"Brandon McManus finished second in the NFL with a field goal success percentage of 95.2. He made 20 out of 21 attempts. He was a perfect three for three from 50 yards or beyond. He made good on thirty out of thirty extra points.

Last year Anders Carlson’s field goal percentage was 81.8. which was 24th in the NFL. He made 27 of 33 attempts, and was three of five from fifty yards plus. He missed a league high five extra points."

If Gutey doesn't make McManus a Priority FA Signing then I'm going to start having problems with Gute. I've been a big supporter of Gutey in spite of his 1st round bombs and 3rd round busts. But after last season with Carlson, and several games this season with the Narverson, WHY screw around?

Sign the man NOW!

OK, I'm on board with the general sentiment. We have transitioned from the HOF QB passing attack of the last 30 years, and we do run over and around people. We'll see if we can do it in the playoffs, because that's what will matter. . The repeated offensive misfires are concerning and will be fatal if they continue. You simply cannot go on the road against a good team and make a bunch of mistakes and win. If we have any chance against Philly, we're going to need to put some points on the board.

It's playoff time, and what do you do best?? In Green Bay's case, we run the ball and have some success throwing downfield. That's what this team does best on offense. If we do that, and protect the ball, we'll win. If we can't do what we do best, we're done for the season.

You cite significant improvement then essentially describe stasis on O and D. The exception being more rushing yards. Jones missed the majority of the season last year. Jacobs didn’t. Wilson put up 500 yards. That was an upgrade in Dillon. That and kicking aside, which is clearly true, we essentially plateaued this season and that’s what your stats show.

Whereas net and average kick off yardage are meaningful stats in isolation for a KO specialist- because all kick offs occur from the same position on the field- net and average punt yardage has never been meaningful statistics in a vacuum because every punt attempt is taken from a different part of the field.

If you have two punters with identical leg talent, and drop one on a team with better offense, and one on a team with a weaker offense, it is likely that the punter on the team with the more anemic offense will accrue a larger average punt distance because if the offense stalled out on their own 30, he's got 70 yards of field to punt into, whereas the punter with a more potent offense that gets out to midfield more frequently is only giving him 50 yards of field to work with.

For analyzing punters, you really want to include percentage of punts inside 20, inside 10, etc and so forth, as well as average field position from which they had to punt.

It's not nearly as easy as assessing the KO specialists, but looking at only net and average punt yardage is not nearly enough to determine the type of punter Whelan is.

My belief is that the Packers run defense stiffened as a result of two things; 1) The Packers were 31st in blitz percentage in 2024, and 2) Defenders on the edge were far more disciplined in their contain duties that in previous years.

Packers' reduced blitz percentage was probably- again, IMO- a result of Hafley trying to keep as much help for pass defense available as possible with the loss of Jaire and other uncertainties in CB room throughout the year.

Here's another one for your consideration; my belief is that the Packers' being 'soft in the middle of the field' vs. the pass was not a weakness they couldn't fix, but rather, a calculated concession by Hafley. Lacking the horsepower at CB pretty much all season to match up 1:1 on dominant #1 Wrs, I believe Hafley made the decision to defend the perimeters at all costs with safety help spit wide and live with soft zones in the middle of the field. I believe this was a decision made for geometric reasons- angle of attack so to speak.

If you get beat deep on the perimeter, half the defenders on the field are 100% out of the play- they simply aren't in proximity to catch up and stop the explosive gain. It's usually down to the beaten corner's recovery speed, or a deep safety's angle of attack, to stop the big play from turning into a hemorrhaging TD.

If you get beat deep in the middle of the field, generally speaking all of your fastest defenders have angles of attack to the ball carrier- they at least have a 50/50 chance of being remotely in on the play. DBs from either side of the field have a fighting chance at swarming to the ball carrier and making the stop. Maybe even a LB can get a chance at the stop (who's probably the guy who got beat to begin with).

The kickers deserve to be commended!… they did awesome!

I wanna see COOPER on the field with #7! In the 4-3 front, who's the third linebacker? My vote is for Eric Wilson, and AS THE MIKE. Also with the green dot. While I love Isaiah McDuffie, with 56 & 7 as the Sam and Will I think Wilson is the better choice for that application.

I'm allowed to be wrong. MLF may not agree with me; maybe Hafley doesn't either. It'll be interesting to see! Here's hoping we get a whole postseason out of Evan Williams, too. And Bull 🍻

GPG!!

Stats can tell a lot of stories and people often use them as rose colored glasses. If we want a competitive team that keeps the fan base buying tickets then mission accomplished. If you want a team that is a serious contender for the Superbowl then we need to take those glasses off. D-line and O-line are not good enough nor is our secondary or WR corps. Add a coaching staff that just can't seem to make anything consistent with the sum of the parts and you have our Packers.

I will cheer this weekend and send up the "any given Sunday" prayer and hope that they give me something to hang on to. We'll see what the stats say. Go Packers

I can live with Whelan's punt numbers. The dude is a rock solid holder and has great hands handling the bad snaps. Plus, he rarely just shanks a punt.

These guys just need to trust themselves and cut it loose and make a play. No tomorrows in the playoffs unless you vanquish the foe.

GPG!