Quick Take: 3 Packers Who Must Answer the Call in Second Half

The Green Bay Packers are 6-3, and all things considered, they’re having a pretty good season so far. The issue in Green Bay is that “pretty good” is only acceptable for so long. This is a fanbase that came into the 2024 NFL season expecting the Packers to be a Super Bowl contender, and so far, they seem to be on the cusp, but they’re not there just yet.

The Packers’ latest loss to the Detroit Lions highlighted several areas of concern. This is also a roster that was built to be a Super Bowl contender by General Manager Brian Gutekunst, but several players have not been playing up to par. In fact, several have been downright disappointing.

If these three players can step up and turn things around after Green Bay’s Week 10 bye, though, the Pack could very well be back in the second half of their season.

Jordan Love, Quarterback

This point has been beaten to death over the past few weeks, but it’s not going to go away until Jordan Love starts playing like the franchise quarterback the Packers paid him to be. Gutekunst gave him a four-year, $220 million contract extension this offseason, and he had a tremendous second half of the 2023 campaign, which helped Green Bay make playoffs and beat the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round.

Love was volatile as a passer in 2023, but as the season went on, he got better and better, ultimately finishing with 32 touchdowns compared to 11 interceptions. His interception-to-touchdown ratio over the last eight regular season games was 18-1.

That’s the type of passer Love can be. That’s why the Packers paid him, but heading into the bye, Love is tied for the league’s most interceptions with 10, and keep in mind he’s missed two games. Two of his interceptions were arguably two of the worst pick-sixes ever thrown, including in Week 9 against the Lions in an interception that swung the game away from the Packers.

Love has thrown 15 touchdowns compared to 10 interceptions. He needs to work on cleaning his game for the Packers to make a surge in the second half.

Rashan Gary, EDGE

To say that Rashan Gary had a disappointing first half of the season for the Packers would be a disappointment. He had 9.5 sacks in 2021, six in 2022 before his campaign was cut short because of an ACL injury, and nine in 2023 in his comeback season. He appeared to be poised for a breakout heading into 2024, and the expectation around Green Bay was that he was ready to ascend into the upper echelon of NFL pass rushers.

Unfortunately for the Packers, that hasn’t been the case so far in 2024. Gary only has 2.5 sacks, and he’s played in every game.

To be fair to him, the Packers did switch defensive coordinators this offseason, and Jeff Hafley runs a 4-3 defense compared to Joe Barry’s 3-4. The Packers drafted Gary with the 12th overall pick in 2019 out of Michigan, where he played a 4-3 as a hand-in-the-dirt pass-rusher. They painstakingly transitioned him into a 3-4 outside linebacker, and now, going back into the 4-3, it’s not all that surprising that there has been a transition period.

Still, Gary’s normal explosiveness hasn’t been seen as consistently as it has in the past, and there’s a very real possibility that his lack of true pass-rush moves outside of a bull rush and speed rush has hampered him now that he’s mostly back to playing defensive end.

Hafley has moved him around the formation a bit to try to create pressure, and when the Packers guess right, it tends to work, but Gary undoubtedly needs to step up and start creating some pressure on his own if the Packers want to continue to rush just four in a majority of situations.

Dontayvion Wicks, Wide Receiver

As a fifth-rounder in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Virginia, Dontayvion Wicks wasn’t expected to be much of a contributor as a rookie. That’s why it was notable when he came out and caught 39 for 581 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 14.9 yards per catch. He showed off a natural route-running ability, and his always-openness made it easy for Love to develop trust and rapport with him.

Unfortunately, in 2024, Wicks has had a serious case of the drops. His seven drops through eight games are the second-worst in the league behind Amari Cooper’s 11. The worst part, too, is that he’s not just dropping hotly-contested footballs. These are footballs that are hitting him in the hands, and he’s not been able to hold on.

He had a tough drop against the Lions that cost the Packers a touchdown, and yes, while Love hasn’t been placing them perfectly, every NFL wideout knows that if the ball hits you in the hands, you’ve got to catch it.

Wicks has four touchdowns on the season, so he can be a productive wideout, but he needs to get more consistent in order for Green Bay’s offense to have consistent success after the bye.