From winning the Super Bowl to not making the playoffs, here's how national writers view the Green Bay Packers' chances in 2024

From winning the Super Bowl to not making the playoffs, here’s how national writers view the Green Bay Packers’ chances in 2024

Posted by Admin September 4, 2024 NFL

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The Green Bay Packers will be seen as one of the heavyweights in the 2024 NFL season, but will they even be seen as the favorite in the NFC North?

Here’s what experts around the internet had to say about Green Bay’s outlook:

The Ringer is extremely bullish on the Packers‘ chances

If you want to read a site that has high expectations for Green Bay’s 2024 season, this is the place for you.

Of the writers polled, Sheil Kapadia, Nora Princiotti, Austin Gayle, Lindsay Jones, Danny Heifetz and Steven Ruiz all picked the Packers to make it to the Super Bowl. Kapadia has the Packers falling to Cincinnati, with Heifetz, Gayle, Princiotti and Jones choosing Kansas City to prevail. Ruiz has the Packers winning it all.

Danny Kelly, meanwhile, picked Green Bay as a wild-card team and the Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl.

Jones and Kelly both think Matt LaFleur will win coach of the year.

“The Packers have an incredible young core on both sides of the ball and an ascending star quarterback in Love,” Kelly said. “If this team makes a big leap on offense, and crucially, shores up their defense, they’ll have a chance to improve dramatically from their 9-8 finish last year—and maybe even threaten for the top seed in the conference. LaFleur will finally get his long-overdue credit as one of the best young coaches in the game.”

The entire panel picks ex-Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers as the comeback player of the year.

Ruiz also makes the unconventional MVP choice of Wisconsin Badgers alumnus Jonathan Taylor, a running back with the Colts who Green Bay will see in Week 2. Kelly picks UW alumnus T.J. Watt to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Athletic’s poll of executives doesn’t say much about Packers

The Athletic polled 27 coaches and executives to ask them their thoughts about the upcoming season, and the Packers aren’t given much attention in the piece, though they did get some votes as a “team that will surprise (in a bad way).”

Mike Jones, in a separate article offering 10 bold predictions, forecasts the Packers leapfrogging the Lions.

“The Packers were the hottest team in the league during last season’s homestretch, and Jordan Love arrived as a bona fide franchise quarterback,” Jones wrote. “Look for Green Bay to continue its ascension this season. Love will garner MVP consideration as he and his talented, young targets continue to flourish in Matt LaFleur’s offense. New running back Josh Jacobs brings a sorely lacking workhorse element, and new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will infuse his unit with life. Not only will the Packers overtake the Lions as division champions, they just might find themselves contending for a trip to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX.”

The Packers are nonetheless ranked sixth, with the Lions second, in the site’s power rankings.

One Sports Illustrated guru picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl, though he’s admittedly kind of biased

Nine Sports Illustrated pundits took a swing at predicting how the postseason would lay out.

One (Andrew Brandt) picked the Packers to win the North and defeat the Baltimore Ravens in the Super Bowl. Brandt, it should be noted, is a former Packers employee and speaks fondly of his time working at Lambeau Field, even citing his “Packer bias” in his writeup about the 2024 predictions. He picks Jordan Love to be MVP, as well, and he does have his thought-out reasons.

“The team is loaded with young talent, a quarterback who finished the season playing as well as any in football, and selective free-agent acquisitions — Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney — who are difference makers,” Brandt wrote. “After routing the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, they were a couple of plays from beating the 49ers; this year they will not let that opportunity pass. The Packers, I believe, are one of four teams that will separate from the rest of the NFC, along with the Eagles, Lions and 49ers. The Cowboys, as usual, will have some moments that tantalize, but we know how their season will end. And, I believe, the NFC will finish where it starts next week: with the Eagles and Packers playing for the championship.”

One (Greg Bishop) put the wild-card-winning Packers into the Super Bowl and falling to Kansas City; he also picked Jordan Love as the league’s Offensive Player of the Year.

“In a series of difficult-to-call decisions, I picked the Packers to upset the Lions — Jordan Love will have a HUGE season and this, right here, begins his legend,” Bishop wrote. “And then I chose Love over Jalen Hurts in the conference championship. Even then, a disclaimer is required. It’s likely that if I sat down to do this exercise an hour from now, I’d see the NFC in a different light.”

The rest of the panel was mixed. Two saw the Packers reaching the NFC championship game as wild-card teams. Three had the wild-card Packers eliminated in the divisional round. Two had the Packers missing the playoffs entirely.

CBS Sports panelist picks a Super Bowl that would cause everyone to go crazy

Two of the six panelists asked about the NFC North at CBS Sports went with the Packers winning the division, while the other four favored the Lions. One panelist had the Packers taking third behind the Lions and Chicago Bears.

Three chose the Packers as wild-card teams, so five of six overall consider Green Bay a playoff team. Pete Prisco and Tyler Sullivan have Green Bay winning the Super Bowl over the Buffalo Bills and … oh boy, the New York Jets … respectively.

ESPN sees Packers as a top-tier team but not necessarily a powerhouse

ESPN’s power rankings regard Green Bay as the 10th-best team heading into the year. Seth Walder offers a bold prediction — that MarShawn Lloyd would take over the No. 1 running back spot from Josh Jacobs by season’s end.

ESPN’s full-season simulation featured a playoff upset at home against the Buccaneers in the wild-card round.

NFL.com puts Packers at No. 9

Eric Edholm’s preseason power rankings feature the Packers at No. 9.

“Jeff Hafley’s also a key figure as the new defensive coordinator, replacing Joe Barry — the most recent coordinator to be scapegoated in Titletown,” Edholm wrote. “Hafley’s regarded as a detail-oriented teacher and aggressive (aren’t they all?) play-caller. The former Boston College head coach must adjust to defending NFL offenses, but he seems to have a grasp of how they differ from college football systems. The Lions are Super Bowl contenders, the Bears are nipping at the Packers’ heels and the Vikings aren’t too far off the pace, so this division’s certainly no walk in the park. But if Green Bay’s defense and special teams are marginally better, and the offense keeps its November-through-January pace up, this could be a special season.”