Rasul Douglas was honest about his former teammates coming out of the early Week 6 bye. “They’re not young,” he said. “And if they are, they gotta grow up. It ain’t no such thing as being young. You had, what, five games? That’s enough.…We got to do whatever it takes to win.” At the time, the Green Bay Packers’ season had been a mixed bag, with a pair of thrilling wins and a trio of abhorrent losses. Heading into Denver to face a franchise in shambles, it felt like the season was on the line. Not only was Douglas the loudest and clearest voice of leadership off the field, but he was one of the few players on the team at the top of his game.
Now the Packers are 2-5. It’s not a mathematically insurmountable record, but it’s a rough place to be given who they’ve lost to. With that in mind, Brian Gutekunst gladly took the opportunity to land another top-100 selection in April’s draft and traded Douglas to the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday. Given his age, contract, and level of play so far, he was one of the few guys who made any sense to move. But trading him in particular, a locker room leader devoted to turning things around, sends quite the message about how the front office views this season.
It’s over.
As for Jordan Love, Gutekunst said these last 10 games are “very important.” The headline there is that he was non-committal. Despite the extent to which Love may represent his legacy as general manager in the long-term, the quality of his play and the fact that Green Bay continues to creep up in that 2024 draft order have left him no choice but to keep his options open.
The one boost of serotonin that Packers fans have been provided amid a season in disarray and a farewell to a fan favorite has been the extension that Rashan Gary signed on Monday. The 25-year-old will officially take part in the rebuilding process that will ideally have Green Bay back on the road to contention in 2025. It’s worth noting that he’s part of an exciting young core on both sides of the ball. With so many pieces in place, many of whom such as Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave, Devonte Wyatt, and Lukas Van Ness simply need time and reps to develop, a plug-and-play solution at quarterback must feel appealing.
Love is under contract through 2024 after signing a two-year extension this offseason, which uniquely solved the quagmire that was his fifth-year option. Having to lay the groundwork for his second contract last offseason despite having so few answers was a challenge, but also a reminder that he isn’t a rookie. Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson are rookies, and their respective teams put them under center without a lot of expectations in the near-term. In contrast, the Packers expected to be competitive and, at the very least, beat teams like the Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos.
Love’s receivers, offensive line, or head coach haven’t been at their best. Still, the Packers currently hold the sixth-overall pick in 2024’s draft, and he bears a lot of responsibility for that. Coincidentally (and inconveniently for him), the dark road he is marching them down leads right into one of the better quarterback classes in recent memory. USC’s Caleb Williams is, without question, the belle of the ball. For as poorly as the Packers have played, his services will be quite difficult to obtain given the quantity of ugly records, quarterback situations, and organizations that stand between them and first-overall pick. The Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears (both on their own pick and via Carolina), and the New England Patriots are among the biggest threats.
Williams certainly isn’t the only player who will have teams jockeying in the closing weeks of the season. A bit of a downturn in his and Trojans’ play has brought his odds to be the first off the board down to a more reasonable -360. North Carolina’s Drake Maye is immediately behind him. There’s a bit of a drop-off after that, but Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are all viewed highly by just about the whole industry.
The stage is set for a showdown: Jordan Love versus the NFL draft order. He has 10 games to prove that he deserves to continue growing alongside his young receiving corps. A lot of how he will do that is with his film, accuracy, and decision-making. All of which have been up and down to this point. That’s another thing Gutekunst acknowledged. But, most of all, he has to prove that he can win games.
If he wins enough to pull the Packers out of Williams and Maye territory, he’s got a much better chance to continue his reign as Aaron Rodgers’ successor. If he goes as far as to make Penix, McCarthy, and Ewers hard to obtain, he’ll have earned himself another year. His prize could even be an elite Round 1 pass-catcher like Marvin Harrison Jr, Brock Bowers, or Malik Nabers. However, pundits expect Harrison to go in the top five.
We haven’t seen a whole lot of the tanking trade-off that has become tradition for many other teams, especially in the NFC North. It’s just not the type of thing that a team led by Aaron Rodgers indulged in, even in the seasons during which he missed numerous games. The highest Green Bay has gotten since picking B.J. Raji ninth-overall in 2009 was when they selected Gary with the 12th pick. As the precipitous slide well into the top 10 continues, it’s on Love to show some progress and some upside as he hopefully starts to send things in the other direction. Until then, everything is on the table.
