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[Green Bay Packers]

Packers first OTA practice touches off summer offensive line battle

Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images

The Packers have a big roster fight on their hands this summer, and it’s going to be wild to watch.

It’s just one practice — and not even a real one. Not a high-stakes playoff tune-up. Not a key regular season session before a big divisional game. Not even a training camp battle. It was just one practice during the first of the Packers’ Organized Team Activities.

But it’s hard not to think the starting gun has sounded for one of the most intense and unusual roster battles for this year’s Packers team.

The headline of yesterday’s practice was Elgton Jenkins’ absence. He’s been one of the Packers’ best offensive linemen for half a decade and has been indisputably their most versatile, but miffed about his contract, he’s nowhere to be seen.

That he’d forego half a million dollars to make a point is an interesting enough story for May, but it was the B-side to that story that caught my attention. In Jenkins’ absence, Jacob Monk took first team reps at center and guard, rotating between those two spots with Sean Rhyan. For one practice, at least — again, not even a particularly notable one — Jacob Monk was the Packers’ sixth offensive lineman.

That’s an interesting point of evidence in what could be the battle of the summer. The rise and fall of various edge rushers will be worth watching, but the offensive line tilt is worth your attention purely because it’s a numbers battle more than a position one.

The Packers’ presumptive starting five lineman are all assured of a roster spot. Outside of a serious injury or completely unexpected trade, Rasheed Walker, Aaron Banks, Elgton Jenkins, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom will all be on the Packers’ Week 1 roster.

The same goes for Jordan Morgan and Anthony Belton, first and second round picks in the 2024 and 2025 drafts, respectively. There’s no world where they’re not on the roster this season.

If the Packers keep nine offensive linemen, that means seven of the spots are already stone cold locks. Nine is a slightly conservative estimate; the Packers had ten linemen take a snap on either offense or special teams last year. But with needs elsewhere, it’s not clear if the Packers will go that heavy on linemen again. Even if a tenth lineman makes it out of camp, it’d be a pretty tenuously held victory.

Who’s fighting for those two theoretical offensive line spots, then? Jacob Monk, a 2024 fifth round pick, seems to have the inside track early on, and his ascension is noteworthy because it puts him ahead of both Travis Glover (another 2024 draft pick) and Kadeem Telfort (a 2023 undrafted free agent who’s been in the developmental pipeline ever since). There’s also Donovan Jennings, a 2024 UDFA prospect who signed for a fairly unusual amount of guaranteed money (at least as far as the Packers are concerned).

And that’s not all! We haven’t even mentioned 2025 seventh round pick John Williams, a converted college tackle who could be in the mix at guard, or any of the 2025 undrafted free agents, any of whom could make a run similar to Telfort.

It’s possible there are as many as eight players fighting for two spots on the 53-man roster, one of which has already been spoken for fairly forcefully by Monk. Suffice it to say, the Packers should have plenty of offensive line depth this year. Figuring out how to get it all on the roster and the practice squad is going to be the challenge.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...tice-touches-off-summer-offensive-line-battle

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Which Packers players exaggerate their heights the most?

Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin/Imagn Images

Investing way too much time and energy into a question nobody is asking.

Sometimes I fixate way too intensely on something and let it take over my life. You’re about to experience one of those times.

Just to anticipate a few remarks right off the bat: Yes, I have too much time on my hands. No, I don’t have a life. Yes, this is very much offseason content, maybe even peak offseason content. Yes, it is a slow news day. Yes, this is very stupid. I’m going to write about it anyway because I embrace the answer to all of those previous questions.

With that out of the way — what’s the deal with the listed heights on the Packers’ roster?

I came to this topic because I was initially going to write an equally silly piece about the superlatives on the current Packers roster: who’s the tallest, the shortest, the oldest, the youngest, and so on. But I noticed there are four players who are listed at the exact same height of 6 feet, 7 inches on the roster, which made me wonder if I could figure out who is exactly the tallest.

Offensive linemen Kadeem Telfort and Brent Banks and tight ends Messiah Swinson and John FitzPatrick are the four horsemen of the tallpocalypse in this scenario, so I went hunting for the closest thing to official measurements I could get: combine and pro day heights, as listed on their respective Relative Athletic Score cards or in Dane Brugler’s massive draft tome for each player’s given year. And having done that research, I’m pleased to report that Telfort is the tallest of them all, measuring 6 feet, 7 ½ inches, which is an eighth of an inch taller than Banks and Swinson and half an inch taller than FitzPatrick.

