The Green Bay Packers Don’t Mind Flying Under The Radar

Aaron Rodgers has seen it all.

In 2010, the Green Bay Packers were seemingly on life support after consecutive losses left them 8-6 late in the regular season.

That team went on to win Super Bowl XLV.

One year later, the Packers were prohibitive favorites to win a second straight Super Bowl, and appeared on their way to doing just that following a 15-1 regular season. That Green Bay team laid an egg in the postseason, though, and lost to the New York Giants, 37-20, in the divisional playoffs.

So today, when Rodgers hears the national pundits mention San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans and Tampa Bay as the NFC’s top teams, he doesn’t mind that the Packers are being completely overlooked. In fact, Rodgers relishes the role of underdog.

“I think the beauty is there’s a lot of conversation about other teams, whether it’s Tom (Brady) and Tampa, or the teams that were really solid last year — New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Dallas and Mike (McCarthy), what they’ve done to their roster,” Rodgers said. “I like where we’re at as far as kind of flying under the radar even though we went 13-3 last year. We’ve got a chance to prove what kind of team we are to start the season out on Sunday, and I look forward to the opportunity.”

After a tumultuous offseason in which the Packers took some hits in free agency and received no immediate help in the draft, it’s easy to forget that Green Bay was awfully good in 2019. Those Packers went 13-3 overall, won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game, where they were manhandled by San Francisco, 37-20.

Green Bay’s feeble performance against the 49ers — and a rough offseason — have many people believing these Packers will take a step back in 2020.

Minnesota, which finished three games behind the Packers in the division last year, is the frontrunner to win the division at most Las Vegas sports books. At the website betonline.ag, Green Bay is given just the seventh best odds of winning the NFC (+1400). And at that same website, the Packers are given the 11^th-best odds to win the Super Bowl (+2500).

If anything, being overlooked and undervalued has been a great motivator for the Packers this summer.

“Most definitely, it’s adding fuel to the fire,” outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith said. “We need that on us, just to come out, be that team that’s been working, that made it to the championship game, but we didn’t finish. The main thing we’ve been harping on is having to finish and do a great job this year at doing that.”

Nose tackle Kenny Clark agreed.

“Yeah, I still feel like we’re underrated,” Clark said. “I don’t think a lot of people gave us a lot of credit about going 13-3, especially like knowing how hard it is to win a football game in this league. And to (win) 13 of them, you heard a lot of, ‘Oh, they had a lot of turnovers. They got a lot of turnovers and our offense didn’t turn the ball over as much.’

“We worked to do that kind of stuff. That’s what we practice every single day. I think we are an underrated team going into this year.”

The Packers return 21 of 25 starters, which could be key in a year where offseasons were shortened and exhibition games were canceled due to COVID-19. Green Bay has a trio of gifted running backs, a potentially dynamic group of outside linebackers, all four starters back in the secondary, and of course, a future Hall of Famer playing quarterback.

On the flip side, the Packers have a suspect batch of receivers and tight ends, a giant hole at right tackle and questions at inside linebacker.

Green Bay believes it has enough answers, though. And the Packers are excited to try proving the “experts” wrong.

“We’ve got a lot of guys back and I think our ability to communicate with one another is significantly better than it was a year ago and that’s between the coaches and from coaches to players and vice versa,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. “So, I think our process is, you know, it’s never a finished product. It’s something you’re always working on, but I think that it’s much more comfortable than it was maybe a year ago at this time.”