Why Packers’ team-building strategy should lead to continued contention

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

Nothing is certain in the NFL.

Except, apparently, Green Bay starting a top-10 quarterback.

There were roughly two months when Packers fans were part of the mainstream. They had question marks about their team, which seemed mired in mediocrity. The annual ups and downs that most fans experience haven’t been commonplace for the green and gold, and if the end of the 2023 season was any indication, they still won’t be.

Green Bay has its quarterback of the future in Jordan Love, who finished with the second-most touchdowns of any qualified passer in 2023. He finished seventh in yards. Love also outperformed his predecessor, a future Hall of Famer, in his first year as a starter — and his most recent season, too. 

Man, it’s good to be a Packer fan.

If there is a drawback to Green Bay’s process, it’s that it requires patience. Both Love and Aaron Rodgers sat for the first three years of their NFL careers — valuable team-controlled years. Heck, even Brett Favre sat during his first season. It allows young players to develop without the weight of the world (or at least, their fan base) on their shoulders. We’ve seen it work time and time again; it works. But it isn’t necessarily realistic for every organization.

It has to be an all-encompassing strategy — one that isn’t usually employable with most ownership and front-office structures across the league. Ownership means pressure, one that general managers know all too well. Immediate return on investment is the goal more often than not. Fail to get it, and it could mean your job. 

Green Bay is unique in that it doesn’t have an owner. Sure, there are pressures and politics but the team belongs to the fans; the community. It affords patience for a strategy that requires it and the result has been sustained success. There’s no point in messing with that now.

But it does also mean that the Packers have to be patient with their own players….

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Publish date : 2024-01-24 22:04:54

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