Packers receive a season-altering update that could make their path forward much easier than anyone expected
Green Bay’s defense is about to go nuclear.
When the Green Bay Packers looked at their schedule for 2025, it certainly felt like a challenging season was ahead. The NFC North teams would play the AFC North and NFC East, making it a rough slate of games.
All of a sudden, though, the situation doesn’t seem nearly as complicated as it did before the season. Any year, surprises happen, and it feels like this year’s ones are benefiting the Packers.
Aaron Schatz from FTN Fantasy, the man responsible for the highly respected DVOA rankings, adjusted his schedule-strength projections based on what happened in the first five weeks of the season, and the situation for Green Bay, especially the defense, is much more promising.
Easier schedule than initially projected
According to Schatz, the schedule gets much easier for the Packers’ defense, in addition to the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens.
So far this season, the Packers have faced a slew of great offenses — the Detroit Lions (fourth), Washington Commanders (eighth), and Dallas Cowboys (fifth). Moving forward, the schedule gets much easier. The next few defensive matchups are against the offenses of the Cincinnati Bengals (31st), Arizona Cardinals (25th), Pittsburgh Steelers (18th), Carolina Panthers (26th), Philadelphia Eagles (14th), New York Giants (28th), Minnesota Vikings twice (27th), and Chicago Bears (23rd).
The most challenging games for the defense will be the second one versus the Lions, the Denver Broncos (12th), and the Baltimore Ravens (16th).
Some of these were not expected before the season. The Vikings regressed more than projected without Sam Darnold at quarterback, the Ravens haven’t been nearly as effective even with Lamar Jackson on the field, and the Bengals don’t have Joe Burrow.
It’s a favorable schedule for the Packers’ defense, and Jeff Hafley should be ready to take full advantage of this.
How the Packers are doing
With four games over the first five weeks of the season, the Packers are seventh in total DVOA — a metric that takes into consideration advanced performance stats and balances them based on the opponents faced.
The defense is third, being the best aspect of the team so far, despite one bad game against the Cowboys. The offense is seventh, despite one poor game against the Browns (sixth-best defense in football so far). As expected, the Packers’ worst phase is special teams, where they are 25th.
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It’s an obvious improvement over what the unit showed last year.
