GREEN BAY PACKERS 2022 WIN PREDICTION

BY ADAM GREENE

It’s a tale as old as time, or certainly as old as Aaron Rodgers’ stint as a starting quarterback. After reeling off an elite regular season, amassing a 13-4 record and securing home field advantage in the playoffs, Green Bay once again watched a San Francisco 49ers team celebrate a playoff victory, this time at Lambeau Field.

In the Rodgers era, the 49ers have knocked the Pack out of the playoffs four times, twice at home. On the bright side, this loss came in the NFC Divisional Round. Green Bay’s previous three playoff losses all happened in the NFC Championship.

Their lone Super Bowl title with Rodgers at QB happened as a Wild Card team with all their victories coming on the road.

It’s difficult to find a bright spot for a No. 1 seed that was one-and-done in the postseason, losing 13-10 and only scoring one touchdown in spite of fielding the guy that can claim, unironically, to being the best regular season quarterback in NFL history. That’s right. “Regular season.” Let that burn a bit, much like that first worthless dose of horse de-wormer.  

Last year opened with an embarrassing 38-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints, but Green Bay reeled off seven consecutive wins after, only to see their streak end in a 13-7 loss to Kansas City after Rodgers, who had lied about his COVID-19 vaccination status all season, caught the virus at a Halloween party he threw for himself.

They would drop two games the rest of the season — their usual road loss at the Minnesota Vikings and a Week 18 37-30 defeat at the paws of the Detroit Lions, when the Pack rested starters in the second half of a meaningless game.

Rodgers was named to the Pro Bowl, was a first-team All Pro and won NFL MVP with a 68.9 completion percentage, 4,115 yards, 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions. AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones had a pretty even split in the backfield. Dillon had 803 yards and five touchdowns with 313 yards receiving and two receiving touchdowns. Jones finished with 799 yards, four touchdowns and added 391 yards through the air and six receiving TDs.

Devante Adams notched his own first-team All Pro and Pro Bowl nod with 123 catches, 1,553 yards and 11 touchdowns. No other receiver on the team had more than 513 yards.

Defensively the team finished No. 13 in points allowed and No. 9 in yardage allowed. Rashan Gary led the squad with 9.5 sacks. Preston Smith racked up nine sacks on the other side.

GREEN BAY PACKERS

Last season: 13-4, NFC North Champion

Odds: Over 10.5 wins (-155), Under 10.5 wins (+125)

2022 NFL Draft: Quay Walker, LB, Georgia (Round 1), Devonte Wyatt, DT, Georgia (Round 1), Christian Watson, WR, North Dakota State (Round 2), Sean Rhyan, OL, UCLA (Round 4), Zach Tom, OL, Wake Forest (Round 4), Kingsley Enagbare, LB, South Carolina (Round 5), Tariq Carpenter, Safety, Georgia Tech (Round 7), Jonathan Ford, DT, Miami (Round 7), Rasheed Walker, OT, Penn State (Round 7), Samori Toure, WR, Nebraska (Round 7)

2022 Additions: Pat O’Donnel, Punter (free agent), Jarran Reed, DT (free agent), Sammy Watkins, WR (free agent), Dallin Leavitt, Safety (free agent), Keisean Nixon, CB (free agent)

Projected Starters

Offense

QB: Aaron Rodgers

RB: Aaron Jones

WR: Randall Cobb

WR: Sammy Watkins

WR: Allen Lazard

TE: Robert Tonyan

LT: David Bakhtiari

LG: Jon Runyan

C: Josh Myers

RG: Royce Newman

RT: Elgton Jenkins

Defense

LDE: Dean Lowry

NT: Kenny Clark

RDE: Jarran Reed

WLB: Preston Smith

LILB: De’Vondre Campbell

RILB: Quay Walker

SLB: Rashan Gary

CB: Eric Stokes

CB: Jaire Alexander

SS: Adrian Amos

FS: Darnell Savage

Special Teams

PK: Mason Crosby

P: Pat O’Donnell

PR: Amari Rodgers

KR: Amari Rodgers

PREVIEW

After years of contention between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, the Ivermectin was finally buried this offseason when the future first ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer and exotic South American hallucinogenic drug enthusiast agreed on a new contract that will, barring a Rodgers freak out over something ridiculous, keep him in Green Bay for the rest of his career.

Then, barely before the ink was dry, the Pack sent Rodgers’ best receiver, Devonte Adams, to the Las Vegas Raiders in a trade. A trade that, while landing multiple first round picks, added next to nothing Green Bay needed to offset the loss of the guy who might be one of the two or three best receivers to ever wear their jersey.

They signed Sammy Watkins and drafted Christian Watson in the second round, but this is a huge drop off from Adams, a guy that was, at worst, the second best wide receiver in the league. They’ve spent the early part of training camp trying to hype up Allen Lazard and let me just say, don’t do that. Stop embarrassing yourselves.

Lazard and Randall Cobb are the only WR contributors returning. It’s possible that Amari Rodgers might finally get a real shot to play, but this is a team that will struggle to replace a guy that accounted for more than 1,500 yards in receiving a year ago and scored 11 touchdowns. That doesn’t sound like Allen Lazard to me.

Working in Green Bay’s favor, as usual, is their schedule. While the Vikings always give them problems, the other teams in the NFC North rarely do. Aaron Rodgers’ paternity over the Chicago Bears has ben unquestioned for years and as excited as people seem to be about the Detroit Lions thanks to some Hard Knocks sing-offs, I don’t see them making that big a ripple this season.

Looking at the Pack’s schedule, I can see them losing their opener at the Vikes, winning when the host Chicago before dropping to a 1-2 start with a visit to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After that, it’s nothing but victories until they run into the Buffalo Bills meatgrinder on Oct. 30. Still, they’ll enter November 5-3.

Down the final stretch of the season, I see a sweep of the Lions (unless they’ve got their playoff positioning in the bag heading into Week 18). Outside of the Lions, the only roadblocks in the last month of the season are hosting the Los Angeles Rams, traveling to the Miami Dolphins and another match up with Minnesota, this time at Lambeau.

Regardless of the offensive losses, this looks like an AFC North championship team, but probably not one vying for home field advantage in the playoffs. Not that it ever does the Pack any good anyway.

Final record prediction: 11-6

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

Connect with us our socials on Twitter and Instagram for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.