By William Soquet, Greg Bintz, Zach Glander & Jared Valleskey
In spring 2023, trouble was brewing in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers, a fixture of the Green Bay Packers, was traded away to the New York Jets. Several other veteran players left via free agency as well. Stepping up to help carry the team was a cast of mostly young and unproven players, headlined by quarterback Jordan Love. UW-Green Bay students had a number of thoughts about the changeover in the team.
“I was sad because that’s the QB I grew up with, and his leaving was definitely the end of an era,” said Ben, a senior at UWGB. “I will say, though he didn’t mesh well with the young team and was a drama queen, he was one of the reasons the Packers were successful pretty much my whole life.”
“If he would have left the year before, I would have been upset. The timing he left, I wasn’t as sad about it as I expected,” said one student who wished to remain anonymous.
The season started off well, with the Packers going 2-1. Then a skid ensued, with the team dropping consecutive games against Detroit, Las Vegas, Denver, and Minnesota to drop to 2-5, seemingly destined for a top-five draft pick and a rebuild for the rest of the season. The bad streak of play didn’t catch everybody by surprise, though.
“I thought they would be in a similar position at the beginning of the season, so it didn’t really surprise me,” said Tyler, a senior at UWGB.
However, a turnaround then ensued, with the Packers ‘running the table’ in the next portion of their season, winning four of their next five games. This instilled a sense of hope and optimism about the Packers in the minds of UWGB students.
The Packers “got in the groove and proved [to] themselves that they can be a good team,” noted Cody, a senior. The team “has looked solid with time management and overall offensive and defensive execution.”
On December 11, the team dropped a close Monday night game to the New York Giants in New York. This game brought back flashes of the early-season Packers that couldn’t get their act together. Another miserable defensive effort doomed the team the following week against the Buccaneers. The Packers continue to struggle defensively, especially this past weekend against Tampa Bay, allowing Quarterback Baker Mayfield to throw for 381 yards and four touchdowns while recording the first-ever perfect passer rating by an opposing quarterback at Lambeau Field. The recent performance has fans calling for defensive coordinator Joe Barry once again, and fans have even started to become more impatient with Head Coach Matt Lafluer for not firing his longtime friend and coordinator. While the team is right in contention for the seventh and final playoff spot, opinions are mixed as to whether the team will make the postseason.
“I think we’ll be the 7 seed. They just gotta get back on track and win out. These last few games are very winnable, so they gotta get back on track,” explained Ben.
“Because we lost, we are now in that group, all fighting for a wild card spot,” said Tyler.
Time will tell which opinion prevails and if the Packers will be on the field or on the couch in late January.
