Green Bay will travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns at noon Sept. 21.
Packers’ offense vs. Browns’ defense
Green Bay’s offense has been a mixed bag through two games to start the year.
They’ve looked unstoppable at times and inept at others.
Jordan Love has yet to turn the ball over on the young season. He’s thrown multiple touchdown passes in each of the first two games.
He looks much healthier and in total command of Green Bay’s offense in his third season as a starter.
Tucker Kraft is coming off a monster game in Green Bay, the first 100-yard game of his professional career. The Packers came into the season saying they wanted to feature him more, and they have certainly done that through two games, most notably the Sept. 11 win over the Commanders.
Kraft has one touchdown in each game this year and is the team’s leading receiver.
The rest of the pass catchers have been good by committee. There is no receiver who has really separated himself in the team’s competitive situation at the position.
Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks and Matthew Golden have all found ways to be involved.
Golden just missed two explosive plays, with Love underthrowing him once and overthrowing him another time.
Golden’s time will come. He still looks the part as a receiver; there have just been limited opportunities thus far.
The offensive line could be in makeshift mode for a second consecutive week depending on the health of Aaron Banks and Zach Tom, who both missed the last game due to an ankle and oblique injury, respectively.
Darian Kinnard and Anthony Belton rotated at right tackle in Tom’s absence, while Jordan Morgan started at left guard for Banks.
Whoever is blocking for Love better have his chinstrap buckled extra tight, because one of the best defensive players in football is coming to face off against them Sept. 21.
Myles Garrett was locked into a contract dispute this offseason and, before Micah Parsons became available via trade, there was some speculation the Packers could make a play for Garrett if the Browns could not come to terms with their All-Pro.
Instead, Garrett and the Browns came to terms on a contract, and now he’ll face the Packers in Week 3.
Garrett already has 3.5 sacks on the young season, with 1.5 coming against Lamar Jackson in last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
He’s as good as it gets, and the Packers are going to need to have a plan for him regardless of who is suited up for them. Cleveland’s defense was solid against Joe Burrow in the opener, giving up only 17 points, but struggled against Baltimore’s offense.
Mason Graham was the fifth overall pick, and he’ll start on the interior lining up next to Garrett.
Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome form an interesting cornerback tandem, with Grant Delpit as a nice player in the safety group.
This still should be a group the Packers can exploit offensively but not a group to be taken lightly.
Packers’ defense vs. Browns’ offense
Year 2 of Jeff Hafley is off to a roaring start. Green Bay is fresh off dominant performances against two of the best offenses in football from a season ago.
If you needed to feel any better about Green Bay’s defense, the Detroit Lions hung 52 points on the Chicago Bears, after only being able to muster 13 against the Packers.
Washington’s offense was held to its lowest yardage output since Jayden Daniels became the starting quarterback a season ago.
Green Bay’s defense has had four sacks in each of the first two weeks and this week should be primed for more.
Cleveland’s offensive line has had its struggles; Joe Flacco was sacked twice and had a fumble returned for a touchdown in Week 2’s loss to the Ravens.
After facing Daniels last week and having to chase him all over the field, the Packers’ front should likely relish the opportunity to face a quarterback who is more apt to stand in the pocket.
They should have a full workload ready for Micah Parsons, who has been everything the team could have asked for and more through his first two games. He was dominant against Washington, with eight pressures and 0.5 sacks.
He was not alone. Rashan Gary and Devonte Wyatt have a sack in each of the first two games. Lukas Van Ness has looked better, and the Packers are more than willing to send Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker from the second level if they need to create pressure.
They should have their whole secondary ready for this week’s game after Nate Hobbs played in limited fashion against Washington.
On the other side of the ball, it’s Flacco running the show for Cleveland’s offense.
The Browns are in rebuilding mode, but they do have some weapons in their offense. Jerry Jeudy is a former first-round pick whom the Browns acquired via trade. David Njoku can cause some problems as a tight end.
Their run game is spearheaded by Jerome Ford and second-round pick Quinshon Judkins.
Judkins made his NFL debut on Sept. 14 with 61 yards on 10 carries. He should be able to handle a heavier workload another week removed from his offseason issues that kept him out of training camp.
The Browns have yet to score more than 17 points in a game this season. They have really struggled on offense in the early going.
Special Teams
Green Bay’s special teams was pretty disastrous in the win over the Commanders after having a strong debut to the season against Detroit.
Some of that could be attributed to missing Bo Melton and Zayne Anderson, two of the team’s core players.
They still gave up an explosive return in both the kicking and punting game, and Brandon McManus missed a field goal.
The punt return game is in flux with Jayden Reed down for the next 6-8 weeks due to a collarbone injury. Matthew Golden and Keisean Nixon both took reps there last week, so it will be interesting to see how the Packers choose to navigate the Reed injury from here.
Presumably, Reed will be placed on injured reserve, which could open a roster spot for Mecole Hardman, who has plenty of experience as a returner from his days in Kansas City.
Cleveland’s return game is headed by running back Jerome Ford and undrafted rookie Isaiah Bond out of Texas.
Andre Szmyt is a rookie and made all three of his kicks last week against Baltimore.