Packers offense looks much different than last time it faced Eagles

The Green Bay Packers offense returns just four players who played in the 2022 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Jordan Love and Christian Watson connected for their first touchdown pass in the fourth quarter of the game.

It will forever be he game where Jordan Love came in to relieve Aaron Rodgers and showed the potential to be Green Bay's "Quarterback of the Future." In that 40-33 loss at Lincoln Financial Field, Love completed 6 of 9 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.

In that Sunday Night game, there was also a glimpse of the Jordan Love-Christian Watson connection, as the two hooked up for a 63-yard touchdown catch. Watson, who finished with four catches for 110 yards, was in the middle of a stretch where he scored eight touchdowns in four games.

 

For many, the excitement for the 2024 season comes from having this influx of young talent on the offensive side of the ball, much different from 2022. The weapons going into that were Jones, Dillon, Lazard, Watkins, Cobb and Tonyan. Watson and Doubs emerged as a potential gamebreakers with their play for parts of their rookie years.

Coming into this season, the media's favorite topic for the Packers' offense would be "Who would be the No. 1 receiver?" But with Watson, Doubs and the second-year players (Wicks, Reed, Melton, Kraft, Musgrave), opponents could have a tough time focusing on just one or two players.

 

Last season, seven different Packers led the team in catches in a game and eight different in yards in a game. The leader in both? Romeo Doubs. Four others led either category at least three times: Reed, Musgrave, Wicks and Watson.

But what's so startling looking back to the last Packers-Eagles game is how different the Packers offense will look from that Week 12 game almost two years ago.

The Packers offense will have only four players on the field who played in that game at Philadelphia. The list is: Love, Watson, Elgton Jenkins and Josh Myers. Zach Tom dressed for the game but was a DNP. Romeo Doubs was inactive because of injury.

The offensive starters for that game: Rodgers, Aaron Jones, Watson, Allen Lazard, Samori Toure, Marcedes Lewis, David Bakhtiari, Jenkins, Myers, Jon Runyan Jr and Yosh Nimjan. Other offensive players to play that night were Sammy Watkins, Randall Cobb, AJ Dillon, Patrick Taylor, Josiah Deguara, Robert Tonyan and Tyler Davis.

In that game, Jones, Dillon, Cobb, as well as Watson all scored their longest touchdowns of the 2022 season.

In seasons where Rodgers started at least 15 games, the 2022 Packers offense was the lowest performing in the Rodgers Era, scoring just 21.75 points per game. The only seasons worse the last 20 years were 2005, 2006 and 2017. Last season the Packers scored only 380 points (compared to 370 in 2022), scoring 309 points in the final 12 games, including the two playoff games, a 25.75 average.

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Mitch McLaughlin is a Packers fan and shareholder residing in Sacramento, California. He will be writing Packers stories each week on Cheesehead TV. He can be found on Twitter: @McLaughlinMitch

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Comments (4)

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ricky's picture

September 03, 2024 at 11:52 pm

Every season is a new start. Yes, there are some holdovers. There is also, inevitably, change. Will the Packers change their ways and finally get a decent start to the season? Or will they come out like they did in Denver, as the backups looked like they would rather be somewhere else? It could well be that Love starts the game a bit slowly, then settles down later on. What will the defense look like for the Packers? They seem happier with Hafley, And what about Philly? This is a team that made it to the Super Bowl two years ago, and seemed poised to at least threaten, when they had a total meltdown for the second half of the season. Which trend will be broken? Slow start Packers, or meltdown Eagles? Whatever, I'm just glad the season is starting, and the games mean something in the standings, not just who is going to make the team.

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Doug_In_Sandpoint's picture

September 03, 2024 at 11:55 pm

I believe this game will be very similar to 2022 in that 73 points will be scored. Alas, all of them will be by the green and gold. Book it now…73-0 Pack rolls.

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Boneman's picture

September 04, 2024 at 07:21 am

Could it possibly be that the league figured out the Eagles last year? They have pretty much the same players as they did during the collapse and sacrificed their assistant coaches. I think that defenses figured out how to stop Hurts and he was exposed a bit. The battle will be the Eagles running game versus the Packers run defense. If the Packers force them into pass only situations it will be game over. Maybe the Eagles will eventually figure out how to play with all the new coaches but not this early in the season. I'm trusting Halfly here and see the Packers will have a coming out party in Brazil, 37-17.

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jocelymes's picture

September 10, 2024 at 01:59 am

NY Giants were holding Saquon Barkley back. That man was happy to be back home like his Penn State days. lol https://geometrydash-lite.com

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