The Green Bay Packers are downplaying quarterback Jordan Love’s two-game absence to end the regular season, but that should be the least of their concerns.
Per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Love told reporters he “doesn’t really” believe the layoff will impact his postseason play. The Packers (9-7-1) play the division rival Chicago Bears (11-6) on Saturday. Love missed Week 17 with a concussion and sat out the team’s Week 18 game with Green Bay locked into the No. 7 seed.
Head coach Matt LaFleur echoed his quarterback, saying, “He looked good. He had, I would say, a pretty normal workload, so he looked good.”
While Love might look solid, Green Bay, losers of four consecutive games, is on unsteady ground.
Packers’ slump much bigger concern than Jordan Love’s return from a two-game layoff
The Packers are the second team in as many years to enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak, joining the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Per Stathead research, Green Bay is the fourth team in NFL history to enter the postseason on a losing streak of at least four games, also joining the 1999 Detroit Lions and 1986 New York Jets, who lost five in a row. In the three previous instances, the fading playoff team has gone 1-3 in the playoffs, with the Jets notching the only win.
Nine teams made the playoffs despite ending the season on a three-game losing streak. Only the 2009 New Orleans Saints went on to win the Super Bowl.
Others in recent years have had rough stretches to end the season, including the 2022 Miami Dolphins and 2023 Philadelphia Eagles. Both were 1-5 in their last six games before losing in the wild-card round.
It matters how a team plays entering the playoffs, and the Packers have been playing their worst football of the season of late. Over their final three games after losing edge Micah Parsons (knee) for the season, Green Bay ranked No. 28 in total defense, allowing 392.3 yards per game. It posted the fourth-worst point differential during that span, ahead of only the Arizona Cardinals (3-14), Dolphins (7-10) and Jets (3-14).
Getting Love back will likely provide a spark, but it might not be enough to keep up with the Bears offense. Chicago ranks in the top 10 in both scoring and total offense and is equally efficient in the pass and run attacks.
The Packers will have to keep pace, and that’s going to be difficult with a quarterback coming off injury and a two-game layoff. But as much as that could impact Green Bay, its late-season swoon is even more concerning. Losing Parsons put a massive, irrevocable dent in the team’s Super Bowl aspirations, and not even getting Love back can fix that.