Over the past two decades, the Green Bay Packers have remained one of the more competitive teams in the NFL year after year.

However, over the past three decades, their sustained success has only translated into two Super Bowl victories.

Of course, that is still more than most teams can boast, and the Packers are one of 12 teams to win multiple Super Bowls in the past 30 years.

In fact, Green Bay has been a model example of stability and a level of consistency that is difficult to sustain in the NFL. Unfortunately, that has been marred by many disappointing and underwhelming finishes to promising seasons.

Most recently, the Packers saw a Super Bowl window close without adding to the trophy room as they navigated the final seasons with Aaron Rodgers and the preliminary seasons under Matt LaFleur.

Turn ahead the clock to the first two seasons with Jordan Love under center, and the Packers have realized a new Super Bowl window cracked open, hardly skipping a beat transitioning off of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

Coming off being the youngest team in the NFL for the second consecutive year, the Packers created high expectations after an overachieving 2023. But similar to seasons past, the success translated into another underwhelming follow-up season to disrupt a promising ascent.

As the Packers turn their attention to the 2025 season, where they hope to put back into gear their climb toward a Super Bowl, the expectation for improvement has been voiced far and wide, even from the front office. Many remain split on the direction of the franchise or the required adjustments to get on track, but one thing is abundantly clear to everyone: the Packers need to take a significant step forward in 2025.

So what does that look like?

Improved consistency in the passing attack

Per Aaron Schatz of FTN Network, last season, the Packers led the NFL on throws to "other receivers" (not WR1 or WR2) with 36% of targets. That's the highest percentage of target share dating back to 1999.

In a season where the Packers ran the ball more than they have since 2003, spreading the ball around as much as they did not only led to an often out-of-sync passing attack but made it difficult for any of the Packers' talented young receivers to progress their development due to limited volume.

In fact, Jayden Reed's 55 catches were the fewest to lead the Packers in receptions since Donald Driver's 52 catches in 2003.

Simply put, there's nothing wrong with the Packers running the ball as much as they did due to their effectiveness. They could also have run more than expected due to Love being hobbled on a bad leg most of the season which had a clear impact on his play for a good stretch of the season.

But should the ground and pound trend continue, that leaves far fewer targets to go around when they do decide to pass, and thus, the Packer's offense would benefit greatly by dialing in on two or three players to disperse a majority of targets.

Without consistency for a receiver, there's less comfortability navigating within the offense, which leads to more miscues, drops, and difficulty for coaches to define who could potentially be "the guy." Last season, only Tucker Kraft and Reed were able to string together two straight games with at least four catches and 100-yard receiving games were few and far between.

Love never seemed to establish his go-to target in "gotta have it" situations, and too often, any given pass catcher would disappear throughout a game.

As the Packers enter an important year with their receiving room, with contract talks coming up, it will be important for Green Bay to establish more obvious focal points in the passing game to better complement a run-heavy scheme. This will go a long way for Love's rapport with his top weapons, the development of young pass catchers that Green Bay is figuring out who to build around, and allow the Packers offense to operate more efficiently as a whole.

For this to happen, LaFleur will need to take a hard look in the mirror at how he calls the offense, extend certain players' expanded roles, and allow guys to develop on the field through consistency rather than hoping someone emerges with a small handful of targets every game.

If Green Bay is able to take what is still a potent passing attack and refine it to match their offensive game plan, the offense should have fewer issues elevating and staying in stride throughout the season.

Young pass rushers step up

Lukas Van Ness and Devonte Wyatt are entering critical years in their time with the Packers. For Wyatt, the decision looms large on whether the Packers will pick up his fifth-year option. Even if he's extended the fifth year, he's still not showcased enough meaningful play to be a guarantee long-term.

Wyatt has been disruptive in getting after the quarterback, racking up at least five sacks in each of the last two seasons despite playing a measly 362 snaps last season. Regardless of the lackluster run defense out of Wyatt, there's no denying that he could be a larger snap share away from being a premier force up the middle in pass rush. Each year, there are only a few defensive tackles putting up double-digit sack numbers. Otherwise, the top sack producers at the position are barely out-producing Wyatt but are far out-snapping him.

In the case of Van Ness, he enters critical year three in his development, during which the Packers will realistically expect him to make the jump in his game after a slow start to his career as he worked on his craft in limited game reps.

For both players, of which Green Bay invested premium first-round draft capital, 2025 will not only be critical for their development, but their improvements will go a long way towards Green Bay's defense improving altogether.

Van Ness, for whatever reason, has had about the most obscure, outlier usage for a top-15 pick in recent memory. Not only does he have the fifth fewest snaps among all 2023 first-rounders, but he's also the only first-rounder since 2020 with 100+ special teams snaps in each of his first two seasons and 200+ special teams snaps in a season before year three.

Green Bay would be wise to at least see what they have in Van Ness because the usage nowhere near parallels the investment to this point. As of now, he has not finished a season with even 40% of the snaps.

Rashan Gary walked a similar path to Van Ness in his first two seasons, playing behind Preston and Za'Darius Smith before breaking out in year three with an 88.9 PFF pass-rush grade (8th) in his first season as a full-time starter. In the case of LVN, and similar to Wyatt, it could be as simple as giving him a reasonable amount of snaps to turn him into an important contributor on the defense.

With the Packers having not yet pursued an outside player to come in to improve the pass rush, and with any rookie being no sure bet to be an improvement or an upgrade, their best bet and intentions seem to be to lean into Van Ness, Wyatt, and the new defensive line coaching that is more focused on technique. Sometimes, it's those simple changes that are all it takes to get a player's career on track.

If they can get more out of both Wyatt and Van Ness in 2025, that will be a tremendous win for next season and many years to come. Not to mention help validate Brian Gutekunst's first-round draft plan that could use a win after a handful of underwhelming picks recently.

No, it's not Super Bowl or bust

But yes, the expectation should always be to go into a season expecting to win a Super Bowl.

The Packers' renewed Super Bowl window has only just opened, and it's far from fully open. Jordan Love is only two years into starting, most of their starters are playing on rookie contracts, and an immensely improved defense is only entering its second season after a top-10 performance under first-year coordinator Jeff Hafley.

Simply put, the Packers' current group is nowhere near its ceiling, and the additions of All-Pros Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney last season have only pushed that ceiling higher.

It's teams like the Buffalo Bills, who have spent four of the past five post-seasons getting bounced by the Kansas City Chiefs despite Josh Allen playing MVP-level quarterback, that are knocking at the door of Super Bowl or bust. Or the San Francisco 49ers with their group of "Avengers" that is aging and has started disbanding without securing another Lombardi Trophy before now looking to spend top dollar on Brock Purdy with question marks around what he's capable of without All-Pros all over the offense.

Even the Detroit Lions are entering more trepidatious waters after fumbling the bag with Ben Johnson calling plays for what has been a top offensive team over the past three seasons. With losing Johnson inside the division to the Chicago Bears and losing defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to the New York Jets, the Lions are faced with a season of sky-high expectations but two brand new play callers.

For the Packers, a key indicator of success will be getting over their own hump and back into the NFC Championship game. That's not settling for less than a Super Bowl; a championship game appearance is instead a low-end target to aim for to consider 2025 a considerable step forward from the first two seasons with Love. Achieving what is essentially a "final four" appearance in the NFL will be a measuring stick for where the Packers roster is at after a disappointing finish to 2024 and what final tweaks would be necessary to then get back to the big game.

But by no means have the Packers reached the doorstep of Super Bowl or bust.