Case closed, right? Well, yes, but actually no. Now I was rolling, and I had to know how the official measured heights of every player on the roster, because that would help me answer one crucial question: is anyone lying about how tall they are?

And the answer to that question is yes. But it goes much deeper than that.

For official roster listings, the NFL has an easily discernible rounding formula: for players measuring a half inch or less above a given inch (Kadeem Telfort at 6-7 ½, for instance), they round their heights down. For players measuring ⅝ of an inch or more above a given inch, they round their heights up. Ben Sims gets a ⅜ inch boost because of this, jumping up from 6-4 ⅝ to 6-5. And let’s be honest, Sims is already telling everybody he’s 6-5 anyway.

Disregarding everybody who falls within those parameters, we find three significant height discrepancies. Micah Robinson, Rasheed Walker, and Arron Mosby are all listed an inch or more above their measured height. Robinson got the biggest boost, jumping from 5-10 ⅞ to an even 6-0. Score one for the short kings out there, Micah. I know you’re six feet tall in your heart, maybe taller. Don’t let anyone, me included, tell you otherwise.

Walker and Mosby, meanwhile, went from 6-5 and 6-3 to 6-6 and 6-4, respectively. I can excuse Walker a bit — he was listed at 6-6 on Penn State’s roster (more on college heights in a second), but Mosby is where it gets weird.

Why? Well, it’d be one thing if guys were consistently getting a boost to their listed heights, but more than a few Packers players actually had their heights reduced on the Packers’ official roster.

Brenton Cox, Mosby’s counterpart at defensive end, was one of the hardest hit, losing ⅞ of an inch from his official measurement. He was 6-3 ⅞ at both the 2023 NFL Combine and his pro day, according to the 2023 edition of Dane Brugler’s “The Beast,” but he’s listed at 6-3 on the Packers’ roster, a full inch shorter than Mosby, who is actually shorter than Cox.

Luke Musgrave also lost ⅞ of an inch on the Packers’ roster sheet, but nobody was hit harder than quarterbacks Taylor Elgersma and Sean Clifford or defensive lineman Nesta Jade Silvera, all of whom are listed a full inch shorter than their actual measurements. Elgersma, a lanky Dutchman like myself, has a bit more height to spare at 6-5, but both Clifford and Silvera dropped from 6-2 to 6-1. What gives?

But the height discrepancies at the pro level are nothing compared to what goes on at the college level. Heights on college rosters are all over the place. Well, not really all over the place. Heights skew pretty much in one direction: taller. While 43 players were under-listed on the Packers roster when compared to their actual heights, college rosters tell a much different story. Just 13 players were listed at a height shorter than they actually measured. It was far, far more common for players to be listed as taller than they actually were, and they got away with a lot more at the college level, too.

16 different Packers players had their height over-listed by more than an inch in college, including diminutive wide receivers Matthew Golden and Jayden Reed, who got an inch and an inch and a quarter added to their actual heights, respectively.

But the worst outliers were linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper and running back Emanuel Wilson. Hopper measured just 6-1 ¾ prior to the 2024 NFL Draft, but was listed at 6-4 at Missouri. Wilson, meanwhile, was listed at 6-1 at Fort Valley State but measured only 5-10 ½ at his pro day — meaning he got a boost of 2.5 inches on the Fort Valley State roster.

Why would anybody fudge their height? Well, who wouldn’t want to be taller? Even the tallest of the tall are known to exaggerate, sometimes moving their measurements in different directions depending on who they’re talking to. NBA star Kevin Durant once famously said, “When I’m talking to women, I’m 7 feet. In basketball circles, I’m 6-9.” Hey man, whatever it takes.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...st-emanuel-wilson-tyron-hopper-rasheed-walker

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Packers’ annual shareholders meeting set for Friday, July 25

Photo by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Mark Murphy’s sendoff is now officially on the calendar.

One more piece of the Green Bay Packers’ summer scheduling puzzle is now in place. The Packers have announced the date and time for the team’s annual shareholders’ meeting, which will be held at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 25th.

Shareholders should expect to see an email with meeting details and ticketing information in the coming days. Each shareholder is eligible for up to four tickets per account.

