Mike commented that Sam Darnold’s turnaround reminded him of Plunkett or Gannon. The other part of John from Stevens Point’s question was what do you attribute the turnaround to? I think you saw it with Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones even Malik Willis…coaching matters. The Bears have been through a plethora of QBs over the last 30 years while the Packers have had three main starters. Were all those QBs bad NFL quarterbacks? Probably not but without the right coaching it’s hard to develop these QBs.
Situation and environment absolutely remain key factors.
Troy from Westminster, CO
I don’t really see the Packers bringing back most of their UFAs, including Romeo Doubs, Rasheed Walker, Quay Walker and Kingsley Enagbare. However, one I hope they do and expect is Sean Rhyan. He wasn’t perfect but after sliding over from guard to replace Elgton Jenkins, I think with an offseason at the position, they very well have their starting center for the foreseeable future at what could be a fairly affordable price. Thoughts?
Yours are much like mine.
Will David Bakhtiari end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
I think he’s got a decent case, but I suspect he’ll be waiting quite a while for it to be heard.
Which new head coach intrigues you the most right now?
Definitely Jeff Hafley, in combination with Jon-Eric Sullivan as GM in Miami. In my time here, I’ve seen Packers coaches get other head jobs (Philbin, McAdoo, Hackett) and personnel execs get GM gigs elsewhere (Dorsey, McKenzie, Schneider, Wolf) but never a combo headed to the same place. The Dolphins will be fun to follow from afar.
Chase from Diamond Springs, CA
The McCarthy hire has helped me filter out more talking heads. They keep pointing to him having two HOF QBs, but conveniently forget he was the reason for Favre’s resurgence, and we’ve all seen how organizations can fail QBs. I’m excited for him and glad it’s an AFC team.
Favre threw 29 INTs the season before McCarthy’s arrival, and within two years finished second in the MVP voting to Tom Brady. The development of Rodgers is well documented. Prescott had two of his three best seasons statistically under McCarthy. I’m very interested to see what happens at QB in Pittsburgh now.
Craig from Brookfield, WI
Rooting for the Rams last weekend made me realize how many parallels there are with the Packers: A talented good dude at QB who’s easy to cheer on, Davante Adams coming through in the clutch, and abysmal special-teams play that costs the team its season. To fix this perpetual problem, do the Packers need to draft with more of a special-teams focus? Is it coaching? Is it bad juju?
I don’t think you can just draft special-teamers, except maybe at returner, and the Packers can’t get caught without an impact returner again. I think they were counting on Jayden Reed to handle punts, but then he went down and Matthew Golden didn’t do well learning the role on the fly. Savion Williams showed promise on kickoffs but couldn’t stay healthy, and again, Plan B was inadequate. It’s easy to get stuck as a season unfolds, and that NFC title game showed the two polar opposites. The Rams got stuck and stayed there. The Seahawks made the bold move to trade fourth- and fifth-round picks for Shaheed. There’s no crystal ball that guarantees anything, but in many respects, that determined the NFC champion. Seattle is going into the ’26 draft with just four total picks but the sacrifice obviously paid off, no matter what happens in two weeks.
Cayden from West Bend, WI
Will the Green Bay Packers use Matthew Golden more in the 2026 season?
That would be my expectation.
David from Janesville, WI
Gents, many mentions regarding Gutey’s propensity to take more shots in the draft in areas of need. He’s gone heavy on WR and OL (multiple times), but that comes at a cost of shorting other areas. It feels like corner and defensive tackle have been the areas that weren’t backfilled as much, and unsurprisingly are now areas of need. With less draft capital due to the Micah Parsons trade, can the Packers afford to take multiple swings at these positions now? Or do they need more focus on specific players?
We’ll learn what happens in free agency, but I definitely can see stockpiling at corner to overhaul the position a bit. Not saying interior D-line isn’t also a need, but there’s more potential in the pipeline there with Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse just entering Year 2. Both positions need more significant draft investments than they’ve received recently, in terms of how high the picks are, but I’d say corner is the greater need when looking at overall numbers and depth.