GREEN BAY − Green Bay Press-Gazette and PackersNews columnist Pete Dougherty responded to reader questions this week as the Green Bay Packers prepare for their Week 11 road matchup against the New York Giants on Nov. 16.
Following are a couple of excerpts from the full mailbag. To read the full story, click here.
Is there really any reason for hope for Packers fans?
Mike in Diamond Bar, Calif.: Hello Pete, always appreciate the chats. OK Pete, let’s drop the gloves … This Packers team is way overrated. At this rate, they’ll probably finish last in the NFC North and Matt LaFleur will be gone after this year. As I’ve been saying all year, if the Packers offense was as good as the defense, they’d probably be undefeated. The D has given up 39 pts in their 3 losses. I know GB gave Jordan Love a boatload of $$$ in extending his contract, but his play this year has been pedestrian at best. The whispers about him are starting to get louder. So Pete, is there any hope for us Packers fans the rest of this year? The playoffs are now a pipe dream. Your thoughts? Thank you.
Dougherty: Well, you’re asking this of someone who about halfway through the 2023 season wrote, word for word, “the playoffs for this team are a pipe dream.”
Well, that team went 6-2 over the final eight games and made it into the playoffs as the final seed. They went into Dallas and blew out the No. 2 seed in the wild-card round, then took the No. 1 seed, San Francisco, to the final minute in the divisional round. The Packers were a good team at the end of that season, a legit threat for the Super Bowl.
Now they’re 5-3-1. They have five big NFC North Division games remaining.
The Packers are in a bad place right now, that is the truth. Scoring only 17 points combined the last two weeks is awful. They’re in a crisis.
But I wouldn’t consider calling the playoffs a pipe dream at this point. Maybe they won’t make it, but if they start playing better on offense, it would hardly be a surprise.
They need Love to play better, no question. They need to run the ball better. They need Matthew Golden to become a bigger part of the offense and Jayden Reed to get (and stay) healthy.
This league is so fluid. They do not look like a top-tier team right now, obviously. Timing is starting to run down, but let’s see how things look in a month.
Brandon McManus or Lucas Havrisik?
David Hansen: Was the backup kicker active for the game? Should he have been used instead of McManus? 64 yards in the cold is a long kick.
Dougherty: Havrisik was not active. He’s on the 53-man roster, but he was inactive for the game.
LaFleur already said Nov. 12 that McManus will be the kicker this week. I think they’re keeping Havrisik on the roster because they want to bring him back next year to compete with McManus. Havrisik is younger (26 to McManus’ 34), so he could end up being their kicker for several years or more.
Can Malik Willis help?
Rich: Hi Pete, could devising a few option plays for Malik Willis possibly improve the offense? He is built like a running back, runs quite well, and has quarterback skills. He could line up in the backfield.
Dougherty: I would have done it last year after Willis showed in the two games he started that he can be trusted and can make things happen with his legs.
At this point everything has to be on the table. It might be a nice changeup to bring him in for a few snaps a game, including short-yardage. Might be just the kind of thing to add some juice to the offense when things get stagnant.
No idea if LaFleur will do it. This is not something he’d comment on before a game.
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Pete Dougherty mailbag answers questions about Packers’ playoff chances