The biggest item on the agenda for this year’s meeting will be the handoff of leadership of the team. Current president/CEO Mark Murphy retires this summer, and the meeting will formally see the team transition the role over to Ed Policy, who currently serves as the Packers’ general counsel and chief operating officer.

Meanwhile, the economic impact of hosting the 2025 NFL Draft should also be a significant topic of discussion. With more than 600,000 football fans visiting over the course of three days, that event is sure to have brought in significant revenue for the NFL, the Packers, the city of Green Bay.

This year’s meeting comes after the team opens training camp, as the Packers will hold their first practice which will be open to the public) on Wednesday, July 23. This is a slight departure from most recent years, as the meeting generally has taken place before the first practice of the year.

2024 was also a slight departure, however, as the first practice and the shareholders meeting were both held on the same day (July 22). Last year, Green Bay started training camp a bit earlier than usual due to their week one game taking place in Brazil on the first Friday of the regular season.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...iday-july-25-mark-murphy-transition-ed-policy

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Friday Open Thread: What does your ideal Packers secondary look like?

Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images

Reports say Jaire wants to be a Packer. Who do you want out there with him?

After yesterday’s news about Jaire Alexander, it might finally be time to move on from the offseason opera and into depth chart discourse.

The final official depth chart from last season looks incredibly different from what the initial setup might look like for week one.

At the end of the 2024 season, Jaire Alexander was still out due to injury. Robert Rochell was listed as LCB3 despite seeing only a single snap on defense. RCB2, Corey Ballentine, is now an Indianapolis Colt. Former first round pick and current hollowed out husk of his former athletic self Eric Stokes has signed a deal with the world’s richest bowl cut to play for the Las Vegas Raiders.

The safeties include monster free agent signing Xavier McKinney, three rookies, and a guy who may not even exist.

This week was the start of OTAs. Mandatory minicamp is less than two weeks away. The offseason is officially at the point where “things are happening”. So let’s WILDLY speculate on the state of the roster that won’t be set for another three months!

Question: If you were to build a depth chart for the secondary right now, what does it look like?​

My answer looks quite a bit like the current projection on ESPN. Your starting 3 CBs (Nickel has been the new Base for the last decade. Argue with your mama) are expected to be Jaire, Keisean Nixon, and newly signed Nate Hobbs.

The starting safety pairing of Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams should go together like the pairing of my love for cheap bourbon and Evan Williams bottled-in-bond.

Carrington Valentine should continue to comfortably hold his spot as LCB2 behind Jaire, while Javon Bullard being a rotational Nickel also makes sense.

7th round pick Micah Robinson is a straight-line burner who may or may not beat out APC Comment Section Most Improved Player of the Century of the Week Kalen King. There might not even be room for King after the signing of Gregory Junior Jr.

There are currently 11 true CBs on the roster and trying to guess which of the bottom half will be listed on the depth chart is basically trying to read Rich Bisaccia’s tea leaves, as we’re arguing over special teamers by then.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...t-does-your-ideal-packers-secondary-look-like

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Monday Cheese Curds: Packers’ youth movement relies on continued development

Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Xavier McKinney intends on being a vocal leader for those young players on defense.

The Green Bay Packers will once again be one of the youngest teams in the NFL in 2025. They have been among the youngest in each of the past two years, even being the youngest-ever playoff team in 2023.

With that level of youth comes the expectation that players develop quickly. At wide receiver, the Packers are both relying on third- and fourth-year players to improve while looking for rookies to make an immediate impact. Defensively, the team needs to see more out of the likes of Lukas Van Ness on the edge while having other young starters — Edgerrin Cooper and Evan WIlliams for example — take another step forward.

One person who is committed to driving that improvement is safety Xavier McKinney, who was an All-Pro in his fist season in Green Bay. McKinney is ready to continue taking more of the vocal reins in the locker room to get this team to where it wants to go.

Let’s look at those stories and more as we head towards week two of OTAs.

All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney ‘not going to let off the gas’ in leading Packers’ defense | Packers.com
"All gas, no brake" applies to McKinney's approach to leadership as well as being LaFleur's mantra.

Picking the most underrated NFL players at every position - ESPN
Elgton Jenkins gets the pick as most underrated interior lineman, as he had the lowest rate of pressures allowed from the left guard position. Hopefully he'll maintain that level of pass protection at center.

