NFL 2023 Season Discussion Thread

[RolStoppable]

Cool to see that the Packers pulled it off. Not only that, but they also get to face the easiest opponent out of all the ones that were possible: The Dallas Cowboys.

Of course the current Cowboys are better and the current Packers are worse than these two franchises have been in their previous playoff meetings in recent times. But it's playoff time and the Cowboys have been crushed by their own lofty expectations a lot of times since their last Super Bowl win, so who's to say it's not going to happen again.

Green Bay's offense is young, but at least they now have Aaron Jones back. Jordan Love has played well for most of the season, putting the early struggles behind him; I think he has thrown for 32 TDs against 12 INTs, putting him among the better QBs in the league. He has certainly gained more confidence as the season progressed, but as his lost fumble against the Bears showed, he's still making a big mistake every now and then; the almost interception when he threw into what was seemingly triple coverage belongs into that category too. The Packers defense is the more worrying part though, but that's basically tradition by now.

The bottom line is that I am not writing off these Packers as a one-and-done team, but I can definitely say that they won't win more than one playoff game. That's because the next game after a hypothetical win would be a trip to San Francisco and they are the exact opposite to the Dallas Cowboys when it comes to matchup history.

Looking beyond this season, the Packers seem to be good to go after the end of the Rodgers era. There has been essentially no dropoff in the quality of their play since Love took over, although that is helped by Rodgers' final year with the Packers being of mixed quality. While I do not expect the Packers to reach the heights of the Rodgers era with Love, there's enough talent to be consistently in playoff contention in the coming years without having it to come down to week 18 in order to clinch a spot.