Leading OFF
Rookie class gives Packers’ Love chance to shine in playoffs
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are a scary playoff opponent because quarterback Jordan Love is playing as well as any quarterback in the NFL the past eight weeks.
If ever there was proof general manager Brian Gutekunst made the right decision in drafting Love in the first round of the 2020 draft and parting ways with Aaron Rodgers after last season, it was Love’s incredible stretch of 19 touchdowns with just one interception during the Packers’ final eight games of the season.
He became one of only 21 NFL quarterbacks to throw for at least 30 touchdown passes before the age of 26 two weekends ago against Minnesota and raised his total to 32 with two more in the Packers’ playoffclinching 17-9 victory over the Chicago Bears on Jan. 7.
He and Brett Favre (33 touchdowns in 1994) are the only ones to do it in Packers history.
The Packers are dangerous because Love is hot, but they are 9-8 and facing a wild-card playoff game against former Packers coach Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. ET this Sunday because Gutekunst struck gold in the 2023 NFL draft.
Their season would have ended on their home field for a second straight year if it weren’t for the remarkable performance of one of the team’s most promising rookie classes in decades. Of the Packers’ 46 game-day active players, 13 were rookies, including four starters, and they made their presence felt.
In a tight, eight-point victory, all of the Packers points were scored by rookies. In total, the group contributed 17 receptions for 224 yards and two touchdowns, eight tackles, two sacks, a pass breakup, a field goal and two extra points.
At this point of the season, rookies are supposed to be fading, given clubs just finished their 20th game, which is almost double the number college plays.
But throughout the season – and in the past couple of weeks in particular – the group has risen far and above what anyone could have expected.
“Honestly, we all as rookies, we are close,” said cornerback Carrington Valentine, a seventhround draft pick who started his 12th game Jan. 7. “We came into rookie minicamp, we all jelled and we all had one goal: we really wanted to play.
“And as y’all can see, we came to play.”
According to Elias, the Packers are the fourth-youngest team to make the playoffs since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The Packers’ average age is 25.58 years, making them the youngest team to make the playoffs since the 1974 Buffalo Bills.
Gutekunst’s sixth draft class included 13 picks. The only players not on the 53-man roster from that group are two seventh-round draft picks: wide receiver Grant DuBose, who has been on Green Bay’s practice squad all season and was elevated for game day against the Bears, and running back Lew Nichols, who was released on Sept. 7 and has since landed on Philadelphia’s practice squad.
In addition to the 12 picks who have remained, there are three rookies on the 53-man roster who were either signed as undrafted players or claimed on waivers from another team.
It would be one thing if the Packers had the Nos. 2 and 3 picks in the draft like the Houston Texans and had selected a potential franchise quarterback like C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson, the top pass rusher in the draft. But the Packers picked in the middle of each round, their lone bonus pick the secondrounder the New York Jets sent in return for Rodgers.
The shining star from this class is second-round wide receiver Jayden Reed, who smashed Sterling Sharpe’s rookie record for receptions in Week 17 and then recorded his first NFL 100-yard receiving game against the Bears with four catches for 112 yards.
“J-Reed is a dog, man,” said receiver Bo Melton, who in his second year has been making his own splash with the Packers offense. “I love J-Reed to death. I’d go to war with him any day.”
Reed finished the regular season as the team’s leading receiver with 64 catches for 793 yards and eight touchdowns. He has been playing with multiple injuries, including a chest bruise that knocked him out of the Vikings game last week, but has missed only one game.
His 59-yard catch-and-run early in the fourth quarter set up the Packers final points and his 15-yard catch with 4 minutes left – which he paid for with a wicked shot from safety Eddie Jackson – dug the Packers out of a hole deep in their own end and allowed them to keep possession and run precious time off the clock.
“There’s no drop-off no matter the age,” Reed said. “Age is just a number. You get out there on the field and it’s time to go. We definitely have high expectations for everybody whether you’re older or younger. I don’t think age has anything to do with anything.”
Age has certainly not been a factor when it comes to Love spreading the ball around. Unlike his predecessor, who wasn’t fond of rookies who made assignment errors, Love has persevered through the mistakes and found a chemistry with an entire room of receivers, none of whom came into this season with more than one year of experience.