Packers roster among NFL’s ‘most complete,’ but with caveats entering 2025 | Packers Wire
Health and continued development of the young players on this team are of course the biggest question marks.

Not Many Frequent-Flier Miles for Packers as Part of 2025 NFL Schedule | SI.com
Green Bay's travel schedule is mercifully not too difficult this year, as they have the fifth-fewest travel miles of any NFL team despite having 9 road games.

Marcedes Lewis talks Aaron Rodgers, Packers, Matt LaFleur | Packersnews.com
Lewis said that LaFleur is one of his closest friends and that he was bummed that the Packers chose not to bring him back two years ago.

Jared Goff not fretting OC change: Lions offense always adding 'wrinkles' | NFL.com
Fret, Jared. You should fret.

Japan Cracks Down on “Flashy” Baby Names in New Naming Law Reform | Sri Lanka Guardian
You won't be able to name your child "Pikachu" if this passes, but they haven't explicitly said yet whether "Jigglypuff" will be allowed.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...outh-movement-relies-on-continued-development

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Packers’ Kenny Clark had offseason foot surgery

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

Clark injured his foot in Week 1 and had surgery in January

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark has sat out of team drills in both of the media-open practices of OTAs so far. On Tuesday, we learned the reason why: He’s recovering from an offseason foot surgery.

According to Clark’s press availability, he injured his foot in the first game of the regular season in 2024 and played through the injury throughout the year. He stated that the injury impacted him “a lot” during last season and that he ultimately had foot surgery in January, after the Packers’ playoff loss, to correct the issue. The defensive tackle also has claimed that today’s practice was only the second practice of the year where he participated in the team’s individual drills.

This puts Clark’s 2024 season into better context. Last year, he had a 62.6 overall defensive grade according to Pro Football Focus, by far his worst season of his nine-year career. His pass-rushing grade of 62.7, while primarily playing the three-technique position where he saw more one-on-ones than at nose tackle, was also the worst of his career.

The expectation this year is that Clark will be moving from three-technique to nose tackle, where he’ll be the bigger body opposite of Devonte Wyatt on the Packers’ defensive interior. Last year, T.J. Slaton was the team’s starting nose tackle, but Slaton has since signed with the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency.

Clark is under contract for three more years in Green Bay, as his 2024 extension just begins to kick in this year, but will carry a $32.4 million cap hit in 2026 per Spotrac. In short, this will be a “prove it” year for Clark, a player whom the Packers will either need to move on from next season or convert his $21.5 million in cash in 2026 to a bonus so that they can keep him rostered. At the moment, Green Bay is scheduled to be well over the cap in 2026.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...pdate-surgery-2024-philadelphia-eagles-brazil

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Nick Collins, Morgan Burnett have joined Packers’ coaching staff

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Green Bay’s safeties are getting some veteran help this summer

The Green Bay Packers have announced that former Packers safeties Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett are among the 15 coaches that the team has brought in through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. The Bill Walsh Fellowship enables high school and college coaches to collaborate with NFL teams during the summer, thereby expanding the pool of candidates available for professional-level openings.

According to the Packers’ press release, here is the team’s 15-person fellowship class for 2025:

• Ryan Alexander (LSU offensive analyst)
• Caleb Moore (Arizona assistant coach - offense)
• Jeff Beckles (former Ball State running backs coach)
• Mike Brown (Notre Dame wide receivers coach)
• Grant Newsome (Michigan offensive line coach)
• Shea Pitts (UCLA defensive analyst)
• Jason Hatcher (former NFL defensive lineman)
• Larry Knight (Arkansas State defensive ends coach and defensive run game coordinator)
• Josh Jones (San Antonio Brahmas defensive backs coach)
• Asa Jackson (Cal Poly cornerbacks coach)
• Nick Collins (Bethune-Cookman cornerbacks coach)
• Morgan Burnett (Walton High School safeties coach)
• Ike Brown (LSU associate development coach)
• Leo Lui (Washington University assistant sports performance coach)
• Gary Wilkins (former Georgia Tech player development coach)

More and the two Browns have previously been members of the Packers’ Walsh Fellowship program in the past. Green Bay’s current special teams quality control coach (Cory Harkey) and offensive assistant (Jeremiah Kolone) have been hired after getting their start with the Packers via the fellowship, so don’t be surprised if one of these names ends up with Green Bay full-time at some point.

