pressure’s on other corners | Packers-Bears Wednesday injury report | Packers-Bears: Time, TV, weather, trends | Packers-Bears matchups | Our Consensus NFL Power Rankings | 2025 Packers schedule | The sky is falling Overreactions | Packers-Vikings: Snaps, stud, dud, defining play | Phantom offside call? | The Packers need help from Mike McCarthy | It’s the same old story for the Packers

Published |Modified
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.