5 dream scenarios for Packers in 2023 season
By John Buhler
4. Matt LaFleur coaches his tail off to win bad division and home playoff game
2023 will serve as a tremendous opportunity for Matt LaFleur to prove to the rest of the NFL world that he is a fantastic head coach. He may stem from the Shanahan coaching tree, but this fall will be his biggest test to date. Without Aaron Rodgers under center, look for LaFleur to really hone in on his Green Bay running game to possibly win a bad division, and a home playoff game.
Ideally, Green Bay would need to go 4-2 or 5-1 in-division to be in a great position to win the NFC North. That would require sweeping Chicago, splitting with Detroit and taking at least one from Minnesota. You add six more wins in what will be a third-placed schedule for the Packers, and 11-6 or maybe even 10-7 may be good enough to get the No. 3 or No. 4 seed in a down NFC this year.
Look. I don’t think even in a best-case scenario that the Packers will be able to beat this season’s equivalent of the Philadelphia Eagles or San Francisco 49ers on the road in the divisional round, but they could potentially knock off someone like last year’s Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings or New York Giants. Being one of the last eight teams remaining is this year’s team’s definite ceiling.
To be this year’s equivalent of the 2022 Jacksonville Jaguars, or the G-Men, would be impressive.