The biggest change at quarterback in the NFL entering the 2023 season will happen once the Green Bay Packers agree to a trade to send out quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
It seems like a formality at this point, and quarterback Jordan Love will enter stage left and into the spotlight for the Packers.
Love is still a relative unknown quantity, which explains why Green Bay’s over/under win total according to FanDuel is 7.5 wins. But the over 7.5 wins is appetizing when looking at big-time quarterback questions haunting the teams Green Bay will be playing.
While plenty of eyeballs around the league will focus on Love in 2023, the Packers will square up against plenty of teams similarly trying to pull out a golden ticket with an untested QB — or they have underwhelming options in place.
Start with the NFC South. Green Bay will face each team from the NFC South, and it’s not exactly a murderer’s row of quarterbacks.
The Packers will welcome the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Lambeau Field in 2023.
The Saints signed former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr to a four-year deal. The Bucs signed former No. 1-overall pick Baker Mayfield to a one-year deal.
Carr has been in the NFL since 2014, spending each year as the starter for the Raiders before coming to the Saints. He has zero career playoff wins. Mayfield was the No. 1 pick just five years ago in 2018, but this will be his fourth pitstop in what has been a roller coaster of a career so far.
With Carr and Mayfield, it’s less about the unknowns and more about the underwhelming quality of play. While Love is a question mark for the Packers, facing Carr and Mayfield isn’t exactly equivalent to facing Josh Allen or Joe Burrow. New Orleans and Tampa will be good opportunities for Green Bay to pick up wins.
To wrap up the NFC South, the Packers will hit the road to face the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons.
The Panthers signed quarterback Andy Dalton in the offseason and currently hold the No. 1 pick in the draft. All indicators point towards Carolina taking a quarterback with the top selection.
Meanwhile, the Marcus Mariota experiment didn’t work out for the Falcons in 2022. Now the franchise seems set on giving 2022 third-round pick Desmond Ridder a full season to prove his worth. Ridder started four games last year and had just two passing touchdowns.
Regardless whether it’s Dalton or the No. 1 pick and then Ridder in Atlanta, these will be more opportunities for Love and the Packers to scoop up wins that aren’t far-fetched.
It’s not just the NFC South matchups at quarterback that make the over on 7.5 wins for the Packers an intriguing proposition. In fact, it’s quite alarming just how many teams are in the dark about who they have at quarterback, or else have a middling option. And a lot of them appear on Green Bay’s schedule this year.
As for the “middling options” category, the Packers will face the Raiders and New York Giants this year. Las Vegas lost Carr and signed quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a three-year contract. In the blink of an eye, they went from one average-to-slightly-above-average quarterback to another.
Garoppolo was good in San Francisco. But he was the type of quarterback who can help a well-balanced team win if he doesn’t make any mistakes. However, there were the times that the 49ers won games because of Garoppolo’s spectacular play.
Meanwhile, the Giants are putting a ton of eggs into the Daniel Jones basket. The former first-round pick signed a lucrative four-year deal this offseason worth $160 million, with $92 million guaranteed. Jones has been the model of inconsistency. In his first taste of the NFL playoffs this past year, he looked brilliant and in control against the Minnesota Vikings, only to look lost and frantic the next week against the Philadelphia Eagles.
For New York, it could’ve been a case of How much better can we really do at the position right now? that had them forking over that sort of money to Jones. Either way, a trip to face the Giants won’t be easy for the Packers. But it’s not an impossible task, either.
To put a bow on the unknowns on the docket, Green Bay will get chances to face off against Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields twice and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Fields dazzled with his speed last year, but he also quarterbacked the team who had the worst record in the NFL. Certainly, the roster was largely devoid of talent, and Fields was one of the reasons they were able to have some great moments. But many questions about his passing acumen remain.
Getting wide receiver D.J. Moore this offseason to go with Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney could be the start of something special in the wideout room in Chicago. Inking tight end Robert Tonyan helps a lot too. The Bears are now supplying Fields with plenty of weapons, and it’s time to answer those lingering questions.
Pickett had a typical up-and-down rookie season, and while there’s no doubt the Steelers will give him every opportunity to be the guy, there’s still a bit of waffling outside the building as to whether or not he will manifest into a stud.
There’s a changing of the guard taking place at 1265 Lombardi Ave., and it’s a massive one. With all the questions swirling around Love and what he will or won’t be at quarterback, there are just as many on the slate for Green Bay’s opponents in 2023. Even if you believe, like most, that the first year for Love will have plenty of peaks valleys, the schedule is spread out in a way that makes the over 7.5 win total seem eminently possible.
