Heading into Week 8, the Green Bay Packers are in dire need of answers. The Packers enter their matchup against the Minnesota Vikings on the heels of a three-game losing streak. Last week, they fell to the lowly Denver Broncos 19-17. It’s not just the fact they lost, it’s how they have played in the past three games. It has many Packers fans wondering who is to blame for the team’s struggles. While head coach Matt LaFleur is at the forefront to blame, he isn’t alone.
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Matt LaFleur One of Many Issues With Green Bay Packers
For some, it appears the expectations they set for the Packers going into 2023 were overblown. Many believed that the Packers might vie for a 2023 playoff spot, just because they play in what they thought was a weak division. Unfortunately, those who expected a playoff franchise overestimated the talent and coaching on this team.
Take the quarterback position for example. Former starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers was only able to guide the Packers to a 6-10 record during his first season under center. Included in that, the weapons that Rodgers had around him were better than what the Packers currently have on their roster. So to expect Jordan Love, who isn’t nearly as talented as Rodgers, to carry the franchise as Rodgers did to the playoffs was downright foolish.
The 2023 Packers entered the season with a new quarterback, a young and inexperienced roster, and the return of a defensive coordinator who seems to be over his head. Why should that lead you to believe this is a playoff-caliber franchise? But what Packers fans should be upset about is the current lack of effort and lack of identity. That is why Matt LaFleur has earned criticism.
Matt LaFleur’s Failures as an Offensive Playcaller
As we previously wrote, the Green Bay Packers offense lacks an identity. Many will point to the young offensive roster, but in reality, that’s no excuse. For an offensive mind like Matt LaFleur, who has been given a lot of credit as a playcaller, he needs to get the best out of what he has, which is something he hasn’t achieved in 2023.
LaFleur has preached the importance of establishing the ground game. But for as much as he has preached it, he just hasn’t done it. Even when starting running back Aaron Jones is available and healthy, LaFleur hasn’t called his number nearly as much as he should. The one game he did try to establish the run, against the Las Vegas Raiders, he did it with backup running back A.J. Dillon. One of the things that makes a great playcaller is the ability to adapt a game plan. It’s one of the biggest things that LaFleur hasn’t done.
The passing game is just as bad. It was understandable that Matt LaFleur wanted to take things slow with the inexperienced Love. But eventually, you need to take the training wheels off, something LaFleur has refused to do. In the last three games, the scheme that LaFleur has run is something you would see out of an NFL team in preseason action.
For a roster that claimed to be “fast and athletic“, you wouldn’t know it with what LaFleur is doing on offense. LaFleur’s offense has become “dink and dunk”, rarely looking for the big plays downfield. With fast pass catchers like Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Luke Musgrave at his disposal, you would think he would dial up more passes downfield. But yet, LaFleur has failed to do so.
Getting His Players Ready to Play
It isn’t just the fact that the Packers have lost three straight. But it’s the way that they have lost them that should scare and puzzle Packers fans.
While the score from their loss to the Detroit Lions, 34-20, makes it appear it was close, it wasn’t. In front of their home crowd, the Packers were dominated in all facets of the game. The Lions punched the Packers right in the mouth and the Packers folded. The Lions were tougher and appeared to be better prepared. That falls on Matt LaFleur, the head coach, for not having his team ready to play.
That lack of preparedness continued the following weeks against the Raiders and the Broncos. On paper, the Packers were the more talented team. But you wouldn’t have known it by the way the Packers played. It appeared that Green Bay was just going through the motions of playing the game. Yes, the players need to take some responsibility for that. But it’s up to the head coach to have his team prepared and ready to go. LaFleur failed to do so.
With David Bakhtiari, De’Vondre Campbell, and Aaron Jones battling injuries, LaFleur doesn’t have the luxury of many veterans to lean on. But for someone in his fifth season as an NFL head coach, he should be able to motivate his team, even with the lack of veterans on his roster. It isn’t like LaFleur didn’t know this was coming. It was established after the trade of Rodgers that he would have a young roster this season.
Overestimated the Talent of the Roster
As we said early on in this article, Matt LaFleur isn’t alone when it comes to blame. With how poorly this season is going, it’s about time to wonder if the Packers overestimated how talented this roster is.
There is a reason the Packers have the youngest roster in the NFL this season. It’s due to the lack of success Brian Gutekunst had in his first three draft classes as the general manager. From 2018 to 2020, Gutekunst selected 28 players. Out of those 28 players, only eight of those are still with the Packers. That includes just the one, Jaire Alexander, from the 2018 draft class. For a team that depends on the draft to be the core of their roster, that is a massive failure.
When NFL teams struggle with their drafts, as Gutekunst has, they balance it out by signing free agents. But because the Packers salary cap struggles, they aren’t able to do that. Russ Ball, vice president/director of football operations, is given a lot of credit for being a “salary cap wizard”. But the numbers don’t lie. The Packers don’t have the salary cap space to add veteran help to their young roster.
While many are quick to blame LaFleur for the current state of the Packers, he’s far from the only culprit. That help came in the way that Gutekunst and Ball built this roster. The roster was going to be young, but it didn’t need to be this young.
LaFleur and Company Aren’t Going Anywhere
If you are a listener to Packers podcasts, especially ones that air daily, you would think the world was coming to an end. The same people who expected a playoff team are now forecasting that the Packers will be dismantled this offseason. Here are some of the overreactions heard this week.
- LaFleur should give up play calling to wide receivers coach Jason Vrable. Even though the wide receivers group has struggled this season.
- LaFleur is on the hot seat and might be let go this off-season.
- LaFleur might be let go during the season and replaced by Rich Bisaccia.
- After just one season of starting, Jordan Love will be replaced by a first-round quarterback from the 2024 NFL Draft.
Each one of these statements is laughable and just isn’t going to happen. Matt LaFleur, Jordan Love, and even Brian Gutekunst aren’t going anywhere. That just isn’t how the Packers do business. Sure, President Mark Murphy will be retiring in 2025 and wants to leave on a high note. But it was his choice to hire Matt LaFleur and promote Gutekunst to general manager. There is no way that he is going to blow up the franchise and start over from scratch.
The Packers organization made an error by not admitting that this season would be the first year of a rebuild. But they won’t make mistakes even worse by blowing the organization up, after Love’s first year as the starting quarterback.
Packers fans might not want to hear this, but Matt LaFleur, Brian Gutekunst, and Jordan Love will continue to be the faces of the Packers organization after this season. LaFleur, Gutekunst, and even Ball have made some mistakes. But it will be their responsibility to fix what they screwed up. For Packer fans, they will need to be patient. If things don’t get fixed by the end of next season, then they should expect a major shake-up to this organization.
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