Collins was a three-time All-Pro in his seven-year NFL career before he suffered a career-ending neck injury. Burnett started 102 games for the Packers over eight seasons before ending his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...ins-morgan-burnett-coaching-staff-update-2025

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Friday Open Thread: If you had to add a player over 40, who would it be?

Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Signing old dudes is all the rage! Who would you sign?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are signing a 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers. There are currently only five active players in the NFL born before 1985, making them 40 or older.

While football is considered a young man’s game, it doesn’t have to be!

If a team can sign a guy who remembers the Reagan administration, why can’t the Packers?!

Which NFL player who qualifies for an AARP card would you like your team to sign?​

My answer: Not Marcedes Lewis. Stop it. What’s wrong with you? Look, I love Big Dog. You love Big Dog. We ALL enjoyed having a tight end who could play right tackle for 1⁄3 of the league. But that man currently runs at half the speed of smell and has caught 30 passes over the course of Presidents 46 and 47.

The only other active players over 40 are Joe Flacco, currently a Cleveland Brown, and two kickers. Matt Prater and Nick Folk are both Quadragenarians without contracts, but Prater was on IR last year and Folk “announced his intention” to keep playing to zero response from a bad Titans team that needs points from whatever source they can get.

The real answer is to pull someone out of retirement to plug a hole.

And who could plug a hole better than THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUND JOHNNY JOLLY?!

GET THAT MAN BACK HERE WITH HIS HAND IN THE DIRT TAKING ON BOTH GUARDS AND THE CENTER AT THE SAME TIME

He hasn’t played in 12 years, so you know he’s got fresh legs. Get on the phone, Gute!

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...u-had-to-add-a-player-over-40-who-would-it-be

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Can a healthy Kenny Clark fix the Packers’ defensive line?

Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Clark’s injured foot slowed him down in 2024. Will his health be the answer for the Packers up front?

Kenny Clark revealed this week that a foot injury limited him significantly in 2024. It was a toe problem, one apparently caused by the ragged turf of the Brazilian soccer stadium on which the Packers and Eagles played in Week 1 — though Clark wouldn’t specifically say the ground was to blame for his painful toe. He already earned negative attention from Brazilian diehards with his post-game comments on the turf and didn’t want more.

But ailing digit now healed, Clark should be back to his Pro Bowl form, healing the Packers’ defensive line with his return to dominance, right?

Maybe, but nothing in football is ever that simple, and even a return to dominance for Clark is anything but guaranteed.

Though he might now be healthy, Clark is still aging. He’ll be 30 in October and has already logged well over 6,000 career snaps across nine professional seasons, not including any postseason work. Nobody outruns Father Time forever, not even people with ten healthy toes. At some point, Clark will decline. Everyone does. And even a gradual age-related decline might mean that he’s unable to be the 2023 version of himself in 2025.

On top of that, Clark’s injury issues weren’t the only problems for the Packers up front. A season-long injury to one of your best players is never going to be a good thing, but let’s not pretend that the Packers were simply one healthy Kenny Clark away from having a dominant defensive line. No single toe carries that much weight.

For starters, 2022 first-round pick Devonte Wyatt also battled injuries throughout 2024. And although he was better as a pass rusher when healthy last season, run defense has never been one of his strong suits. That likely won’t be any difference this season.

Beyond Wyatt, 2023 draft picks Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden are the only returning interior defensive linemen from last year. Brooks is a much better player than Wooden, who’s undersized even after reportedly bulking up last season, but both are probably pretty close to their ceilings as players, and heading into the season with either one as the top interior defensive line option behind Wyatt and Clark is a tenuous proposition, at best.

The Packers also sport 2025 sixth-round pick Will Brinson and his teammate Nazir Stackhouse (undrafted in 2025, though interesting in his own ways). Both may be decent depth in the long term, but it’s hard to rest too many hopes on a sixth-round pick and an undrafted free agent.

The plan for the defensive line sounds like a laundry list of wishes: hope that Kenny Clark fully recovers, hope that Devonte Wyatt stays healthy and can be a better version of himself in 2025, hope that one or both of Brinson or Stackhouse turn into something sooner than later. You can even extend those hopes beyond the interior of the defensive line: hope that Rashan Gary regains his elite pass rusher status, hope that Lukas Van Ness’s own injury woes are behind him, hope that Day 3 picks Barryn Sorell and Collin Oliver develop quickly.

