My Final Thoughts from the Green Bay Packers' 2025 Season

OK. I've had a few days to let Saturday's playoff loss to the Chicago Bears sink in, gotten my anger and frustration out of the way via social media and am ready to move on to the offseason. And yes, I know the NFL will keep playing on even though the Green Bay Packers are now eliminated but I honestly don't really care enough about any of the other teams to stay interested.

So, before I move on to other things until August (or at least the NFL draft), here are my final thoughts about the season:

This is a new NFC North, and the Packers need to adjust. Head Coach Matt LaFleur was 39-10 his first three seasons with the Packers but the 2019 Minnesota Vikings were the only other team with a winning season during that three-year span (the Bears went 8-8 when they made the playoffs in 2020). The Detroit Lions have had a winning season in each of the years since and each division rival has won the NFC North at least once in the past four years. This year, all four teams had a winning record and, if the Vikings can get their quarterback situation solidified, this probably isn't going to change.

Competition builds characters and (hopefully) champions. The team can't remain complacent though.

If the Packers get a LaFleur extension done, I'll support it. I am, as I've written in the past, on the fence about LaFleur as a coach. However, the man has only had one season where the team wasn't competing in the post season and it's hard for me to endorse starting over from scratch when I'm old enough to know what happened when the San Francisco 49ers fired Steve Mariucci following a playoff loss and the Bears when they fired Lovie Smith after he went 10-6 and just missed the playoffs because of a tie breaker with Minnesota.

There is clearly some room for improvement at the coaching level though. I would not be surprised to see LaFleur move on from some of his assistants, either by choice or because it is a condition of the extension.

If he does come back, LaFleur needs to take a lesson from the Bears. I don't compliment Chicago often, but Ben Johnson has his team believing they can win even if they are multiple scores behind and that mentality is translating to victories. The Packers, in comparison, have been a team that can go toe-to-toe with any other team in the league when things go well but seem to struggle as soon as they are off script and face adversity. Attitude doesn't always trump talent, but it doesn't hurt to have it.

I am looking at this as a season lost because of injuries. I know injuries are part of the sport and all teams need to overcome them, but it wasn't just the quantity this year, it was the quality of player lost. Tucker Kraft was having a career year at tight end before his ACL tear in Week 9. Micah Parsons was the team's lone Pro Bowl pick and an All-Pro selection before suffering the same injury in Week 15. Zach Tom, also lost in Week 15, left a noticeable void on an offensive line already missing Elgton Jenkins, while the same could be said about defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt on the other side of the ball.

Those were just the ones that either ended up on injured reserve or didn't return. Josh Jacobs fought through a knee injury much of the season. Quarterback Jordan Love didn't play against the Baltimore Ravens because of a concussion, and the wide receiver depth was stretched so thin with various injuries, defensive back Bo Melton had to go back to playing his old position.

The next man up mentality is only going to get you so far. There's a reason why the replacement players are backups and not starters.

On that note, the NFL needs to change how it does bye weeks. In an 18-week season, no team should have a bye week after just four games. Making a team play thirteen straight games (14 counting playoffs) without a break is just ridiculous, especially when three of the games were played on short weeks and players' already-tired bodies were given less time to recover.

Jordan Love is the real deal. Look, I'm not going to say this was his best season because it wasn't. However, he didn't do anything to prove to me he doesn't deserve to be the franchise player. If anything, his performance against the Bears on Saturday, playing behind a struggling offensive line and with no run game late in the second half should confirm that. In fact, had his line been able to block for a second or two longer, he would have likely had a game-winning touchdown instead of being forced to throw a checkdown pass that left them still trailing with almost no time left on the clock.

Backup quarterback is a concern going into next year though. Malik Willis is all but gone and has earned the big contract he is sure to be offered somewhere. Green Bay is going to need to find a replacement that can fill in just as effectively if Love gets injured.

The secondary also needs to be revamped. Keisean Nixon wasn't necessarily bad as the team's top cornerback, but he wasn't overly great either and that is a position of weakness overall that was hidden when Parsons was playing but became more glaring when the pass rush wasn't as good. Green Bay is going to need to find a way to upgrade it.

And that's it for me for football for a while. Enjoy the rest of the playoffs if you're watching and good luck to any team that isn't the Bears.