As we begin to finally turn the corner on the long dark night of the NFL offseason, it feels like we can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Training camp will be here before you know it, and I hope at least some of you reading this will be able to attend the practices in person. It’s such an intriguing time to take in the state of the roster, and to begin to imagine new and fun ways for the team to fall just short of expectations. 

I jest. 

But it really does feel like that is the state of the Packers offense though, right? For the entirety of the beginning of the Jordan Love era. Following the 2021 and 2022 drafts that saw the likes of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave (among others) added to swell the ranks of the team’s offensive weapons. Since then, the Packers have always been this close to putting it all together. Then, with the additions of Matthew Golden and Savion Williams a year ago, Green Bay should have been absolutely loaded. 

Despite there being tons of unrealized potential on the table with the young core of the 22’-23’ additions to the team, the overall results speak for themselves, and I think there is a clear lesson to learn when you look back upon this era of Packers offense. 

While the offense as a whole has consistently been a top-ten unit in the league over its current iteration of itself, there’s always been that something missing. Is it the individual dominant performances? Possible. Since they entered the league, Jayden Reed has had the single most productive season with 857 yards on 55 catches with 6 touchdowns in 2024. Romeo Doubs’ 2025 campaign was next with 724 yards, 55 catches and 6 touchdowns last season (eerily similar numbers, funnily enough). Then there was Christian Watson’s 2024 season, when he had 620 yards, 29 catches and 2 touchdowns. Tucker Kraft’s 2024 season was best among the TE’s, with 707 yards, 50 catches and 7 touchdowns (numbers he would have demolished last season without his unfortunate injury). 

No one has managed to achieve any sort of individually noteworthy performance, and although I do recognize that that is partly by the design of the offense itself. How many times has Matt LaFleur emphasized the importance of spreading the ball around the plethora of options that Green Bay had? I will remain forever amused by his own comments on the matter in 2024: "I want to vomit every time I hear 'No. 1 receiver,' to be honest with you… It drives me crazy. That's something that you guys talk about. I feel like we've got a bunch of 'em."

Whether MLF’s opinion on having multiple wr1’s is true or not, is ultimately irrelevant. None of them were able to really reach that kind of acclaim over the past years. None were able to clearly separate themselves from the pack (pardon the pun). And now, he unfortunate truth is that this era is over in Green Bay. You don’t get to keep every single player that you want to in the NFL, and the departure of Romeo Doubs / Dontayvion Wicks from Green Bay means that we can now view the 2022-2025 Packers offense with a certain finality. 

There were always factors seeming to be holding the Packers back from unleashing the hydra-esque multi headed monster that LaFleur always seemed to intend to cultivate. Offensive line troubles in 2025, if I might start with a little recency bias. 2024 was a turbulent experience for the entirety of the team. I would probably argue that the 2023 offense was the closest to actually reaching it’s fullest potential, especially (and obviously) towards the end of that season. But even that year’s squad was held back by long stretches of a poor rushing attack without Aaron Jones, and Love’s growing pains. 

What sticks out to me however, is the injuries. Injuries from top to bottom across the entire passing attack. Injuries that prevented the group from not only hitting their stride together, but from playing together at all. 

Over the course of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons, the core group missed a heartbreaking amount of games. 

And unfortunately, all those missed games has always meant that something was missing from the equation. Watson’s big play ability. Doubs’ consistency. Tucker Kraft’s YAC ability. So on and so forth. Now, when you actually start to consider how little this group actually played together. Ready for some stats? 

Over the course of three seasons, the “core” group (everyone minus Golden, as the newcomer) played together for only twelve total games. those seven players played together in a grand total of seventeen different combinations. Christian Watson only appears in six of those seventeen combinations, Romeo Doubs in fourteen. Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave were active together in only nine out of seventeen groupings, and twenty seven games total. 

Of course, we’ve now got a smaller core. The group of weapons (considering the departure of Doubs and Wicks, and the lack of a breakout from Musgrave) consists only of Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Tucker Kraft. That particular group of players has played together a grand total of.. zero times. It’s never happened. Injuries from Watson, Reed or Kraft prevented that from ultimately happening last year. So, strange as it might seem, the exact way that this new core will play together is only a hypothetical proposition, albeit an extremely tantalizing one. 

It’s a group that has such corresponding strengths together. You’ve got the game breaking speed of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, the adaptability of Jayden Reed, and an emerging superstar in Tucker Kraft who can hurt opposing defenses in the short and immediate areas. The Packers have every level of the field covered, and it consists of players who already have chemistry with Jordan Love. Theoretically, this group should be able to hit the ground running in 2026, if Tucker Kraft really is able to return to the starting lineup in week one. 

Will the core be able to stay healthy and keep playing after that? I wish I had a crystal to tell us, but I don’t. We’ve only got to hope that the injury gods smile upon us, and give the Packers a gentle reprieve after the nightmare that was 2025. Because man, this sky is the limit for these guys. I really do think that this is such an exciting group of players, despite the boundless questions surrounding them. If they can play a majority of the season together?

In the words of Emperor Palpatine, “Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station”.