And in a season when No. 1 receiver Christian Watson has missed eight games, the Packers have needed more than just Reed to come through. Fifthround pick Dontayvion Wicks showed promise from the very start of the season. But in his past eight games, he’s exploded for 29 catches for 441 yards and three touchdowns.
And as has been the case all season, he has filled in where
needed. When veteran Romeo Doubs went out in the first quarter with a chest injury, Wicks stepped in and caught six passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns.
“I always knew what I could do,” Wicks said. “I always believed in myself. I just knew it would come. I just didn’t know when. I got the opportunity early and showed that.”
Offensively, there is more out there for the rookies. Tight end Luke Musgrave returned from a five-game absence due to a lacerated kidney and received a very small number of snaps to help him get acclimated to playing again.
However, he caught a pass for 11 yards and might have had a big gain if Love had spotted him running free down the middle of the field earlier in the game.
“It was just good to get a feel for the game again,” said Musgrave, a second-round pick who still led the tight ends with 33 catches for 341 yards and a touchdown this season.
As he has throughout the time Musgrave has been hurt, third-round pick Tucker Kraft continued to be a good option for Love, totaling three catches for 31 yards against the Bears, including a 15-yarder that helped seal the game in the final minutes.
On defense, the Packers received a big boost from sixthround pick Karl Brooks, who had seen his production wane over the past month or so. But he came up big against the Bears, setting up Kenny Clark for a sack with a well-run stunt and then sacking quarterback Justin Fields on the Bears’ final possession, setting up a thirdand-22 they couldn’t convert.
“We’re balling right now,” said Brooks, who finished the regular season with four sacks. “It’s motivating for me because when I see the other rookies out there making plays, it makes me want to make a play. It’s just amazing to see.”
And what is even more amazing is the best may still be to come. The Packers will have at least one more game to find out thanks to their effort.
9. Speaking further of tight ends, bittersweet Week 18 for Lions rookie Sam LaPorta. He caught five passes, giving him 86 for the season – a new record for rookie tight ends after he surpassed Keith Jackson.
9a. However, LaPorta was knocked out of the game with a knee injury, a potentially crippling blow to the NFC North champions a week ahead of their firstever playoff game at Ford Field.
10. Before the injury, LaPorta also scored – making him the third rookie tight end with at least 10 TD grabs. He and Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs are the first rookie teammates to both score doubledigit TDs.
10a. The Lions also became the second squad in NFL annals with four players scoring at least 10 TDs apiece, RB David Montgomery and WR Amon-Ra St. Brown complementing Detroit’s breakout rookie duo.
10b. The 2013 Denver Broncos, who scored a regular-season record 606 points, had five double-digit TD guys.
11. One last note on the Lions. Props for getting 6-foot-9, 330-pound swing OT Dan Skipper a 4-yard catch, the first of his career, after the Week 17 fiasco at Dallas. And, yes, Skipper was most certainly eligible.
12. Jeff Driskel became the Browns’ fifth starting quarterback this season while giving Joe Flacco the day off Sunday.
13. Cleveland joins the 1984 Chicago Bears as the only teams to reach the playoffs despite starting five quarterbacks in one season.
14. And the 2023 campaign has been a stark reminder that you better have legitimate quarterback depth – a lesson that’s been repeatedly taught since Week 1, when the Jets lost Aaron Rodgers for the season because of an Achilles injury.
14a. Driskel, the Ravens’ Tyler Huntley, the Chiefs’ Blaine Gabbert, the Rams’ Carson Wentz and the 49ers’ Sam Darnold all played in Week 18, meaning 66 different signal-callers started this season – an average of slightly more than two per team.
15. Noteworthy, the NFC East and South were the most stable quarterback divisions – each featuring six total starters during the season. The New York Giants were the only team in the NFC East that needed to go down the quarterback depth chart, albeit two times after Daniel Jones went down with a torn ACL. The NFC South is interesting given all four teams began 2023 with QB1s different from their opening-day starters in 2022.
16. Speaking of quarterback “depth,” the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes – he was in
street clothes with Kelce last Sunday ahead of next weekend’s wild-card date at Arrowhead Stadium – is the only one at the position to be a Pro Bowler in both 2022 and 2023.
