The regular season is months away and training camp still feels far off, but there’s plenty to be excited about
It’s minicamp week, and everything seems to be falling into place. Super Bowl aspirations make total sense because everything you see from limited on-field highlights look great and it doesn’t matter that guys are just running around in shorts, jerseys, and helmets. That’s not a reason to doubt; that’s a reason to double down and believe in your craziest dreams even harder.
And why not? Nobody can deny that deep shot to Mecole Hardman was indeed very cool, no matter what Matt LaFleur might have said in his post-practice press conference about Love perhaps not getting that throw off in a real game.
Defense? Who cares about defense? It’s minicamp. This is all about seeing the Packers doing vaguely football-related things to remind us that even if real games are months away, they’re closer than they used to be.
However, even if they’re closer than they used to be, we’ve still got months to wait before we see actual football. Training camp itself is still more than a month away, for that matter, and that barely constitutes actual football, even if the stakes are higher in training camp than they are for minicamp and OTAs. Hard to wait, though, even if we know that what we’re waiting for is just an appetizer before the main course of the regular season.
Even the coaching staff admits that the next month or so until training camp starts is the “dead period,” and for their collective sake, I hope it stays dead. Very little could be more stressful for a coach than something terrible happening during a time of the year when nothing is supposed to be happening; an arrest, an injury, or some other catastrophic occurrence could derail a season before it even starts.
Outside of those worries, though, we’ve got plenty to look forward to as fans once the dead period passes and training camp kicks off in earnest.
Xavier McKinney, fresh off an eight-interception season, has his sights set on even bigger things — the Packers record for interceptions in a year is 10, for the record.
Matthew Golden is as exciting a first round pick as we’ve seen in some time, and even a relatively slow rookie year could still deliver plenty of dynamic plays.
Edgerrin Cooper, over on defense, got a legit All-Pro vote as a rookie and only stands to grow from a second year in Jeff Hafley’s system.
Defense, for what it’s worth, should be plenty interesting as a unit, perhaps even more interesting than the offense. It’ll be fascinating to see how Jeff Hafley iterates on what he accomplished in his first year, one that saw the Packers finish as a top 10 team points allowed, yards allowed, takeaways, and EPA allowed per play.
And all of that operates in the background behind perhaps the biggest story of all: how Jordan Love will do in his third year as the Packers’ starting quarterback (and, somehow, his sixth year in the NFL).
Ultimately, it’s almost impossible to not be excited about this year’s Packers team. No matter how long we have yet to wait, it’s still thrilling to think about what’s in store for 2025 and beyond. It could bring anything — a Super Bowl, a thrilling playoff matchup, or even bitter disappointment — and I’d still be excited to watch.
Only one thing to do, then: wait until the bullets are live and the games count.
Now if only there were some kind of secret code that could bring what we all want even sooner.