The NFL playoff picture is slowly coming into focus.
Things are becoming a little clearer as we head closer to the home stretch. The weather is getting nastier now and you can feel the playoff chill in the air.
We still have a month to go in the regular season, thanks to the new 17-game schedule. The Packers have five games left — with three of those being NFC North opponents. The combined record of the Bears, Ravens, Browns, Vikings and Lions is 24-35-1.
The only sure bet to make the playoffs from those five is the Ravens. The Browns have been up and down this year and if Myles Garrett continues his torrid pace of sacks and ties or breaks Michael Strahan’s sack record, he needs to be at least mentioned as an MVP candidate. But he’s a defensive player, so he won’t win.
Then there’s the NFC North. Where do I start with this lousy division? I never thought that it would be the best division in football at the start of the year, but I honestly thought that Minnesota and Chicago would be competitive.
Minnesota still has a faint playoff heartbeat, but it doesn’t look too good now after handing Detroit its first win of the season. The Bears are still trying to figure things out with rookie quarterback Justin Fields or Andy Dalton — who has started the last two games. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter who starts for the Bears because that offensive line doesn’t allow much room for error. Dalton was pressured 13 times by Arizona on Sunday and 10 times by Detroit on Thanksgiving. Even if Fields plays on Sunday night vs. Green Bay with cracked ribs, the Bears don’t have enough complementary pieces to make it work.
So what does that mean for the Packers? Green Bay should set a realistic goal of going 4-1 down the stretch. Going to Baltimore a couple weeks after Pittsburgh stole an important division game is going to fuel the Ravens for a while.
That would put the Packers final record at 13-4. Green Bay is currently the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. Remember, the only team that will nail down a first round bye will be the No. 1 seed in each conference.
Arizona, who currently sits atop the NFC with a 10-2 record, faces the Rams, Lions, Colts, Cowboys and Seahawks that sport a combined 28-32-1 record. The Rams, Colts and Cowboys are playoff contenders from that list, with the Rams nipping at Arizona’s heels for the NFC West title.
Tampa Bay is third in the NFC with a 9-3 record. The Buccaneers face the Bills, Saints, Panthers twice and Jets. The combined record of that crew is 25-34 with only Buffalo being a real playoff contender from the bunch.
With a 13-4 record, the Packers should be in play for the No. 1 seed. But more importantly, getting the core of this team healthy would be astronomical. Left tackle David Bakhtiari and edge rusher Za’Darius Smith haven’t logged any or barely any snaps this year and getting those two back right before the end of the season would be a huge lift for a team that has really been stung by so many injury bugs this year.
Everything is in front of Green Bay. As long as the Packers continue to play for each other, I don’t see why this team cannot make a deep playoff run. Not many people gave them a chance to get this far with so much adversity and the Packers are arguably the best team in football.
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Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on “Clubhouse Live” and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn