As the Green Bay Packers continue to prepare for the 2015 season one has to wonder how good this offense can really be. A year after leading the league in scoring, they bring back every single starter and several others that are expected to make a big jump this year.
Going into last season the Packers had weaknesses on offense at tight end and third wide receiver. Both of those positions improved as the season went on with rookie Davante Adams picking up the slack at receiver and veteran Andrew Quarless doing the same at tight end. Rookie tight end Richard Rodgers was also contributing by season’s end.
With Jeff Janis coming on, Jared Abbrederis coming back from injury, and this years rookie Ty Montgomery looking good already, wide receiver is once again a position of strength for the Packers.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers said last year that tight end Rodgers has the best hands on the team. That was certainly evident in the Packers’ playoff win over Dallas last year when he caught a rocket in tight coverage in the back of the end zone. He’ll never be a Jermichael Finley, but guys like Finley don’t grow on trees. Rodgers is more than capable of being a key part of the offense.
Of course everything begins and ends with the quarterback in the NFL and Rodgers is clearly playing the best football of his career. His knowledge of the offense is incomparable and he should have even more control this year with assistant head coach Tom Clements now calling the plays for head coach Mike McCarthy. I think we will see a slightly more aggressive approach to play calling, especially in close games.
Rodgers certainly has to feel good knowing that his offensive line is returning intact after he was only being sacked 28 times last year, which was his fewest in 16 games since 2008. Not only did that line protect the league’s MVP, it also paved the way for Eddie Lacy to gain over a 1000 yards on the ground for a second consecutive year.
I’ll put the Packers front five of David Bakhtiari, Josh Sitton, Corey Linsley, T.J. Lang and Bryan Bulaga up against any offensive line in the league, they are highly underrated if you ask me. The line also returns swing man Donnie Barclay and still has J.C. Tretter raring and ready to go.
At running back the Packers have John Kuhn and James Starks back and are high on prospects John Crockett and Aaron Ripkowski. Ripkowski appears to be the heir apparent to Kuhn. Incredibly, the Packer have depth at every position on offense.
It’s going to be hard to find a weakness this year. The biggest problem Clements and Rodgers will have is keeping everybody happy. Not a bad problem to have.