Heading into the 2023 season, there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the Green Bay Packers offense. There is very little previous production to try and predict any outcomes as the team is going to be trotting out a historically inexperienced group.
Bill Barnwell of ESPN recently released his skill position rankings around the league. A bit surprisingly, he has the Packers ranked near the bottom, coming in at No. 28. That is a slight improvement from last year when they were 29th and a huge drop off from 2021 when they still had Davante Adams and were ranked 11th.
Part of the reason for where they are ranked is the sheer lack of experience. The quarterback depth chart has a combined total of 83 passes in the regular season, all Jordan Love, who enters Year 4 of his career as the starter for the first time.
He will be targeting almost exclusively players who have one or zero years of experience in the NFL. Barnwell shared an interesting tidbit on that, as only one team has fielded a younger group of pass catchers than Green Bay seems ready to and things didn’t go well for them.
“According to Mike Clay’s season-long projections and the age data from Pro Football Reference, the average Green Bay target for a wide receiver or tight end projects to go to a player who is 23.4 years old. That would see the team field the second-youngest corps of wide receivers and tight ends going back through 1990, behind only the 2017 Browns, who went 0-16. The Packers aren’t trying to tank, but they’ll be rolling out an even less experienced quarterback group to throw to those receivers than the Browns had in 2017.”
The leading receiver on that Browns team was running back Duke Johnson with 693 yards. Second and third were tight ends Seth Devalve and David Njoku. Fourth is where the first wide receiver came, as Ricardo Louis had 357 yards.
That kind of ineptitude through the air would be shocking to see from the Packers. Their group may be young, but the upside is there. Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs both had flashes during their rookie campaign and will be looking to find more consistency in Year 2.
Working against the Packers in these rankings is that their best position, running back with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, is weighted significantly less than wide receiver. But, as Barnwell points out, even that wouldn’t have helped them much this year.
“The saving grace for the Packers in previous years might have been their running back rotation, but they underwhelmed last season. Aaron Jones averaged 5.3 yards per carry, but the veteran fumbled five times on 272 touches, leading the team to push through a pay cut. AJ Dillon’s yards per carry and yards per catch dropped for the second consecutive season, and he generated minus-35 rushing yards over expected to Jones’ 88. The hope was that Dillon might turn into Derrick Henry as a pro — and the Titans star didn’t break out until the second half of his third season — but Dillon took a step backwards a year ago. A Packers team hoping to take the pressure off Love will need the former second-round pick to have a breakout season in 2023.”
The potential to shoot up Barnwell’s rankings is certainly there. Matt LaFleur and his staff have their work cut out for them to develop the young, talented players they have on the roster.
A bounce back from the running back duo would do wonders for the team on the field as the most experienced players on the offense. Jones and Dillon will be relied upon heavily, especially in the early going, to try and take some of the pressure off of Love and the other youngsters.