There was a few brief weeks of hope that the Green Bay Packers had turned their 2022 season around and could find their way into the playoffs. However, that excitement came to a screeching halt this past Sunday against Detroit, with what ended up being another lackluster performance by the Packers.
This is once again going to be an offseason filled with many questions, but before we begin looking ahead, let’s take a look back at what went right for the Packers – because there were several things that did – what went wrong, and what it all means during the 2022 season.
What went right
– Once healthy, the play of the offensive line as a whole was very promising–although the Lions gave them fits in that last game. However, from Weeks 10 to 17, Rodgers was pressured at the third lowest rate in football, while Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon averaged almost five yards per carry. Individually, David Bakhtiari looked like his old self, for the most part, as did Elgton Jenkins once back at left guard, and Zach Tom looks like a 10-year starter for the Packers. Aaron Rodgers, on multiple occasions this season, would call Jon Runyan the most consistent player on the offensive line.
– Christian Watson’s emergence during that Dallas game gave this offense new life. His ability to stretch the field altered how defenses defended the Packers, which opened up additional opportunities in the passing game for others as well as the run game. Watson and his home run ability were game-changing.
– Speaking of game-changing, how about Keisean Nixon? He was absolutely electric with the ball in his hands. Nixon finished with the most kick return yards in the NFL and was the only player with more than 1,000. He finished fifth in average return and was one of four players with a touchdown. Nixon also finished fifth in average punt return as well.
– While Watson’s big play ability caught everyone’s attention – and understandably so – the run game was the catalyst for this Packers’ offense. In Green Bay’s final eight games, they scored at least 24 points in six of them, and in those contests, Jones and Dillon averaged 128 rushing yards per game at almost five yards per rush. In the two games where they scored fewer than 24 points, Jones and Dillon combined for 112 yards at 2.9 yards per attempt. As the run game went, so did the offense.
– Joe Barry’s post-bye week adjustments went very well for the Green Bay defense, who easily played their best football of the season during the final five games. With more cover-6 and cover-2, the Packers limited the big plays and were in better positions to make plays on the football, which led to turnovers. Overall, the communication on the back end was greatly improved, and the Packers were better at pressuring the quarterback as well.
– Mason Crosby certainly doesn’t have the power that he used to, but overall he was very steady for the Packers this season, making 37 of 39 extra-point attempts and 25 of 29 field goals. Of his four misses, three came from 50 yards or more. He was also very good down the stretch when it was quite cold at Lambeau Field.
– We’ve talked about Nixon and Crosby individually, but the special teams unit as a whole had greatly improved. At times there were still some major miscues here and there, but overall, this was a much more sound unit in all phases. By DVOA, the Packers’ special teams unit ranked 17th, a massive improvement after consistently ranking last or close to it over the last few seasons.
– The 2022 rookie class was very impressive for the Packers, especially with many taking on larger roles. We already discussed Watson and Tom’s impacts, but in addition to them, Devonte Wyatt, Quay Walker, Romeo Doubs, Kingsley Enagbare, Tariq Carpenter, and Samori Toure all looked very promising as well.
– For the most part, Jaire Alexander was Jaire Alexander. When it was all said and done, he gave up 43 completions on 17 targets at 13 yards per catch with five interceptions and eight pass breakups. Especially early on in the season, we didn’t always see his impact, but that seemed to be more of a product of Barry’s defensive scheme than anything else. After the bye week, when we saw Alexander moving around more along with more press coverage, he looked like an elite cornerback and did so against some of the NFL’s top receivers.
What went wrong
– Looking back on this season, there were several examples of a lack of timely changes by the coaching staff. Royce Newman was really struggling for several weeks before he was benched. Elgton Jenkins has been a different player at left guard vs. right tackle, and Yosh Nijman proved to be a capable right tackle, even though there was apparent hesitation in moving him there. These were two more changes that could have taken place sooner than they did to help solidify the offensive line. Josiah Deguara, meanwhile, was essential to the run game, but through the first seven games, he was averaging 10 snaps per game. Darnell Savage was often at the center of coverage breakdowns, and being benched seemed to help improve his play, but that came late in the season. We also saw Devonte Wyatt flash relatively often in his limited sample size, but he was still stuck behind Dean Lowry, who was primarily a run defender. The most egregious error by the coaching staff was keeping Amari Rodgers as the return man when Keisean Nixon was on the sidelines.
