Packers' Biggest Keys To Having Successful NFL Offseason

The Green Bay Packers 2023 campaign should be considered a huge success. The franchise was at a serious crossroads last offseason, but the outlook is much brighter after the first year of the Jordan Love era.

The 25-year-old did not have a steep learning curve as a starting quarterback. The time developing under the Packers coaching staff paid off as he threw for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns to 11 interceptions and led the Packers to a shocking playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Considering the tough cap situation they were in last season and all of the hype around moving on from Aaron Rodgers, it was a positive season.

Now the challenge will be building on the roster and getting to a point where a deeper playoff run is the expectation.

There will certainly be challenges. The Packers are currently $445,255 over the cap, per Spotrac, with just a few weeks to be cap-compliant by March 13.

They proved this season that they have an exciting core. However, there are multiple areas to address if they want to take the next step in 2024. Here's a look at the three biggest objectives that need to be met for this offseason to be successful.

The Packers were able to outscore the Cowboys in the playoffs, but they won't become a true threat in the NFC if they can't improve their pass defense. The Packers gave up the eighth-highest passer rating in the league last season.

The Packers have already addressed the defense at the coaching level. Beleagured defensive coordinator Joe Barry was fired and replaced by Jeff Hafley who was previously the head coach at Boston College.

Hafley will bring a 4-3 base defense but the most exciting thing he brings to the table is an extensive history of working with defensive backs. Before becoming the head coach for the BC Eagles in 2023, he was a defensive backs coach in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers from 2012-2018.

The Packers have a talented duo of outside cornerbacks. Eric Stokes and Jaire Alexander provide a strong foundation for the secondary when healthy.

The safety group is a much bigger question. Darnell Savage, Rudy Ford and Jonathan Owens are all three set to hit free agency. Savage may have earned a new contract after playing fairly well on his fifth-year option last season, but Ford and Owens didn't turn out to be the answer.

Given the Packers penchant for going after top-end defensive talent in the first-round of the draft, they could be a potential fit for Kamren Kinchens. He's our top-rated safety in the draft class and goes just three picks ahead of the Packers selection at No. 22 in our latest mock draft.

The Packers are a franchise that has leaned heavily into a draft-and-develop philosophy when it comes to roster building. That means they need to identify their top talents and reward them with long-term contracts.

So when a player like Kenny Clark, who is still playing at a high level and is only 28, has an expiring contract, it's time to come to the table and negotiate.

Clark has been a mainstay on the Packers defensive line for nearly a decade and he hasn't showed signs of slowing down. This season he had a career-high 7.5 sacks and posted 41 pressures with a pressure percentage of 9.6, incredibly high for an interior defensive lineman.

Clark is entering the final year of the extension that he received in 2020. He's set to account for a cap charge of $27.5 million. The Packers could save money on the cap this season by extending him and restructuring this season's cap figures in the form of a signing bonus.

This should be an important item on their to-do list. Losing Clark would create a massive hole in their defense and the cost of a good interior defensive lineman might be going up this offseason with Chris Jones, Christian Wilkins and Justin Madubuike all set to hit free agency.

Extending Clark keeps a great player on the roster and creates important cap space for this offseason.

The Packers essentially challenged Jordan Love to prove that he's the quarterback of the future with a one-year contract extension last summer.

He's proven it. Now it's time to pay the man.

General manager Brian Gutekunst was understandably cautious in the way that he approached Love's first contract extension. Rather than exercise his fifth-year option last season which would have been a guaranteed $20.3 million, he gave him a one-year extension worth up to $22.5 million but only carried $13.5 million in guarantees.

While the distrust didn't seem to damage the relationship between the Packers and their young quarterback, giving him a much larger contract extension would probably go a long way in giving him a vote of confidence.

The good news is that Gutekunst seems to realize this. The GM has told media that they will start working towards an extension in the coming months.

Spotrac has projected Love's market value to be a four-year, $179.4 million contract that would make him the ninth-highest-paid quarterback in the league. That's a reasonable deal given his one year of production and the price is only going to go up if he shows out again next season.

The two sides can't come to an agreement until May 3. Teams must wait at least one year before extending a player after an extension and the Packers signed his one-year extension on May 2 last season.

It's in the Packers best interest to lock up their new franchise quarterback in early May and focus on building around him.