Green Bay opens the 2025 season at home against the Detroit Lions.
Packers’ offense vs. Lions’ defense
At this time a year ago, you likely could not find a unit that was flying higher than Green Bay’s offense.
The finish to the 2023 regular season and 48-point barrage in the postseason gave the Packers a ton of confidence going into the 2024 season.
It was not to be.
The final numbers look good, but the offense finished the season with one big thud. They struggled mightily in the last three games of the season, including a 10-point whimper in a playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Brian Gutekunst saw what happened and went to work this offseason.
The offense added four new significant pieces to the roster.
Aaron Banks received a $77 million contract. He’ll be the team’s left guard. Next to one of Rasheed Walker or Jordan Morgan.
Walker and Morgan competed in training camp for that position, and it’s unclear who will start.
The Packers will likely want Morgan to rotate in to some degree whether at tackle or right guard, where he competed at times with Sean Rhyan a season ago.
Banks was not the only addition to the offensive line, Anthony Belton was the team’s second round pick.
Belton is a massive man, which shows a shift in Green Bay’s thinking along the offensive line.
Both Banks and Belton tip the scales at more than 325 pounds, and both should be in the starting lineup by 2026 at the latest.
“Big doesn’t get small,” Packers Vice President of Player Personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan said at the end of the second round of April’s draft.
It appears that’s the route Green Bay wants to go up front.
The Packers were not done adding to their offense just by adding two guys up front.
They finally did what so many clamored for over the last four years.
They took Matthew Golden in the first round. Two rounds later, they took Savion Williams out of TCU as well.
Williams has been injured for most of training camp, so his role will be unclear going into the season.
Golden looks like someone who is going to start from the get-go.
The Packers are working through some injuries at the receiver position, but it may not have mattered. Golden has looked the part since the day he stepped foot on the practice field.
He’s impressed his teammates. He’s impressed his coaches. He’ll have a chance to make an impact early and often.
Apart from the rookies, the Packers return three of the four pass catchers who were leaders of the pack a season ago.
Dontayvion Wicks has been nursing a calf injury for most of camp but has practiced and should be ready to play when they take the field.
Romeo Doubs has shaken off two concussion and is entering a contract year. He’ll be highly motivated to prove the team should keep him for the foreseeable future.
Jayden Reed is nursing a foot injury. Week 1 is uncertain for him, and the injury he has could linger throughout the season.
Ultimately, this season rests on the quarterback. Jordan Love was looking to take flight into superstardom a season ago but injured his knee in the first game of the season.
That injury lingered throughout the year, and caused him to miss two games and be limited for most of the others.
Love still had a good year, but the Packers need him to have a great year if they’re going to make the leap into the echelon of Super Bowl contenders.
Love was relatively mediocre against the Lions in both matchups a season ago. In his most recent game, he was 12-for-20 with one touchdown pass.
Detroit’s defense is going through a transition of its own. Aaron Glenn took the head coaching job with the New York Jets this offseason. He was replaced by Kelvin Sheppard, who had previously served as the team’s linebackers coach.
What they’ve lost in coordinator, they’ll gain back in impact players.
The last time Detroit’s defense was on the field, they were humiliated by Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders.
They were also missing a plethora of impact players, none greater than defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, the former second overall pick was ascending into stardom, with potential to be the defensive player of the year before breaking his leg in October, causing him to miss the rest of the season.
Hutchinson should be back, and he’ll be full-go when the two teams face off.
He’s given the Packers trouble in the past but did not face them last year.
The Lions are not just a one man band on defense. Alim McNeil should return this year, and he was an impact player on the defensive line.
Their secondary is anchored by their star safety tandem of Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch.
Both players made a leap into stardom a season ago, with Joseph getting a pick-six off of Love in the team’s November matchup at Lambeau Field.
Packers’ defense vs. Lions’ offense
The second year of Jeff Hafley is underway, and it promises to be better than the first year.
The Packers are not looking to figure out the system any longer but should know it well enough to play faster.
Hafley had the defense playing the best football it had played since the 2010 Super Bowl run by the time the season ended.
Their big swap from the offseason is Jaire Alexander for Nate Hobbs. Alexander was a great player in Green Bay, but injuries simply took their toll, causing the Packers to move on from him before the team’s mandatory minicamp in June.
Hobbs was signed on the first day of free agency but missed most of camp with a knee injury.
When he was healthy, however, he was a physical presence on defense. His toughness was evident, and he should be a nice addition to Green Bay’s secondary where questions remain.
The trio of Hobbs, Carrington Valentine and Keisean Nixon is who the team will be relying on this year.
They’ve all had nice moments in the NFL, but there is no star power in that group like they had with Alexander. Will that matter? That remains to be seen.
Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams and Javon Bullard return to lead the best safety group the Packers have had since the days of Nick Collins roaming the back end.
Of course, things on the back end just got much easier because of a big addition the Packers made to their pass rush.
On Aug. 28, news broke that the Packers acquired Micah Parsons in exchange for two first round draft picks and Kenny Clark.
Parsons is a star and one of only two players to register 12 or more sacks in each of his first four seasons. The other would be former Packers great Reggie White.
Parsons makes the whole defensive front better.
Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, and Devonte Wyatt all had seasons they would classify as disappointing. Green Bay’s pass rush simply wasn’t consistent enough after a strong training camp a season ago.
Now, it all changes thanks to the import of Parsons.
They should get some help from the linebackers. Both Quay Walker and Edgerrin Cooper were effective as blitzers. Cooper looks to be ready to take the leap into stardom this year.
Detroit’s offense, much like its defense, is going through a transition. Ben Johnson, the team’s offensive coordinator, took the head coaching job in Chicago. Johnson took some key staff members with him as well.
From a personnel standpoint, they also lost the heart and soul of their offensive line when Frank Ragnow decided to retire this offseason.
Despite the losses, there is plenty of personnel that could lead you to believe the Lions are a bonafide Super Bowl contender.
Jared Goff has been excellent since being what amounted to a throw-in for the Matthew Stafford trade.
Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the best receivers in all of football. Jameson Williams is a big play waiting to happen. Sam LaPorta is one of the best tight ends in football.
This team, however, is going to get off the bus running the football.
Their backfield tandem of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, or as they like to call it, “Sonic and Knuckles” return for another season. Any plan the Packers have has to start with slowing these two down.
Special Teams
The special teams unit has been up and down for most of Rich Bisaccia’s tenure as the special teams coordinator. Despite that, the Packers have shown an unwavering faith in Bisaccia’s acumen as a coordinator, even making him the assistant head coach.
They’ll be on notice in this game as well. The Lions are notoriously aggressive under Dan Campbell. That includes on fourth downs and special teams.
Green Bay’s kicking game is in excellent shape with Brandon McManus and Daniel Whelan handling those duties. Both of them had strong training camps. Matt Orzech will handle snapping duties, and he just received a three-year contract extension.
The return game could be going through a bit of an adjustment. Nixon and Reed were the kickoff and punt returners for the last two years.
Mecole Hardman was released at the end of training camp but signed to the practice squad after clearing waivers.
Hardman will likely get an elevation for Sunday’s game to return kickoffs and punts.