17. If you think the genius label gets thrown about a bit too loosely in regards to Rams head coach Sean McVay, consider this: LA is headed to the postseason for the fifth time in his seven seasons, meaning McVay has overtaken legendary John Madden for the most playoff trips for a coach who has yet to turn 38.
18. Falcons coach Arthur Smith, 41, was consistent, too, though unfortunately nowhere near McVay’s level. Atlanta, which entered Week 18 with a shot at the NFC South crown, was blown out by the New Orleans Saints – apparently much to Smith’s displeasure given his on-field reaction to counterpart Dennis Allen afterward – leaving Atlanta at 7-10 for the third consecutive year under Smith.
18a. Falcons owner Arthur Blank fired Smith shortly after midnight ET on Jan. 8. General manager Terry Fontenot will stick around and be part of the search for Smith’s successor.
19. If you had Rams WR Puka Nacua blossoming into the greatest rookie pass catcher in NFL history, we also hope
you’re enjoying your multiple Powerball winnings.
19a. The fifth-rounder from BYU finished with 105 receptions for 1,486 yards – both figures establishing new rookie records.
20. Nacua’s effort helped the Rams win their first regular-season game against the San Francisco 49ers in five years – which also ensured resting Los Angeles QB Matthew Stafford gets to face his former team, the Lions, in Detroit for the wild-card round.
20a. Also, we’d wager ex-Rams QB Jared Goff, now Motown’s main man, can’t wait to see McVay and Co. come to Ford Field, either.
21. San Francisco RB Christian McCaffrey rested his tender calf in Week 18 but still finished with a league-high 1,459 yards on the ground, the first in-season, wire-to-wire rushing king this century.
22. After going 35-for-35 on field goal attempts entering Sunday, the best start to a career of any kicker in league history, the Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey missed twice against Washington – one of his attempts blocked.
23. Didn’t stop “America’s Team” from winning the NFC East Division as the Philadelphia Eagles completed their crash and burn Sunday.
24. The Eagles follow the 2022 Miami Dolphins, among other teams, to limp into the playoffs despite losing five of their final six games.
25. The Eagles’ abdication of the NFC East throne means the division hasn’t had a repeat champion since Philly ruled it from 2001 to 2004, the longest such streak in NFL history.
26. Aubrey’s off day also didn’t prevent the Commanders from locking up the No. 2 overall pick of the 2024 draft – meaning QB Sam Howell’s days as a starter … would surely have to continue elsewhere.
26a. The Dallas demolition didn’t discourage Washington WR Terry McLaurin from getting the yards he needed to notch a fourth straight 1,000-yard campaign – while trailing 38-10 – which is a new team record. Chintzy, but if that’s important to you …
27. Chris Jones’ incentive celebration > Jadeveon Clowney incentive celebration.
28. Steelers OLB T.J. Watt would surely trade the accomplishment for a healthy knee – his Week 18 injury likely to prevent him from participating in the playoffs – but his 19 sacks made him the league’s first three-time league champion in that category since sacks became an official statistic in 1982.
29. Speaking of sacks, Pro Bowl pass rusher Montez Sweat had a career-best 12 1⁄2 … while becoming the first man to lead two different teams (Commanders, Bears) in that category in the same season.
30. RB Derrick Henry’s classy goodbyes, both on the field and at the press conference podium, pretty well signal that the pending free agent will not be returning to the Tennessee Titans for the 2024 season. But what a run “King Henry” had, and his 2023 numbers – a dozen TDs and nearly 1,400 yards from scrimmage – suggest there’s still gas in the tank.
31. The Packers had no Pro Bowlers in 2023 but still managed to be the 14th and final team to qualify for the playoffs, earning a wild-card date with the Cowboys.
31a. Fans of the Carolina Panthers, Patriots and Commanders truly have nothing left to look forward to, those the only other teams not to get even one Pro Bowl nod. Or is it one Pro Bowl Games nod?
32. So that’s 272 games down – once the Buffalo Bills beat the Dolphins to clinch their fourth consecutive AFC East Division crown on Jan. 7 – and 13 left to determine the Super Bowl 58 champion in Las Vegas next month.
To quote former Jets LB Bart Scott: “Can’t wait!”