Weekend Open Thread

Drop any on- or off-topic thoughts this weekend in the comments down below.

Here’s a question I have for you all:

What are you most excited about for the upcoming season? Personally, I’m hopeful that we’ll get some answers on the young passing game in 2023. Outside of the New Orleans Saints, who have a laughable lead above the rest of the league, no team has pushed more cap hits forward in the 2020-2022 seasons than the Green Bay Packers. General manager Brian Gutekunst is still borrowing cap dollars from the future to pay for today’s bills after he converted the salaries of David Bakhtiari, Jaire Alexander, Preston Smith, Kenny Clark, De’Vondre Campbell and others to signings bonuses this offseason.

2023 isn’t a hard reset year, at least judging by the team’s financial decisions. Instead, it’s really a soft landing situation where the team is going to evaluate if the 2024 team is set to compete for playoff contention. Next year, the team will have to decide if they want to keep what they have together or if they finally want to become cap solvent.

While it’s been claimed by head coach Matt LaFleur that the team is going to take quarterback Jordan Love’s first season as the team’s signal-caller slow, the reality is that Love and his young receivers — notably the trio of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed — will need to perform well in 2023 to keep the continuity in 2024. The added pressure of a draft class that includes two blue-chip quarterback prospects in USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye gives Green Bay options.

I’m happy that, barring injury, the Packers will get an early answer on if this young passing game unit is going to work well or not. From there, hopefully, we’ll get some clarity on what the team’s plans are moving forward.