I am a believer that some players are prone to injury and some are not. One injury does not mean a player is prone to injury but two seasons in a row is cause for concern.

Yes higher chances of injury might be the players playing style or it could be his body makeup. I also believe that once injured there is a greater chance of injury in the future.

Signing a player to a large contract is always a gamble but to sign players that have not completed a full season in two or three years is asking for trouble. The problem is there are very good players that tend to get injured. An example is Joe Burrow.

It will be very difficult for the Packers to even get to the NFC Championship depending on these players and aging players like Hargrave and Franklin. Its up to them to prove me wrong.

It's a gamble for sure. Gute has pushed his chips to the middle of the table. You need to assemble a good roster to win a championship, but you also need to be lucky not to have too many important players get injured. It reminds me of a game of Risk, when you build up a big mass of armies for an attack against your outnumbered opponents. Usually it works, but sometimes you have a few horrible rolls of the dice right off the bat, and the attack is a failure. That's what last year was like for the Packers. I had that sinking feeling when Tucker Kraft went down. But they still had a lot of other good players, including Micah Parsons. Then he went down, along with Zach Tom. The best offensive player, the best defensive player, and the best offensive lineman. They still should've gotten past the Bears in the playoffs, but they were probably not going to get any farther. I'm hoping for better luck this year.

Van Ness, Reed, Watson, Wyatt, Kraft...

With the exception of Watson, all injury prone 7️⃣life paths.

Franklin also a 7️⃣and in his enemy year, Hargrave was born on the 7️⃣th, Rhyan & Lloyd entering/in personal 7️⃣ year

BUT WAIT, THERES MORE!!!

St Juste a 7️⃣

Brinson & SavWilliams in/entering personal 7️⃣ year

Our GM chooses to recklessly drive the ship through the minefield rather than navigate it💯

It's one of the core principles why his accrued failures will be in the spotlight next year during his enemy year⚠️

The Packers should be in the mix. In recent years, I’ve reconsidered the idea that “going all in” gives a 99% chance for a SB trophy.
Was it David Stearns who took all the heat for talking about “bites at the apple”? I’ve come to think he had the right idea.
The SB champion needs a good roster, good coaching, good health, and good luck as well. For me, blind optimists and blind pessimists need not apply. Let’s see what 2026 has in store!

The only thing I can disagree with Al is when he said, "this season or next" for the window. What's wrong with both?

May as well repeat if we're all in.

It all depends on the OLine, in my opinion. If the OLine can protect Love, then we can cook with gas. If the OLine is a sieve, like it was, much of last year, and Love is made to run for his life, let's hope MLF and Co. have some short gain/ under the coverage plays ready to go, so Love can get rid of the ball, quickly, without getting clobbered and risking injury.

With the exception of Van Ness each of these players who have been extended are very good players when healthy. Kraft was playing at a Pro Bowl level when he was injured. The key point here is when healthy. Can Reed, Watson and Kraft make it through the season healthy? If yes, the Packers offense will be difficult to stop. Wyatt is key to the Packers DL and hopefully he will stay on the field for most of his extension.

Van Ness has missed time and with only 8.5 sacks over 4 seasons he has not played very well. As of today I would not consider him a core player for the Packers. However, that can change during the 2026 season if his performance significantly improves and if he can stay on the field.

As for Kraft's extension, more big money to be spent. GPG! Thanks, Since '61

Feels like a sink or swim move to me. A bunch of financial resources spent on this roster. If this group doesn't pan out, could set us back a number of years. I hope the powers to be are right. Go Pack Go!

For the most part, the time missed from these players was due to football injuries...those incurred playing a violent, physical sport. (Stuff) happens! Sometimes it's just bad luck.

I have zero issues with any of the extensions to any listed above, including McDuffie. They are all important core players, and while some aren't considered star players, they are very good players. I'm still on the LVN bandwagon. If he doesn't live up to his draft position this year, feel free to boot me off. GPG!

The players cited in the article all have pretty significant upside and the Packers, due to their propensity to select projects more so than impact players, wind up having to pay for future potential more so than past productivity which entails an element of risk and uncertainty. Injury history only adds to it.

That's as much a part of the culture as how Russ structures the contracts.

I guess when all your star players have injury histories, then that's all you have available for contract extensions. I find it interesting that Christian Watson, who's been much maligned with injuries during his career, has more snaps than any of the other players on the list. Is there a magic pill out there to keep players from getting injured? Are Packer players more susceptible to injury than other team's players? It seems that way, but then I'm focused solely on the Packers.

Maybe we just need the luck of one injury-free season. Or several!

At some point the passage of time leads to an inevitable moment of truth in football. We are now 8 seasons in with the troika of LaFleur, Gutekunst and Ball. While football success is influenced by luck with injuries etcetera to some degree, by now this team as led by them has enough of a body of work that there’s not much to hide. We know the issues that have characterized the past. We’ve had time to build a competent roster and to figure out how to get the most out of it. We are 4 years on from the transition to Love.

There comes a time for reckoning when the excuses have worn through and all that remains is to prove one way or the other whether this team is real or simply a nice try. Proof isn’t necessarily winning, but it’s about showing we have the attitude, desire and talent to overcome the inevitable injuries and opponents’ adaptations and tactics and if not to win it all, to go down punching above our weight for once.

