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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Zach Kruse

What went right and what went wrong for the 2024 Packers

The Green Bay Packers improved from 9-8 in 2023 to 11-6 in 2024, but Matt LaFleur’s team still finished third in the NFC North and ended up losing all six games to the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions — including a 22-10 defeat to the Eagles in the NFC Wild Card Round.

Last year, the Packers stormed into the postseason, wiped the floor with the Dallas Cowboys to open the playoffs and nearly upset the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. In 2024, the Packers improved in many areas statistically but ended up losing three straight games during a highly disappointing finish.

Here’s what went right, what went wrong and what it means for the Packers moving forward:

What went right

— The Packers produced 31 takeaways, good for fourth in the NFL and up from only 18 in 2023. Signing Xavier McKinney (who produced nine of the takeaways) and drafting Edgerrin Cooper (who created four others) provided a huge boost for Jeff Hafley’s defense in Year 1. Matt LaFleur wanted more takeaways in 2024, and he got them in a big way. The Packers finished second in the NFL in points off takeaways.

— Josh Jacobs was a star at running back. The Packers moved on from Aaron Jones and actually upgraded at the position. Jacobs was among the league leaders in forced missed tackles, yards after firsts contact, total yards and total touchdowns. Even behind a sometimes shaky offensive line blocking for the run, Jacobs still feasted. He was especially good at converting touchdowns inside the 10-yard line.

— The Packers took a big step forward defensively in Hafley’s first season. Green Bay improved from 10th to 6th in points per game, from 20th to 5th in yards per play, from 27th to 7th in DVOA, from 24th to 4th in EPA per play, from 17th to 5th in yards per game, from 23rd to 4th in takeaways and from 22nd to 3rd in yard per carry allowed.

— Tucker Kraft emerged as a legitimate weapon at tight end. He ascending to the starting role to open the 2024 season and proved his might every step of the way, catching 50 passes for 707 yards and seven scores. He was terrific as a blocker on the move and a monster after the catch. LaFleur said he thinks Kraft can be an elite tight end and was regretful for not getting him the ball more in 2024.

— The Packers were explosive at times on offense. Overall, Green Bay finished fourth in the NFL in explosive plays, fourth in runs of 12 or more yards, fourth in completions of 20 or more yards and second in completions of 50 or more yards.

— Edgerrin Cooper looks like a future star. The rookie played in 14 games and was on the field for less than 500 snaps, but he still finished with 13 tackles for loss — the second most among off-ball linebackers in the NFL — and 3.5 sacks. He plays fast, has disruptive instincts against the run and consistently made game-changing plays. If he can smooth over some of the down-to-down consistency issues, Cooper can be a star as soon as the 2025 season.

— The Packers solved big issues at backup quarterback and kicker. Malik Willis won two games as a starter, helped the Packers come back and win a third game after entering the game for Jordan Love and nearly beat the Bears late in the season finale. He’ll enter 2025 as a solid secondary option behind Love. At kicker, the Brayden Narveson experiment lasted only six games, but signing veteran Brandon McManus stabilized the position. He made all but one regular season kick, including all 30 extra points and all three field goals over 50 yards. He’s expected back in 2025.

— The Packers swept the AFC South and NFC West, including wins over the Rams and Texans.

— Three different players averaged more than 10.0 yards per target — Jayden Reed, Christian Watson and Tucker Kraft.

— Collectively, the Packers broke a ton of tackles. Josh Jacobs and Tucker Kraft were particularly hard to get tackled. The offense often thrived off Jacobs’ yards after contact and Kraft’s yards after the catch.

— After trading away Preston Smith, the Packers got 4.0 sacks in seven games from Brenton Cox Jr., an emerging young edge rusher who could have a chance to be a major player up front in 2025.

— Karl Brooks blocked a field goal as time expired to preserve a win over the Bears at Soldier Field, and Brandon McManus hit two game-winning field goals.

