A multitude of factors could make the 2020 season a truly defining year for the Green Bay Packers.
This is a team with a future Hall of Fame quarterback coming off a 13-win season. The Packers were one game away from the Super Bowl. The window should be open.
But for how long?
The shifting nature of the NFL makes a “Super Bowl window” a fleeting idea. So much changes from year to year, and there are already razor-thin margins separating most of the teams. Even so, during most years, it becomes relatively clear that only a handful of teams have a legitimate shot at winning the title.
The Packers are a contender in 2020. Even if they were a fortunate team in 2019 (the analytics are clear; on paper, they looked much more like a 10-6 team than a 13-3 team), Matt LaFleur’s team will go into 2020 as one of the contenders to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Maybe not a favorite, but certainly a contender.
The Packers really need to make the most of the opportunity because the future looks increasingly uncertain.
Two points help explain the heightened importance of 2020:
– The Packers have significant and team-altering free-agent decisions to make following this season. David Bakhtiari, Kenny Clark, Corey Linsley, Kevin King and Aaron Jones are all scheduled to be free agents. Russ Ball might be a salary cap wizard, but even he will be hard-stressed to keep more than two or three of the five, especially with legitimate concerns looming about a shrinking cap next season. LaFleur’s team is going to lose a handful of really good players after this season, upping the urgency for making the most of a talented roster in 2020.
– Aaron Rodgers turns 37 in December and now has a hand-picked first-round quarterback being groomed behind him. Rodgers will be the unquestioned starter in 2020, and he’ll have a real opportunity to improve during the second season in the scheme. Beyond that? It gets far more uncertain. The Packers have taken the opening steps of the team’s next quarterback transition. It’s possible Rodgers has only one or two more years to get back to the Super Bowl in Green Bay before the Jordan Love era truly begins.
Looking so deep into the future in the NFL is a fool’s errand, but it’s not difficult to see how the Packers could take a (possibly significant) step back talent-wise in 2021 while an inevitable quarterback change looms on the horizon.
However, the right mix of pieces is in place for 2020. The roster, while not perfect, has true talent at important positions on both sides of the football. Rodgers might no longer be one of the truly elite quarterbacks, but his individual talent level remains high and his internal drive might be at an all-time high. And the Packers have real potential to improve internally, with the offense going into Year 2 in LaFleur’s scheme and the current (and mostly intact) cast of defenders entering a second season together under Pettine.
The Packers are built to win right now, but the organization also has one eye on the future, and everyone in the building must see how much everything could – and likely will – change, starting in 2021. This is a contending football team with a huge transition phase coming. That’s not a bad spot to be, especially with the potential to compete for a Super Bowl this year and an opportunity for long-term sustainability beyond the Rodgers era, but the Packers are under pressure to make the most of the 2020 season.
Failure under these circumstances could accelerate changes. While every season is important in professional sports, the Packers are entering a crucial season that has Super Bowl expectations being exacerbated by the weight of potentially critical departures and a future franchise-changing transition at the game’s most important position.