Coming off a tough season, missing the playoffs and trading their 4x MVP quarterback, the Green Bay Packers must be happy that last season is over, and a new blank slate is in front of them. As they have built up their weapons the last few years, Jordan Love will look to make full use of them this upcoming season. If he wants to do that however, he will need to hope that unlike last year they can stay healthy and have a fully functioning unit on the field. Rodgers looked to have taken a step back last year and many will say that it was the drama surrounding him and the team and that may have played a part, but he also didn’t have a healthy receiving roster many weeks and a slightly banged up offensive line. I am in no way an Aaron Rodgers fan, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to that.
Was Green Bay healthy last year?
With that being the case, from an overall standpoint, Green Bay was relatively healthy as a team and in fact the second healthiest in the NFC North. That didn’t matter though as they fell 20-16 to their in-division rival, Detroit Lions. As mentioned earlier managing the receiving corps health was a job in itself as 4 impactful players from seasoned to rookie found their way onto the injury report. Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson all dealt with injuries that kept them out multiple weeks and had lingering performance issues after. Meanwhile Injuries to David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins didn’t help the situation as less time paired with inexperience down field generally leads to less passing yards. With a total of 3’632 they finished 17th of the 32 teams, not where Aaron Rodgers was used to finishing.
On defense starting linebackers De’Vondre Campbell and Rashan Gary both suffered knee injuries with Gary’s being a season ending ACL tear. The Packers ended the season 26th in rushing yards allowed per game. CB Eric Stokes battled ankle and knee issues but outside of him the secondary stayed strong and finished 6th in passing yards allowed. Proving once again that health matters. The team as a who had a general easy health decline on the season until their bye week when they were able to climb back to almost week 1 levels in terms of health score. The predictors uses a proprietary health ranking called the Banged Up Score that looks at a multitude of factors including players depth, types of injuries and more to determine how “banged up” that team was. The problem for Green Bay wasn’t exactly their overall scores but like a few other teams last season where those scores came from.
What do the Packers need to do from a health standpoint to be successful this season?
In their case the team didn’t have every position hurt but they did have two positions in particular struggling. Wide receiver and Linebacker. As mentioned above this led them down a hard path to recover from through the season. This showed in their record and their inability to make the playoffs. If the Packers want to change that they will need to keep top health this coming season because to be honest, with the amount of unknowns they have going into this year, any big injuries could cause a fast downwards spiral if they aren’t careful.
Football is a contact sport and injuries happen. If Green Bay can stay away from catastrophic injuries as well as not depleting one position with numerous guys out, then they at least put themselves at an advantage of having the guys they choose on the field. Soft tissue injuries and linger injuries though will not only keep guys out but affect their production even when they return. If that happens then Green Bay is going to have another tough year ahead of them.
