When you consider how the Green Bay Packers finished a year ago following 4-6 start, it’s easy to imagine them being in the playoffs for the ninth consecutive year. Of course, if you saw Mike McCarthy’s defense this past season, it’s also not hard to believe that the club could come up short of the postseason due to its deficiencies on that side of the football. That was very evident in the lopsided 44-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC title game at the Georgia Dome. As far as the team’s prospects for 2017, that’s a discussion for another time.
Back in 2011, one year after winning Super Bowl XLV, the Packers finished 15-1 and scored an imposing 560 points. Is this year’s version of McCarthy’s offense capable of even bigger things?
Mind-boggling numbers
He’s one of the few players in the league that could throw 25 touchdown passes and just seven interceptions in a 10-game span and some would blame him for a team’s sorry start. That’s the reality when it comes to gifted Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is on the verge of reaching the 300 TD pass club while entering only his 10th year as a starter. This past season, he helped rescue the club after a dismal start and finishing 2016 with a league-best 40 scores through the air.
That included a 15-touchdown pass, zero interception run in the final six weeks of the season that elevated the Pack to a 10-6 record and the NFC North title. The blistering play continued with playoff wins over the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys before the team’s loss at Atlanta.
What they’ve added
As much help as this club needed on defense, it might surprise some to know that general manager Ted Thompson and the Green Bay Packers wound up with 10 picks in April’s draft and used the final six selections on offense.
Prior to that, the team was busier than usual in free agency and did well in that regard. There are the additions of free-agent tight ends Martellus Bennett (New England Patriots) and Lance Kendricks, the latter cut this offseason by the Los Angeles Rams. When the team lost right guard T.J. Lang to the Detroit Lions, they offset that departure with the signing of six-time Pro Bowler Jahri Evans (New Orleans Saints).
As for those six offensive draft choices, three will bolster the backfield in the form of Jamaal Williams (4b-BYU), Aaron Jones (5b-UTEP) and Devonte Mays (7-Utah State).
Both Bennett and Jones caught touchdown passes in the team’s 21-17 win at Washington on Saturday night. Now consider this is a club with Rodgers at the controls and weapons such as running back Ty Montgomery and a wideout corps led by Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams and Geronimo Allison. All told, another 500-plus points season is entirely possible for this talented offense.
