Packers: 3 ways NFL screwed Green Bay over with 2022 schedule
By John Buhler
The NFL did not do the Green Bay Packers any favors with these three games on their schedule.
Although the Green Bay Packers should be one of the better teams in the NFC again this year, the NFL did not help them out with where these three games appear on their 2022 season schedule.
The Packers play a first-place schedule as last year’s No. 1 seed in the NFC. In addition to playing each of their division rivals twice, Green Bay will have to play the AFC East in its entirety, the NFC East in its entirety and three high-quality competitive balance games vs. the Los Angeles Rams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans. This was never going to be easy anyway.
Because of scheduling, these three games will be considerably more challenging for the Packers.
Green Bay Packers: 3 incredibly difficult games to navigate on their schedule
3. Week 11: vs. Tennessee Titans (Thursday, Nov. 17)
Even if their competitive balance game out of the AFC is at home, it is on a short week for the Packers. Green Bay will welcome the Tennessee Titans to town in a clash of 2021 No. 1 seeds who could not win a single playoff game last postseason. Though the Packers and the Titans may pull back a tad this year, both teams should be at least playoff viable, with Super Bowl aspirations.
What makes this game even more challenging besides being on a short week vs. last year’s No. 1 seed out of the AFC is who Green Bay will be playing the week prior. The Packers will host the Dallas Cowboys in a game built for FOX’s NFC Game of the Week. Emotions will be high in this Mike McCarthy revenge game. The Packers will be getting the best effort out of America’s Team.
The other interesting wrinkle in this game between the Packers and the Titans is Matt LaFleur will be going up against his former head coach in Mike Vrabel. LaFleur may have stronger allegiances to the Mike Shanahan coaching tree, but he did briefly serve as the Titans’ offensive coordinator before taking over in Green Bay. Look for this game to be the high unlikely physical chess match.
The Packers will have to be completely locked in to avoid being upset at home by Vrabel’s Titans.