GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The marathon is about to become the sprint. There’s a month left in the 2023 NFL season and there’s only two teams among the 14 currently positioned in the playoff field with losing records. Sunday, the 6-7, number 7 NFC Wild Card hopeful Green Bay Packers meet the NFC South leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers who sit likewise at 6-7. The Packers, the league’s youngest team, took about seven weeks to figure how how to win games. The victories over the Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs allowed them to climb into the post-season mix. Given the first opportunity to maintain that grip on the Wild Card, they fumbled it badly last Monday night but thanks to the mosh pit of other playoff hopefuls, they still cling to that final spot even though their heads aren’t yet even with, much less above the surface of December’s turbulent waters. Can this young squad quickly learn what it takes to now win games with significant playoff implications? It’s money time.
Regardless of whether this year’s novices get into the dance or not, it’s also money time in the football operations department. General Manager Brian Gutekunst assembled a team that is in the hunt even though they were hard pressed to escape the weight of Aaron Rodgers and his dead cap money. He’s going to think long and hard about sacrificing more accelerated short term cap cap hits to add more talent to the roster. Could he jettison the rest of the deep rooted ballast from the Rodgers teams? David Bakhtiari and Aaron Jones for instance, will have cap hits of 40.4 and 17.7 million dollars in 2024 according to Sportrac. Together they didn’t make it through the season opener healthy. Bakhtiari hasn’t returned, playing all of 13 games between 2021 and 2023. It sure looks like Rasheed Walker and Yosh Nijman are having a playoff for the left tackle of the future job. Jones has been an offensive afterthought dealing with hamstring and knee injuries and he hasn’t been right since his 35 yard touchdown catch and run in the second half at Soldier Field. De’Vondre Campbell has a 7.7 million dollar cap hit next year and he hasn’t come close to matching his first year production as a Packer in 2021. Isaiah McDuffie has piled up more tackles than Campbell in fewer starts. Then there’s Jaire Alexander with the richest defensive back contract in the NFL. Is there something beyond the shoulder problems keeping Alexander sidelined? He’ll have a cap hit of 24.3 million. Those five players will account for 49% of next year’s cap. Not ideal. How about the tight end position? Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft sure look like they’ll offer more than Josiah Deguara and Tyler Davis moving forward. Gutekunst just might swallow a lot of money and roll the dice on a third straight productive draft where he’s uncovered 10 current starters out of the last two. Money moves could all but purge the Rodgers led roster of just 11 months ago outside of locked up corps players like Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins and maybe or maybe not Darnell Savage.
There’s a little bit on the line at Lambeau come high noon Sunday.
After just a walk through on Wednesday, the team got on Clarke Hinkle Field today. It was like a late October early afternoon, sunshine and temperatures climbing through the 40’s, allowing several guys to don shorts without pads, in the middle of December.
Four players didn’t participate. Christian Watson is a long shot to practice on Friday according to Matt LaFeur but the wide receiver said afterward he’s feeling much better. Darnell Savage and Elgton Jenkins were in the rehab group as was A.J. Dillon. The running back confirmed he’s dealing with a broken thumb that cracked on a New York Giant helmet last Monday night. Dillon has yet to miss a game in his NFL career and he’s hopeful the training and equipment staff can find a way to protect the thumb and allow him to play. He’d just have to carry the ball with the same arm and his pass catching threat would all but be forgotten.
Alexander took part in drills after watching him stretch with a large wrap brace covering his left shoulder. Both Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks were limited participants but looked like they’d soften the blow if Watson misses another game. Jones was also involved and during the drills I observed, appeared to be stopping and starting, changing direction suddenly and accelerating without much difficulty. Even Jones expressed hope this will be the week he returns.
With Jones and Dillon both hurting, the running back chores against Tampa’s defense might fall to Patrick Taylor and Kenyan Drake, just brought on board last week. LaFleur said today they have confidence Drake would be able to handle a good chunk of the game plan if called upon.
Got the first glimpse of Luke Musgrave since he suffered his lacerated kidney last month. Musgrave may not make it back this season and he declined to address his injury or recovery with reporters after practice. He wants to wait until if and when he’s back on the active roster.
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