Cheese Curds, 9/7: Time for the Packers to get some answers

To say it was an offseason of questions in Green Bay undersells the circumstances a bit. The questions technically started before the offseason even began — people wondered why Matt LaFleur elected to kick a field goal late in what turned out to be the Green Bay Packers’ final game — and didn’t really slow down from there.

Do the Packers have enough talent to get over the hump and into the Super Bowl? Was drafting Jordan Love the cause of discontent in Green Bay? Is Aaron Rodgers coming back at all?

Some questions have been answered, and quite definitively, too — Aaron Rodgers is back in Green Bay, no matter what information may have been accumulated between the end of the season and training camp.

But for others, we don’t have answers. At least, not yet. But soon we will. The answers to an offseason of questions will begin to arrive on Sunday. Sure, they’ll come in the unexpected environment that is Jacksonville, but they’ll still come. And after an offseason of questions, some answers are going to feel pretty great.

Biggest question marks for Packers entering 2021 season | Packers Wire

Packers Wire neatly summarizes a few of the questions facing the Packers early in the season.

Left tackle just the latest challenge for Elgton Jenkins | Packers.com

Elgton Jenkins is as close to a sure thing as you can get on the offensive line. The only question to his game is where he’s going to be lining up on a given Sunday.

2021 NFC win-total projections: 49ers, Rams, Cards make playoffs; Seahawks odd team out in West | NFL.com

I’m intrigued by Freilund’s model here, but skeptical. To wit: she predicts 10.5 wins for the Packers in 2021, but in 2020 she had them pegged for 8.8 (they won 13), while in 2019 she projected 10 (13 wins in reality). Could it be that NFL seasons are just too complex to reasonably predict? (Yes.)

What makes a player elite in NFL’s 17-game season: Will Peyton Manning’s, Calvin Johnson’s records fall in 2021? | ESPN

An annoyance: the 17-game season is going to upset a lot of what we consider “normal” in terms of statistical production. Here’s an attempt to figure out what that could look like.

Mystery odor in Ohio communities blamed on Lake Erie | UPI

I can confirm firsthand that Lake Erie stinks. Welcome to fabulous Ohio.