The offseason seems like it takes forever, while simultaneously seems to fly by. It likely has something to do with most of it occurring in Summer, and Wisconsin summers being in early July and end about now (early September). The Packers are entering their 105th season of football and history seems to have repeated itself once again. The changing of the tides at the most important position in all of sports; Quarterback.

Jordan Love threw 21 of 33 (63.6%), 183 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, with a passer rating of 109.8. He also had 4 rushes for 33 yards (8.3 yards/rush). That’s a solid stat line and essentially came to a game’s worth of play. From my perspective, stats tell one story, however the biggest item that caught my eye was his footwork. He lacked “happy feet” in the pocket. He didn’t look rushed and seemed quite deliberate in his play – akin to a seasoned vet.

A large reason for Love “looking the part” in preseason had to be his offensive line. According the Pro Football Focus, between LG Elgton Jenkins (#74), C Josh Myers (#71), RG Jon Runyan Jr. (#76), C/G Zach Tom (#50), T Yosh Nijman (#73), and T Rasheed Walker (#63) — a group that played a majority of starter snaps — combined for 305 pass-blocking snaps. The entire group gave up 2 QB pressures. Those two pressures were allowed by Walker, who’s coming into his own, and he also played the most snaps of the afore mentioned group, with 78. An almost inconceivable rate.

In fact, the Packers allowed only 1 sack the entire preseason. It was with 3rd string QB, Alex McGough, and even that was a sack that lost 0 yards. The Packers are built to win in the trenches, especially on offense, and control the game by using their biggest weapon – the backfield.

How Good Can Green Bay Be?

The Packers boasted a very solid preseason performance, and may have won all 3 games had the matchup with New England not been suspended due to Patriots’ CB Isaiah Bolden was carted off after being hit by a teammate in the 4th quarter of the 2nd preseason game.

Even following that game, Pro Football Focus had Green Bay ranked as the best offense AND defense of the entire preseason. While I like to reference PFF, they’re not the Bible, but it can give context rankings to things that lack context – ala preseason production. Would it be shocking if the Packers finished with one of the best records in the NFC? No. Would it be if they finished with one of the worst? Also no. Reason being, the Packers are once again loaded with talent, however they now have the youngest roster in the NFL – meaning there are going to be plenty of plays/games they could/should win and yet it’ll seem like inexperience let them down. Conversely, there will be tons of highlights from “unknown” players that will make this one of the most exciting seasons in quite some time.

Running Back Market – What’s Up?

NFL fans are finally waking up to the fact that teams don’t prioritize running backs, and some are even realizing the better the team the less likely they are to place premium $ on the position in total. This tweet has made the rounds across social media, but it’s very accurate – in the NFL, money must be allocated precisely and efficiently across the most productive positions and running back isn’t one of them, it’s just how it is and it has been for some time.

The % of salary committed to NFL backfields shows a trend. Some of the teams that commit the most, may be “good,” but aren’t realistic contenders to win the Vince Lombardi trophy.

As you can see, the Packers rank 12th in backfield spend. Meanwhile the reigning champs (and best team in the NFL over the past 4 years), Kansas City rank 25th. The premium of money allocated likely follows the positions that should be taken in the 1st round of the NFL Draft: QB; OL; DL; Edge; CB. Those are the most difficult positions to find and the most difficult to stock talent/production, so the best teams allocate money towards those positions and can fill in the other roster spots (WR, Safety, Inside LB, WR, TE, P, and K) on the cheap, typically.

The nice thing with Green Bay, while they’re in the top 50% of backfield spend, they arguably have one of, if not the, best backfield(s) in the NFL – and the way LaFleur runs his offense (which we’ll see this year without Captain Audible) is through the backfield and misdirection. Aaron Jones is an absolute weapon and “The Mayor of Door County,” A.J. Dillon, is a perfect compliment. This team is set up for the long run and assuming Jordan Love is the man, they could compete for the division as early as this season.