The Injury Bug is Bad in Green Bay

 

The Injury Bug is Bad in Green Bay

            It’s early, but through four games the Packers have had multiple injuries that have hurt them early this 2023 NFL season.

            For starters, the loss of David Bakhtiari to IR is a killer. Unfortunately, most Packer fans could see it coming from a mile away. His injury at the end of the 2020 season seems to be a career killer to what could have been a clear-cut hall-of-fame career.

            Other offensive line injuries have hurt the Packers as well, Elgton Jenkins is expected to miss a few games with a knee injury after exiting week 2 against Atlanta. Zach Tom, who has performed well for the Packers early, is also dealing with a knee injury.

These injuries are another indicator as to why the Packers have struggled to run the football early. Of course, Aaron Jones playing only one full game hurts, but these offensive line injuries need to end quickly if the Packers expect to win more games.

Continuing with the offense, Christian Watson made his return against the Lions with a touchdown reception on a pitch count. Hopefully, this sets up Watson playing the rest of the season. The explosive playmaking of Watson and Aaron Jones is essential to the success the Packers have this season.

Defensive injuries are not encouraging early either in Green Bay.

Two of the Packers’ top three cornerbacks, Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes are dealing with injuries. Stokes hasn’t played this season yet while Jaire developed a back injury following week two in Atlanta.

 De’Vondre Campbell left the Saints game with an ankle injury that appears to be worse than most Packer fans think which leaves Quay Walker who has looked great early for the Packers in his second season, leading the linebacking core.

Another key injury is Rashan Gary who has looked very explosive early for the Packers in his return after suffering a torn ACL last season. Gary has been on a pitch count but has played exceptionally well with the snaps he’s gotten early this season. Hopefully, Gary will begin to see an increase in snaps in the coming weeks. He is one of the top pass rushers in the NFL and we all know how important it is to have a guy like Gary creating havoc on the edge.

With all these injuries, this young Packers squad sits at 2-2 to start the year. It’s not a dream situation a team wants to be in, but with the turnover this team has faced within a season, it’s hard to be mad with where they sit. There is so much improvement this team can make, Jordan Love has shown flashes and if there is just some more consistency there, I think Green Bay may have found their guy yet again.

Even after the bad loss to Detroit, once you factor in the key injuries that have taken place and a faster start to games, the Packers have a great opportunity to be at the top of the NFC at the end of the season.

The remaining schedule for the Packers is fairly friendly as of now. and it starts with another game in primetime against the Las Vegas Raiders who are clearly a dysfunctional team on Monday Night Football.

Real Packer Fans Know🧀