There are a lot of question marks surrounding the Green Bay Packers offense heading into the 2023 season. The biggest one is if Jordan Love is capable of replacing Aaron Rodgers as the team’s starting quarterback.
That is a tall task, one that Rodgers knows well. Just like Love, he had to replace a future Hall of Famer who was traded to the New York Jets in Brett Favre. Carrying on the legacy of 30 years of Hall of Fame production under center certainly won’t be easy for Love.
He won’t have the luxury of an experienced supporting cast helping keep him afloat, either. Aaron Jones is the only skill position player on the roster that is not on a rookie contract. Every wide receiver has one or fewer years of experience in the NFL and all three players currently on the tight end depth chart have zero NFL snaps.
Love certainly has his work cut out for him, but he has the luxury of working with Matt LaFleur. He is entering Year 4 in the system, which he should know like the back of his hand at this point. LaFleur has been calling plays throughout his tenure as the Packers’ head coach, but there has been some mystery about how much Rodgers changed while on the field.
That will no longer he questioned with Love taking over, as LaFleur’s offense is going to look more like it was intended. “Offensively, you’re going to see probably a little bit more of Matt’s true offense. Obviously, when you have a great quarterback like Aaron and somebody who’s been in the league as long as he has, we gave him the flexibility to change plays and get in and out of things that really helped, but I would anticipate a strong running game and off of that,” Packers president Mark Murphy said earlier this summer.
One thing that assuredly isn’t going to change is that LaFleur is going to continue making sure that the ball gets in the hands of his most important playmakers. As pointed out by Rob Demovsky of ESPN, that is something the Packers have done very well under LaFleur’s watch.
“The Packers have gotten the ball to their playmakers under LaFleur, ranking second in the NFL in percent of receiving yards coming after the catch (52%) in the past four seasons.”
No matter who is under center, that is something that the Packers will always have from their pass catchers. While that group doesn’t have much NFL experience, they certainly aren’t lacking in talent and athleticism.
Christian Watson has a rare blend of size and speed that has given opponents headaches all offseason. Rookie tight end Luke Musgrave has elite athletic numbers for a tight end, which has been on display all training camp as well. Fellow rookie Jayden Reed looks ready to step into a regular slot role from Day 1, where he will rack up YAC regularly as well.
