Looking beyond Jordan Love and the team’s other high-profile players, these five players could have a major role in the Green Bay Packers’ success.

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.