— The Packers were 7-1 when scoring 30 or more points and 9-0 when allowing fewer than 20 points.

What went wrong

— The Packers surged to 11-4 with a 34-0 shutout win over the Saints but then lost three straight games to end the season. LaFleur’s team dropped a chance to beat the Vikings, snapped their win streak over the Bears and lost by 12 points to the Eagles in a mistake-filled postseason defeat.

— The Packers lost all six games to the Eagles, Vikings and Lions — three teams that won at least 14 regular season games. Green Bay was a good team but consistently failed against the league’s great teams in 2024.

— Quarterback Jordan Love suffered three different injuries, including a ligament tear in his knee in Week 1, a groin injury in Week 8 and an elbow injury in Week 18. His mobility was limited and he missed precious practice time during the first half of the season. Playing through injury is part of playing quarterback at a high level, but Love’s 2024 season was so clearly sabotaged by consistently poor injury luck.

— Love finished with only 17 “big time throws,” a significant drop from his 37 in 2023.

— The defensive front struggled to consistently pressure the quarterback. The Packers finished with 45 sacks, a respectable number, but 20 of the sacks came in three games, and the Packers ranked 20th in both pressure rate and average time to throw for opposing quarterbacks. All great defenses must be able to pressure with the front four, and the Packers couldn’t in most big spots in 2024.

— Cornerback Jaire Alexander played in only seven games. He injured his knee late in Week 8, and the injury devastated the rest of his season. He played only 10 snaps the rest of the way. Without their top corner, the Packers had to consistently shuffle the secondary and were without a difference maker at corner. Alexander’s future in Green Bay is now in serious doubt.

— Self-sabotage was a common theme in big games. So much of winning big games is simply not doing things to lose those games, and the Packers couldn’t get out of their own ways far too often. Penalties, drops, self-inflicted mistakes. The Packers beat themselves over and over again in 2024. Maybe that’s the next step for a young team learning how to win — learning how not to lose.

— The Packers dropped way too many passes. By nearly every stat tracker, the Packers were among the league leaders in drops. Per PFF, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks combined for 18 drops, the most among teammates. Reed finished with 10 drops, the third most among all players, while Wicks led all players in drop percentage. Jordan Love had the third highest drop percentage among all quarterbacks.

— The Packers were highly conservative on fourth down, attempting only 16 fourth down conversions. In an era when good teams are getting more and more aggressive on fourth down and gaining more and more value from winning the high leverage situations, the Packers went in the opposite direction in 2024.

— The special teams improved in several areas, including kickoff coverage and punting, and Brandon McManus helped fix the kicker problems. But the Packers still finished 32nd in overall special teams grade at PFF, suggesting the third phase is still an issue now three years into Rich Bisaccia era. Green Bay missed 30 tackles, had 21 penalties and made several critical late-season mistakes on special teams.

— Receiver Christian Watson suffered a significant knee injury in the season finale and will likely miss most of the 2025 season. Watson, who caught 29 passes but averaged over 21 yards per catch in 2024, will go into a contract year in 2025.

What it all means

In the end, one could easily argue the Packers took a meaningful step forward as a football team but also missed a great opportunity to build on the late-season success of 2023. While the Packers made terrific outside additions and improved in several areas, Jordan Love dealt with injuries during a rocky second season as a starter, the young receivers stagnated, the defensive front disappointed, the team’s No. 1 cornerback missed most of the season and the special teams were inconsistent and made big mistakes late in the year. Most of the year didn’t go to plan but the Packers still won 11 regular-season games and made the postseason. From this point on, however, success can’t be measured in postseason appearances. Brian Gutekunst thinks this team is ready to compete for championships. That starts with more consistency during the regular season, winning big games in November and December, securing the NFC North title and making noise in the postseason. Another offseason similar to the last — when Gutekunst added a couple of impact starters via free agency and got instant playmakers from the draft class — is required. This team is close. But how close? Despite a disappointing finish to 2024, expectations for 2025 should still be sky high.

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