YAC monsters supercharge Green Bay’s offense

Green Bay’s offense has been consistently impressive under Matt LaFleur, especially in the Jordan Love era, because they are able to win in multiple ways and can adapt their game plan to the opponent.

In 2024, an extra element has been added to the Packers attack, and that is the ability to consistently get yards after the catch and moreover, after contact.

This was exemplified on Thanksgiving night by Tucker Kraft and Josh Jacobs, both of whom used their physicality to their advantage, creating extra yards after the catch consistently.

It was a tougher day on the ground for Jacobs compared to recent games, with the running back only managing a 2.3 yard average as the Dolphins focused their defensive game plan on stopping the bruising back.

But Jacobs made up for that lack of production through the air, catching four passes for 74 yards, headlined by a career-long 49-yard reception. After grabbing a checkdown pass by Love, he made four defenders miss, driving the Packers down into the red zone in the process.

For his part, Kraft continued to display why he is not very fun, or easy, to tackle. He refuses to go down and always finishes forward. Kraft ended the game as Green Bay’s leading receiver, catching six passes for 78 yards.

The Packers have always been strong in the finesse side of offense under LaFleur, but the arrival of Jacobs and the emergence of Kraft have turned them into an attack which can batter and bully opponents, and this should only become more prevalent as the weather turns colder.

A mature performance from Jordan Love

A helpful side effect of the Packers’ increased YAC capabilities is that it makes life easier for second-year starter Love, who does not have to don his superhero cape quite so often.

The positive reinforcement he has received after seeing his pass catchers do the heavy lifting and turn short catches into big gains has made him more willing to check the ball down, rather than taking on a riskier throw.

Love has played better each week since the bye, with his decision making in particular becoming more refined. With the knee and groin injuries he dealt with early in the year in the rearview mirror, Green Bay’s signal caller is looking more like the player fans expected to see in 2024.

His passer rating reached a season-high 129.2 versus Miami, and Love went a second straight game without throwing an interception, after registering at least one in his first eight appearances of the season.

Love took off in the second half of last season, propelling the Packers into the playoffs. The signs are positive that he is gearing up to play his best football down the stretch.

Packers playoff ticket essentially punched

Barring an epic collapse worthy of the Chicago Bears, the Packers are now a near certainty to make the postseason after improving their record to 9-3 on Thursday night. Now the question is: how good can it get?

In the fiercely competitive NFC North, Green Bay remains third in the division despite their record, half a game back of the Minnesota Vikings – who face the 6-5 Arizona Cardinals on Sunday – and two games behind the Detroit Lions, who outlasted the Bears on Thanksgiving.

The Vikings and Lions currently each tiebreakers over the Packers, but they will have a chance to rectify that when they face off for the second time this season. Both games will be road trips for Green Bay, starting with a matchup against Detroit next Thursday night.

If the Packers are to stand any chance of winning the NFC North, they must beat the Lions and go on to beat the Vikings later in the year. If they fall in Detroit next week, the remainder of the season will be spent jostling for wild card position.

Avoiding the seven seed, which is likely to send the holder to Philadelphia in the first round, would be the goal in that case. The fifth or sixth seed would be much more appetizing, pairing the Packers with the winners of either the underwhelming NFC South or West.

At this point, we know the Packers are a playoff team. The rest of the season is about trying to improve seeding and gauging expectations for what they can do when the postseason arrives.

Another strong Quay Walker game

In what would be the upset of the year, it appears the light may be coming on for Quay Walker.

Coming off the worst game of his Packers career against the Bears a fortnight ago, Walker has been an impact player for Green Bay in the subsequent two games.

His performance against the 49ers could easily be branded a fluke, but he followed it up with an even better game versus the Dolphins, looking markedly improved in tackling, coverage, and as a blitzer.

Walker consistently caused disruption on Thursday night, tallying four pressures, joint most by any Packers player. He registered a sack on a crucial fourth-and goal for Miami, and his pressure led to Kenny Clark cleaning up for his first sack of the season as well.

Two games is still a small sample size, but if Walker has truly turned a corner, it would be a massively positive, surprising development for Green Bay’s defense.

Young pass rushers step up

Moving on from a respected veteran seems to have sparked an uptick in Green Bay’s defensive performance, much in the same way as trading Rasul Douglas away at the deadline in 2023 did.

It is hard to explain why Preston Smith being moved to Pittsburgh has kicked the Packers’ young pass rushers into gear, especially as many of them were already seeing significant playing time before the trade, and did little with it, but it is a welcome development all the same.

Rashan Gary is slowly starting to look like the game wrecker he can be, pressuring Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa four times on Thursday. Lukas Van Ness had three, while Brenton Cox and Kingsley Enagbare had a pair each.

Green Bay sacked Tua five times in total, feasting on what is admittedly not a stellar offensive line, but regardless of the opponent, the youthful group of pass rushers seems to be adapting to Jeff Hafley’s 4-3 defensive scheme after a very slow start, and have stepped up in the last couple of games.