Thoughts from the Green Bay Packers at Denver Broncos (8/21/2026)

 Here are my thoughts from the Green Bay Packers 33-13 win at the Denver Broncos last night:

There was quite a bit of improvement versus last week. The offense was finding the endzone all night and the defense was making things difficult for the Broncos. Considering Denver was one game away from the Super Bowl last season, that was an impressive task.

Jordan Love may finally have his weapons. Obviously, health remains a concern, especially with receiver Christian Watson, but he seems to have receivers he has full confidence in. I think the less-is-more approach Green Bay took this season, allowing Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks to leave, gave him more of an opportunity to build a rapport with the ones who stayed, especially second-year player Matthew Golden.

I liked the aggressiveness on defense. It's something that could be high risk but also has the potential to keep opposing offenses off rhythm, something that becomes important when your secondary is still a work in progress and your top pass rusher isn't expected back until October.

Kicker Trey Smack will eventually miss, and how he rebounds will tell us for certain what kind of kicker he is. For the time being, however, he looks like the real deal, especially with his accuracy on those long kicks. My only real concern is him getting worn out before the regular season starts.

The Packers may need to carry three quarterbacks on their roster. Again, there is a reason why Green Bay signed veteran Tyrod Taylor and I'm not sure Kyle McCord has done enough to unseat him as the primary backup. However, it is a quarterback-starved league, and I'm not convinced he wouldn't be quickly snatched up by another team if they were to waive him in the hopes of signing him to the practice squad, forcing them to start over on developing a QB2 of the future.