– For the most part, the passing game needs to be placed in the “what went wrong” category. Sure, Christian Watson helped save this unit for a few games, but overall, it was a part of the game that wasn’t dependable. If we look at the Packers’ last three games where they scored 20 or fewer points, which came against Detroit in Week 9, Tennessee in Week 11, and Detroit in Week 18, the run game was bottled up in all three matchups, and with the passing game needed to shoulder the burden in those instances, it just wasn’t good enough.
– Matt LaFleur often says that when things go well, the quarterback gets too much credit. And when things go wrong, he gets too much blame. Aaron Rodgers certainly wasn’t the only reason the offense struggled this season–there were many others. But with that said, the back-to-back MVP making $50 million per year was expected to help elevate this Davante Adams-less group, but he was unable to do so consistently. His 6.8 yards per attempt was his lowest since the 2015 season and the second-lowest of his career as a starter.
– I was going to break it down but let’s just throw the entire defense into one bullet point. There are very few players on this side of the ball who played above expectations this season. That is a failure both on the players and the coaching staff. Barry was very slow to make drastic adjustments, even when the same issues continued to plague this group. There were miscommunications on the back end that led to big plays and poor tackling overall. The run defense was bad, and the pressure was inconsistent outside of Rashan Gary when he was healthy. There have been a lot of high draft picks and cap space spent on this side of the ball, so naturally, there were high expectations. However, they didn’t come very close to living up to them.
– Early season injuries really hurt this Packers team, particularly the offense. The offensive line lacked continuity, with nine different combinations utilized over the first nine games. This, of course, led to pressure on Rodgers and an inconsistent run game. Watson and Doubs, meanwhile, rarely played together for a large portion of the season. On top of that, the receiver room as a whole dealt with a lot of injuries.
– The Packers’ third-down offense and red zone offense had plenty of issues this season. On third downs, the Packers ranked 17th overall, and that number looks as good as it does because of a late-season push. Inside the 20-yard line, they scored a touchdown on only 52% of their trips, which ranked 24th. The root of these issues can again be traced back to the passing game. Being in obvious passing situations on third down did not set this group up for success. Meanwhile, in the red zone, defenses took away the run game, and Green Bay didn’t have that go-to option in the passing game in those scenarios.
– Ultimately, the Packers’ offense couldn’t get out of their own way. During their four-game winning streak, it looked like they had overcome those woes, but in the must-win game against Detroit, these miscues were prevalent again. Dropped passes, penalties, losing the turnover battle, shaky blocking, and inaccurate passes from Rodgers. Early on and into the middle portion of the year, wrong routes were also very common.
– Prior to Watson’s emergence, the Packers had no legitimate deep threat on this team. This led to defenses playing quite aggressively by pressing the Green Bay receivers and also playing with heavier boxes. It becomes a lot more difficult to run the ball and lean on the quick passing game when the field is condensed.
– We didn’t see much complimentary football from this team outside of their four-game win streak. When the defense was getting steps, the offense couldn’t score. When the offense was finally moving the ball, the defense couldn’t get a stop. And special teams didn’t become a real threat until over halfway through the season. Just like all of the miscues mentioned above, this was a part of Green Bay’s demise against the Lions.
– Nobody is blaming the Packers’ schedule for how the season turned out, but it wasn’t exactly kind, either. LaFleur even said at one point that he questioned not taking the bye week following the trip to London. During Weeks five through nine, the Packers played in five different stadiums. Their opponent’s record at that time was 66-46, and a not-so-good Green Bay offense went up against some of the top defenses in the NFL.
What it means
From top to bottom, there was a giant disconnect on this Green Bay Packers team in 2022. It was never going to be easy, but Brian Gutekunst had a vision of how this team should look and operate without Davante Adams, but that never came to fruition and lived up to what he had hoped. The coaching staff wasn’t able to regularly put the players in the best positions to be successful, and many of the same issues we saw in Week 1, were still there in Week 18, which again, falls on coaching. And lastly, while it’s easy to blame coaching, many of the players simply didn’t play to the levels that we had anticipated.
For LaFleur, this offseason is going to be spent reexamining everything because once all said and done, this season was very much a disappointment.
“I want to make sure we cover everything with a fine-toothed comb,” said Matt LaFleur. “Look at every facet of our program, and what we’re doing, and what we’re asking guys to do. And not only that but the standards and expectations that we have in each area. I think that a lot of times when you have success, certain things can get covered up by winning games. I think everything has pretty much been exposed right now. So we will take a look at everything in terms of how we operate. It’s evident that whatever we did this year was not good enough.”