That’s a lot of hope, and there is good reason to be hopeful about some of it. But a defense built on hopes probably won’t carry the Packers to the Super Bowl, so let’s hope there’s more to this list than just that.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...hy-kenny-clark-fix-the-packers-defensive-line

 

[Green Bay Packers]

Report: Packers talked trade for Ravens WR Rashod Bateman this offseason

Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images

Bateman signed a three-year extension with Baltimore this week

Earlier this week, the Baltimore Ravens made an interesting move by extending receiver Rashod Bateman to a three-year, $36.75 million deal. This might seem like a nothingburger in isolation, but it’s worth noting here that Bateman just signed an extension last offseason, too, and hadn’t even played a game on his previous deal. In total, his back-to-back extensions combined for the cost of $49.62 million over five years, bringing his average salary up to nearly $10 million from his $6.4 million number on his 2024 extension.

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, one reason for this new contract in Baltimore is that Bateman asked the Ravens for an extension this offseason, the team told him no, but then allowed him to search for a suitor who would via trade before ultimately choosing just to pay the receiver. Per Fowler, three teams that showed interest in Bateman when he was on the trade block were the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers.

The fact that these were the teams linked to an available receiver isn’t surprising. The Cowboys traded for George Pickens this offseason, the Patriots signed Stefon Diggs to a $63.5 million contract in late March and the Packers ended up drafting two receivers in the top 100 picks of the 2025 draft with Texas’ Matthew Golden (23rd overall) and TCU’s Savion Williams (87th overall).

Despite what the Packers have said about just taking the best player available this offseason, they were clearly in the receiver market leading up to the draft. With Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs in contract years in 2025, and Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks following in 2026, the team’s actions haven’t suggested that they’re willing to pony up extension money for their homegrown pass-catchers in an exploding receiver market.

Bateman recorded career highs of 756 receiving yards and 9 receiving touchdowns in 2024 as a 25-year-old. It’s also worth noting here that at 6’1” and 195 pounds, he has the frame that Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has typically looked for, as the LaFleur-era Green Bay offenses have prioritized size as the unit’s most important trait.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...imore-ravens-receiver-dallas-cowboys-patriots

 

[Green Bay Packers]

ESPN claims the Packers are the biggest ‘faller’ in the NFL this offseason

Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Green Bay fell more in ESPN’s Football Power Index than any other NFL team this offseason

ESPN utilizes a series of advanced statistics to power rank its football teams. If you’ve ever followed the college football playoff race and ESPN’s playoff reveal coverage, you’ve almost certainly heard of Football Power Index or FPI, their flagship number for how they rank these squads.

At the moment, the Green Bay Packers have a preseason FPI of +2.3, which ranks them eighth in the NFL. For reference, the top team in the NFL, per this number, is the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at +5.5, and the worst club going into 2025 is the New Orleans Saints with a -5.2 mark.

Here’s how ESPN explains FPI:

The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.

In essence, think of FPI as a way to reverse engineer a point spread. If the Packers (+2.3) were to play the Eagles (+5.5) then the Eagles would be favored, according to FPI, by 3.2 points on a neutral field. This process, obviously, wouldn’t put much weight into individual matchups or how personnel/scheme would clash, but it’s a good baseline number to look at entering the season.

Interestingly, the Packers actually tumbled way down the rankings, relative to last season, despite being ranked as the eighth-best team in the NFL. In the final FPI rankings of the 2024 season, Green Bay was neck and neck with Philadelphia. Since the start of the offseason, the Packers’ FPI has dropped about four points, the most in the league — a slight lead over the rebuilding New York Jets.

Dan Morgan is cooking in Carolina https://t.co/C8y3631lqy pic.twitter.com/TKBDDEtMrh

— Steven Patton (@PattonAnalytics) May 27, 2025​

To say the least, ESPN’s numbers haven’t been big fans of what Green Bay has done in free agency and the draft this year. As a reminder, the Packers’ big free agency signings were left guard Aaron Banks and cornerback Nate Hobbs, who projects to play the slot should Jaire Alexander ever return to the team. In the draft, the biggest contributor should be first-round receiver Matthew Golden, as it’s likely that the team’s other top-100 selections — offensive lineman Anthony Belton and receiver Savion Williams — will either be reserves or rotational players as rookies.

Source: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/...nfl-rankings-football-power-rankings-fpi-2025