As long as the Packers have Aaron Rodgers, they’re going to be playoff contenders. That’s just the luxury a franchise quarterback brings. It was the same for Brett Favre as well. However, there is a marked difference between playoff contenders and Super Bowl contenders. Green Bay fans have started to get anxious, knowing this team should’ve won another title by now.
Instead it’s been an ongoing string of painful postseason defeats. In 2011 they went 15-1 but lost the playoff opener at Lambeau to the 9-7 New York Giants. Then in 2014 they had a 19-7 lead in the NFC championship in the fourth quarter against Seattle. The Seahawks then stormed back to win 28-22 in overtime. Finally came last year when they were thoroughly humiliated by the Falcons 44-21 in Atlanta.
It just feels like Rodgers has covered up the steady decline of the Packers roster with his own Hall of Fame play. The team was 4-6 at one point last year before he led them on a late run. Now one must merely see the players they’ve lost in free agency the past week to believe they might be in trouble.
If you're scoring at home, #Packers have lost …
T.J. Lang
Micah Hyde
Julius Peppers
Eddie Lacy
Datone Jones
JC Tretter
… as free agents.— Jason Wilde (@jasonjwilde) March 14, 2017
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GM Ted Thompson is highly respected around the NFL but his aversion to free agency spending seems to have kept his team in a perpetual state of good-but-not-good-enough. Most agree that without Aaron Rodgers this team likely wouldn’t be much better than 8-8 each year. If that. On that list they just lost their best offensive guard, best running back, three members of their starting defense and an underrated center.
Green Bay did add Martellus Bennett as a free agent, but it’s doubtful he covers up all the potential damage done by these losses.Though the Packers remain the standard in the NFC North, it’s hard not to feel a pang of hope. A feeling that Zeus has fallen a little closer to Earth after sitting on his throne for eons.
The time might never be better to finally knock them out of the playoff picture. A first since 2008.
