(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Green Bay: 9
A quick 2-0 start and a 4-3 record going into their bye in Week Eight had the Packers in a position to do some damage moving into the second half of the season. Unfortunately
Green Bay was only able to win two of their remaining nine games, and only one of their last six, with the one win coming in their season finale against the Lions. The game was essentially meaningless for both teams in regards to the playoffs, except that Green Bay wanted to avoid being the only team to lose to the Lions in 2008.
If you look at the games Green Bay won, their 6-10 record looks even less impressive, as two of those wins came vs. the Lions and another vs. the 4-12 Seahawks.
As mentioned earlier, the Packers face the third easiest schedule this season, so the potential to improve upon last year and get closer to their 2007 record of 13-3 is definitely there.
Travel-wise, their schedule also shapes up nicely with only one game played outside of the Central and Eastern time zones, and besides divisional games, they only play three teams on the road who had winning records last year: Tampa, Pittsburgh, and Arizona.
The biggest change this offseason was the hiring of Dom Capers as defensive coordinator and the switch to the 3-4 defense he will be implementing. The change will hope to improve upon Green Bay’s 26th ranking versus the rush and 25th ranking in generating sacks.
The secondary was respectable as they ranked 12th versus the pass.
No major changes were made to the roster, besides DT Colin Cole’s departure. However, RT Mark Tauscher may not return as he suffered a major knee injury in tearing his ACL. Several other players will be returning from injuries sustained during 2008, which could be enough to bring the Packers back to prominence.
Offensively, Aaron Rogers proved he could step up more than adequately in his first year as Brett Favre’s successor. He ranked third in the NFC in passing yards, TDs and QB rating.
WR Greg Jennings should be motivated to improve upon his career highs in 2008 as he just signed a new, lucrative contract extension. However, running backs, namely Ryan Grant, will have to do more than the four touchdowns they managed last season.
The NFC North should be a tightly contested division all year as, in my opinion, the Packers, Vikings and Bears don’t give up much between them. Their difficulty of schedules are all about the same and each have their own question marks heading into the year.
In the NFL you are never as good or as bad as your record may indicate from one year to the next, and I think that may be the case with this year’s edition of the Packers. Sure they switched from Favre to Rogers in 2008, but Rogers was not responsible for the seven-win slide the team took.
The schedule shapes up nicely and there’s enough talent in Green Bay to make a decent improvement.
Prediction: Over 9 wins
Best bet to win division: Green Bay Packers at +200
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/188683-nfl-season-win-totals-betting-the-nfc-west
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/194389-nfl-season-win-totals-betting-the-nfc-east
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/201350-nfc-south-betting-the-nfl-season-win-totals
We're going to send you the most entertaining Minnesota Vikings articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
6 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete