Minus Jordy Nelson, Packers Must Conjure Rebounding Power of Past Champions
The 1996 season wasn't over for the Green Bay Packers when star receiver Robert Brooks suffered a year-ending and career-altering knee injury early in October.
Nor was the 2010 season flushed down the drain when the Packers lost 1,200-yard rusher Ryan Grant and ascending tight end Jermichael Finley in the span of a month to open the year.
Both teams, despite crippling early-season injuries, went on to win Lombardi Trophies as Super Bowl champions.
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The 2015 Green Bay Packers—now robbed of a major piece of their own championship puzzle—will need to conjure up the same kind of rebounding power if they expect to win the sport's ultimate prize on Feb. 7 in Santa Clara, California.
Receiver Jordy Nelson went down in a heap Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The play was stunningly ordinary; Nelson leaped to catch a throw from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, landed and pivoted away from a defender—as he's done hundreds of times on the practice field and in live games.
His knee didn't cooperate on this occasion. Something in the mechanism of it all put too much pressure on Nelson's anterior cruciate ligament. It snapped. He went down without assistance, got up without assistance and limped off the field without assistance.
Roughly 24 hours later, an MRI confirmed the damage to his ACL. The Packers' worst fears were realized.
"It was determined that WR Jordy Nelson sustained a significant right knee injury in yesterday’s game at Pittsburgh," read the team's official statement. "He will miss the remainder of the season."
And just like that, an injury—the cruelest but most common side effect of this violent game—stripped the Super Bowl front-runner of its quarterback's favorite receiver.
Gone are the 98 receptions, 1,519 receiving yards, 13 touchdowns and numerous game-turning big plays Nelson provided for the Packers' top-ranked offense a year ago. Production like that isn't just replaced on the fly, even with an MVP quarterback like Rodgers under center and a bevy of young players readying up in Green Bay's always-reloading receiving holster.
But while Nelson is now a nonfactor in 2015, the Packers have not become nonfactors to win Super Bowl 50. Running the toughest gauntlet in sports just became undeniably more difficult, but past champions from Titletown have proved it's possible to overcome even the most devastating of losses.
Persevere and Overcome, 1996
Robert Brooks was going to be the Jerry Rice to Brett Favre's Joe Montana.
Fluid and fleet of foot, Brooks was the man who did the seemingly impossible: He replaced Sterling Sharpe. A likely Hall of Fame receiver had he not been forced to retire after the 1994 season, Sharpe was suddenly gone. The very next year, Brooks emerged as Favre's go-to receiver during the quarterback's first MVP season, catching 102 passes for 1,497 yards (then a franchise record; Nelson broke it last season) and 13 touchdowns.
Out of the ashes of Sharpe's unexpected retirement, a new star had been born.
Fast forward to Week 7 of the '96 season. The bright lights of Monday Night Football. Packers vs. 49ers at Lambeau Field.
On the game's first play, Brooks' knee blew up. Almost literally. Harmlessly blocking a cornerback 20 yards from a running play to the opposite side of the field, he had torn his ACL, MCL and patellar tendon. Much like with Nelson, the commonness of the play made the injury so perplexing.
Forget Brooks playing again in 1996; this severe of knee trauma put the rest of his career in jeopardy.
"It's a shame," Packers head coach Mike Holmgren said at the time, via the Associated Press. "Robert Brooks is one of my favorite all-time guys I've ever coached. We'll have to adjust. I just feel bad for Robert.''
The abrupt halt to Brooks' season could have been the beginning of the end for the Packers. Favre's top receivers suddenly became Antonio Freeman, who caught all of eight passes as a rookie the year prior, and Don Beebe, a 32-year-old, 185-pound speedster whose lone claim to fame was stripping Leon Lett of a touchdown in Super Bowl XXVII. The situation at receiver eventually became so dire that Green Bay went to the waiver wire to sign Andre Rison, an enigmatic and polarizing veteran who had been cut loose by the Jacksonville Jaguars late in November.
Champions persevere. Champions overcome.
Beebe caught 11 passes for 220 yards to lead the Packers over the 49ers on MNF, Freeman emerged as a star in his own right and Rison caught the opening touchdown of Green Bay's win in Super Bowl XXXI.
The Packers were certainly never the same without Brooks. After averaging 34 points during the team's first six games, Green Bay only managed to score roughly 25 per contest over the final nine games of the regular season.
The offense still figured out a way to finish as the NFL's No. 1 statistical unit in points. Favre won his second straight MVP, throwing 39 scores to a wide range of supporting cast members. The defense dominated, allowing more than 21 points just twice in 19 games. Most importantly, the Packers won 10 of their final 12 contests without Brooks, including a trio of wins in the postseason to capture the team's first championship since 1967.
Persevere and Overcome, 2010
The 2010 Green Bay Packers were the next big thing. And it was easy to see why. Green Bay had the best young quarterback in the game, a ridiculous group of returning playmakers on offense and a defense with more than enough pieces to tie the whole thing together.
By the end of summer, many major outlets were picking the Packers to win the Super Bowl. The sexy pick was also an obvious one.
It didn't take long for the whole thing to go haywire.
Less than two quarters into Week 1, starting running back and back-to-back 1,200-yard rusher Ryan Grant busted his ankle. He wouldn't play another down.
"When you lose a running back of Ryan's caliber, it's a big loss," general manager Ted Thompson said, per Tom Silverstein and Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "But this is something we have to deal with and move forward from as a team. We have confidence that our other players will step up and meet the challenge of these losses."
Four weeks later, tight end Jermichael Finley—a young, emerging playmaker with 21 catches over the season's first four games—needed to be carted off the field with a knee injury. He wouldn't play another down.
"We've lost a primary playmaker," head coach Mike McCarthy said, per ESPN.com. "That's a fact. But we're fortunate where we feel we have other players that we can go play with, and we'll put them in position to be successful."
At running back, the Packers had to scramble with a combination of Brandon Jackson and Dimitri Nance for most of the season. Rookie Andrew Quarless and veteran Donald Lee split the reps at tight end. Neither position was as productive as expected.
Champions persevere. Champions overcome.
Rookie running back James Starks emerged out of thin air late in the season, steadying the offense and eventually leading the postseason in rushing yards.
Minus Finley in the passing offense, the Packers distributed the football more evenly to a quartet of talented receivers led by veterans Greg Jennings and Donald Driver. The new opportunities also allowed for the elevation of a young receiver named Jordy Nelson, who caught the opening touchdown of Super Bowl XLV while leading the game in receptions and receiving yards. (The next season, Nelson would break out for 1,263 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.)
The Packers lost three of the season's first six games while drowning in injuries, but the club eventually found air—winning four straight in October and November before surviving with a pair of victories to close the season. Once in the playoffs, the sixth-seeded Packers burned through three division winners on the road before topping the Pittsburgh Steelers in North Texas to seize the Lombardi Trophy.
Persevere and Overcome, 2015?
Injuries have a funny way of becoming the fabric of a team's season. Deal with a bevy of injuries and fall short? Blame the injuries. Overcome a bevy of injuries and achieve great things? You're remembered forever.
Many will be quick to fall back on Nelson's season-ending injury if the Packers once again come up short of winning a Super Bowl. That's probably reasonable, given how special a player and important a teammate Nelson is to the Packers operation. But excuses are still excuses.
The 2015 team has an opportunity to galvanize and restructure around Nelson's misfortune, much like the '96 squad did after losing Robert Brooks and the 2010 club without Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley.
"We have some great players," tight end Richard Rodgers said, via Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Obviously, somebody will have to step up if he's hurt. It will be a group effort to replace him or to match his production."
In the absence of greatness, new stars can arise. With Davante Adams, Ty Montgomery, Rodgers and a host of young players in the Green Bay system, regeneration is certainly possible.
One thing is for sure: The Packers won't be throwing themselves a pity party.
“Nothing has changed," McCarthy said, via the team's official site. "The goals are the same. Our team identity is the same. How we go about our business every day; that will not change."
Losing Jordy Nelson doesn't end the Packers season. This team will just need to summon the recovery power of the franchise's past champions.
Zach Kruse covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.
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