If we can’t put together a consistent and effective offense that can not only score but win the possession battle then with this roster LaFleur will be shown to be mere puffery. There can be no excuse with this roster to hide that. If on D we can’t get to the passer without Parsons, can’t cover in the secondary for long enough to aid that and can’t stand firm against the run, then it’s going to be well nigh impossible to say that the D group that Gute built is adequate.

Policy can say what he likes, though not necessarily credibly. We are at a point where this season has to demonstrate a viable roster and strikingly effective handling of it. This team needs to make waves and shake up league expectations even if it ultimately goes down fighting short of the goal to a worthy opponent. If it doesn’t, then it’s time to end this regime. Not to think about it or agonize, but end it and the awful Murphy restructuring with it.

Policy may look like a fool or a savant, but he put himself there of his own free will by retaining the structure and announcing essentially that not keeping the status quo was essentially a bafflingly incomprehensible concept last winter. In fact, the franchise is set up for a natural prove it season on field. This is it.

We are about to see if the post Ted/McCarthy era had been fools gold or simply delayed in coming to fruition. We’ve thrown our chips on the table and locked in the key pricey pieces. Now it’s time to show they make sense and that we can use them effectively. This is a no bullshit season for the Packers.

Even if the Packers had not dealt away picks for Parsons, they would still need to be resigning players to at least maintain. I'll point out that there are still several core players at S and LB (and edge) and on the OL who are on rookie deals. In essence, the Packers have extended the players around those cheaper guys and created a group that will play together for at least two years. As Al said, there's a degree of "pay as you go" in a lot of these contracts that allow the Packers to get out if it looks like a sour deal (see: Hobbs, Nate).

Yes, there are guys who seem to get hurt, but I think there's a difference between a guy falling on your leg and wrecking your knee/breaking your leg, and those guys who seem to take a long time getting up every time they get hit or seem to pull up lame every time they go hard. There are some positions where guys just miss games--WRs and RBs come to mind. There are also those guys who are like Dalvin Cook who seem to hobble off the field every time they fumble but come back fine later... (had to get in my shots, there).

Jersey Al has described 'betting against the house,' which rarely loses to a 'system' gambler. Sure, it gets a nibble often, but you need a lot of luck to go your way for the big win. Luck seems to be a rare thing in GB, much less things going right often enough to compensate for its lack of luck. However, every system has a chance, but repeating a failed system makes that chance more and more unlikely with every roll out of it.

I would largely agree with the sentiment expressed: worrisome with the amount of time some of these players have missed, but since Gute is putting all of his chips on the table (still a bit risky in my opinion since the team hasn't been exactly on the doorstep of a Super Bowl appearance), he's going to need these players. I wouldn't have picked up LVN's option simply because it's too expensive and he simply hasn't shown enough; to me his future production is a shot in the dark.

Sure it's possible that the Packers can reach the promised in the next couple of seasons, but the entire team and coaching staff needs to take a collective step forward. And the latest draft has to be a good one pretty much down the list, but especially Cisse and Smack: if they don't turn out to be winners, then the promised land may be just as far off as the past couple of seasons.

The game is a TV show. Some of the actors get hurt and some play not to get hurt so they have a long TV career. They may suck but they play every week.

Payton Manning and Brady started this with no hitting the QB. A big TV show for the weekend, plus you can gamble also. Pick your favorite actor and hope he does well.

But they allow some cheaps shots on certain QBs. For entertainment.

Can't blame Gute for going with the devil he knows. The medical staff surely weighed-in on these decisions. I guess the alternative would be to le them all walk and just get a bunch of new players that don't get hurt. Easy, right?

Regardless of Dragon's forecast, I will support this team. GPG

Easing back into football season.

I'm hoping (not betting) on dark horse candidate Marshawn Lloyd to give the Packers a surprise boost.
I don't think Jacobs will be indicted if he wasn't until now. But if he doesn't play, we need some running threat to help the offense.

Not expecting D to hold up well without Parsons. I wonder if Gannon is a 'bend but don't break' kind of guy?

I believe most people feel that after the Raven debacle last year and subsequent self- destruction against the Bears that Green Bay has a team without heart.
I think it's not heart they lack but confidence. Most, not all, but most of the blame lays at losing the big uglies to injury and or playing hurt.
All teams have to go through this year after year and they make it to the SB. Why not Green Bay? Glad you asked, Green Bay has had the youngest team in the league three years running. They are still green, they are still building their strength and endurance. Lastly they have also had to endure some major coaching issues.
So now those baby linemen are ready to step up and deliver. I also think MLF realized his mistake in not using Kraft more faster and will keep that in mind for this year's offense.
JMHO

Regardless how the money is spent-
Not one is an All-pro.
Reed was on the trading block.
And age is creeping up fast.
The core values might work for you.
But unless they turn elite.
Gute's days here, must be numbered.

Rewarding Unavailability - bold strategy let’s see if it pays off for them .

I wonder what the tipping point will be with the 3 amigos? 6 wins?, 7 wins? How low will the Packers go before they finally boot Gute, MLF. Ball, Policy (and Murphy)?

I wouldn't have extended Wyatt or LVN. Rewarding below average play and stats is ridiculous. At least Watson and Reed have produced when healthy. LVN has done nothing to merit more money.

Outstanding take and article. Was a refreshing read.