GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the Green Bay Packers to reach the playoffs, Jordan Love must stay healthy, Edgerrin Cooper must take the next step and Xavier McKinney must deliver another elite season.
For the Packers to win the Super Bowl, they’ll need more than big-time performances from their big-time players. They’ll need these five players to step to the forefront.
RB MarShawn Lloyd
Josh Jacobs is a stud. In his debut season with the Packers, he earned Pro Bowl honors because of his hard-charging, tackle-breaking production.
Jacobs can’t do it alone, though. While Emanuel Wilson played a mean second fiddle last season, it’s second-year player MarShawn Lloyd who brings the juice to the position.
Lloyd ranked among the national leaders in yards per carry at USC in 2023 because of his combination of power and speed. Last year was a disaster, though. He played in only one game due to an extensive list of injuries and unfortunate setbacks.
“He’s different in a lot of ways from some of the other guys,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “He definitely has some great explosiveness and could be a really valuable weapon out of the backfield, I think. We saw that when he was healthy. He’s a guy that’s got to prove it.”
Well, the Packers didn’t really see that last year. He was injured during his only preseason appearance and injured again during his only regular-season performance. His NFL experience consists of 10 regular-season snaps. If he can stay healthy, his explosiveness would add another element to an excellent offense.
WR Savion Williams
The Packers’ top six receivers are back from last season, and they added Matthew Golden with a first-round draft pick and Mecole Hardman in free agency. With his speed and polish, Golden needs to be an impact player.
So does third-round pick Savion Williams.
LaFleur has gotten a lot of easy yards from the schemed touches for his receivers, with Jayden Reed being a chief beneficiary. Reed has been unable to take the pounding from the jet sweeps and screens, though.
That’s where Williams could help. At 222 pounds, he’s got the size to handle the punishment. He was incredible last season at TCU, with 18 missed tackles on 60 receptions and 22 missed tackles on 51 rushes.
Obviously, he’ll face much better competition in the NFL. But if Williams can excel in the schemed touches, it could unleash Reed into more of a pure receiver role, where he’s been outstanding (aside from too many dropped passes last year).
DE Brenton Cox
We laid out Brenton Cox’s season here. The trade-deadline deal that sent Preston Smith to the Steelers finally got Cox on the field. In seven games, he had four sacks, seven quarterback hits and 17 pressures. For comparison, former first-round pick Lukas Van Ness got 159 more pass-rushing opportunities than Cox but finished with three sacks, six quarterback hits and 20 pressures.
The Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson was off to a legendary start through five games before his season-ending injury. Among NFL edge defenders, only Hutchinson beat Cox in PFF’s pass-rush productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap.
The Packers need a more consistent four-man pass rush. Based on last year’s small sample size, Cox could be part of the solution.
DT Devonte Wyatt
As a former first-round pick, there are great expectations for Devonte Wyatt. With veteran starter TJ Slaton signing with the Bengals in free agency, there’s a hole in the middle of the defensive line. Wyatt, who has started only five games in three seasons, will be asked to fill it.
Wyatt has been tremendous as a pass rusher. While 12 sacks in three seasons might seem like underwhelming production, he is the only defensive tackle from the 2022 draft class with more than nine. More than the sacks, he ranked second among interior defenders in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity in 2023 and sixth in 2024.
Can Wyatt stop the run? He knows that will be pivotal, and he spent the offseason working on “being more violent” in that phase. Can Wyatt stay healthy and finish with greater frequency as a pass rusher? If so, an enormous contract will be within reach.
“Very excited, man, just to see what I can do this year, what I can bring, and what I improved in during the offseason through all the training I’ve been doing,” Wyatt said.
S Javon Bullard
There are two key questions revolving around Green Bay’s secondary.
One is who will start at safety opposite Xavier McKinney. Will it be last year’s second-round pick, Javon Bullard, who started 11 games and finished with 85 tackles? Or will it be last year’s fourth-round pick, Evan Williams, who started six games and earned All-Rookie honors.
The other is who will be the three corners in Green Bay’s nickel package. Nickel is the universal base defense in the NFL, with that grouping on the field about two-thirds of the time. Keisean Nixon and Nate Hobbs will be two of the three. Who will be the third? Will it be Carrington Valentine and Nixon on the perimeter with Hobbs in the slot? Or will it be Nixon and Hobbs on the perimeter and Bullard in the slot?
The Packers are hoping the versatility of Hobbs, Nixon and Bullard will make up for the lack of proven depth at cornerback.
Bullard played slot and safety last year while playing through an ankle injury. Wherever he lines up in Year 2, he must crank up the ball production after having zero interceptions, zero forced fumbles and one pass defensed as a rookie.
