The Green Bay Packers’ bye week is officially in the rearview mirror, and we can get ready to lock in for 13 consecutive weeks of Packers football. The Packers sit at a funky 2-1-1 record. It has been well-documented at this point how different the first two games of the season played out compared to the next two.
Green Bay looked like one of the best teams in football in Weeks 1 and 2, followed by an abysmal offensive display in Week 3 and an equally awful defensive performance in Week 4 in the tie with the Dallas Cowboys.
We have seen some outstanding individual performances by players throughout the entire season. Players such as Jordan Love and Romeo Doubs have shined, while others are hoping to put the first quarter of the season behind them.
Below are some players the Packers will need to see significant improvement from if they want to course-correct after the bye.
Elgton Jenkins
We could include every member of the offensive line on here because none of them have been good.
There isn’t a more disappointing position group on the team this season than the five up front. Jenkins lands on this list because he is the elder statesman in the room, and he’s also the only one to play every snap of the season. Because of his veteran status and with him being the most consistent presence up front, the Packers need far more from Jenkins than they have received.
The two-time Pro Bowl guard transitioned to center this offseason, and not without demanding compensation for the move. It hasn’t been the type of transition that the Packers, nor Jenkins, would have hoped for to this point.
According to Pro Football Focus, Jenkins has allowed more sacks in four games than he has in the last two seasons combined. On top of that, his 64.7 pass-blocking grade is the worst of his entire career. Jenkins is sporting a 59 PFF grade, which is good for just 32nd out of 48 qualified centers.
The move to center, where Jenkins played in college, should have been much smoother. You have to wonder if missing most of the offseason program due to his holdout is having an effect on him that he didn’t anticipate. Taking on a new position at the professional level requires serious preparation, and it’s possible that Jenkins underestimated how demanding the change would be.
Since he has been in the NFL, the Packers have lined him up at left guard, right tackle, and left tackle. I’ve never played center before, but something tells me it’s pretty demanding. Being responsible for all the checks at the line of scrimmage can take some getting used to, and perhaps Jenkins settles in soon. The Packers need him to.
One half of Green Bay’s big free-agent signings this offseason, Nate Hobbs, has not lived up to the hype four games into his Packers career. After missing the first game of the season due to a knee procedure at the start of camp, Hobbs hasn’t looked like he is fully healed yet.
He made his Packers debut in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders and played 32 defensive snaps, but only recorded a solo tackle. He had one of the worst performances of his career in Green Bay’s last game against the Cowboys. He gave up two touchdowns while in coverage, allowed five catches for 57 yards, and had a 145.8 passer rating. That performance earned a 61-overall defensive grade and a woeful 51.6 PFF coverage grade.
Among 63 cornerbacks who have played as many snaps as Hobbs at this point in the season, only 12 of them have a worse expected points allowed per snap according to NFL Pro’s data. When the Packers signed the former Las Vegas Raiders corner to a four-year, $48 million deal, he looked like a natural replacement for Jaire Alexander, who’s also having a bad season. However, Hobbs has been far from that.
Perhaps the Packers should consider moving Hobbs to the inside and see if that can unlock the player he was with the Las Vegas Raiders. Hobbs played 808 snaps there when he was in Vegas compared to just 215 on the outside, where he has played exclusively in Green Bay. Assuming he is cleared from the concussion suffered in the Cowboys game, Jeff Hafley needs Hobbs to be the player the Packers thought they were getting in free agency.
Unlike Jenkins and Hobbs, I’m not including Cooper here because I think he’s playing poorly. It’s more because he’s playing sloppy football. He’s missing multiple tackles every game, something he didn’t do last season on his way to an All-Rookie selection.
According to PFF, 61 linebackers have played at least 150 defensive snaps this season, and Cooper has the sixth-highest missed tackle rate at 23.2%. No player in the NFL this season has more missed tackles than Cooper’s 10. In their last contest against the Cowboys, Cooper missed three. For some context, he was credited with 16 missed tackles all of last season.
Cooper is also making fewer impact plays compared to his rookie season, specifically tackles for loss. In 2024, Cooper led all off-the-ball linebackers in tackles for loss with 13. However, he hasn’t registered any this year. Zip, nada, zilch. Cooper took the Packers fanbase by storm in the second half of last season when he finally became a starter and a permanent fixture on defense. On top of the All-Rookie selection, he also logged an All-Pro vote. He’s a superstar in the making and can be a massive difference-maker for Green Bay’s defense. Hopefully, he turns it around post bye, and he isn’t stuck in a sophomore slump this entire season. He is too important to the middle of the Packers defense to regress.
The Packers still have everything in front of them as we enter Week 6. After this weekend’s games, they hold the eighth-best record in the NFL and have some completely winnable football games coming up over the next two weeks against the struggling Cincinnati Bengals and the Arizona Cardinals. If these three starters can even make small incremental improvements each week, then both sides of the football will improve.
