They’ve built the house. Now comes the hard part—keeping the lights on in January. Quietly, the Packers might have assembled one of the deepest rosters heading into 2025: a backfield upgraded by Josh Jacobs, a rebuilt interior line with Aaron Banks and Anthony Belton, and pass protection that still ranks among the league’s elite. On defense, Jeff Hafley’s no-name secondary cracked the top five in coverage, while tackling and linebacker depth finally look like strengths.

Flip the tape, though, and one question keeps resurfacing—can Jordan Love be enough? Because here’s the catch—Mahomes, Allen, Lamar—they’ve got pedigree, playoff scars, and big-stage polish. Jordan Love? He scorched defenses late in 2023 but cooled a notch in 2024. While Buffalo rides Allen’s cannon and Baltimore trusts Lamar’s chaos, Green Bay must be surgical. The big question isn’t whether the supporting cast can carry him—it’s what version of Love shows up.

Enter Peter Bukowski of the Locked on Packers podcast, who recently sat down with analysts Brian Peacock and Matt Williamson, where he talked about how good Jordan has to be for the Packers this season. Bukowski’s prediction? Well, he believes that the Packers’ quarterback needs to be the sixth-best quarterback in the league to win a Super Bowl this year. “You need Jordan Love to be a tick better for this to work,” Bukowski noted.

He went on and explained, “How much better does Jordan Love have to be to close that delta with say the Eagles with say the Lions with say you know the best version of the 49ers or the Rams if that offense comes together in the nuclear way that we think it could, I think if he’s like the sixth best quarterback this year, they can win the Super Bowl.” Here’s the thing: it’s been scripted a number of times, most Super Bowl-winning teams have a top 6 passing grade.

Well, exclude the Eagles in the 2024 season when they’re ranked 21st, considering Jalen Hurts missed games. But most of the time? It’s around the sixth-best PFF grade for their passing. Jordan Love, on the other hand, was almost elite a couple of years ago. We’re talking about the 7th-best passing grade. But last season, things went south.

Love turned heads and had a trip to the postseason, no doubt. But his grade fell to 18th because he got hurt, and Maike Willis played. Takeaways? If Love stays healthy and plays like he did in late 2023, he’s good enough to win a Super Bowl. With quarterbacks like Allen, Mahomes, or Lamar considered as favorites, and as Peter Bukowski pointed out, Love needs to be the sixth-best quarterback to lift the Lombardi this year.

But if you’re thinking that pressure is only on Love ahead of the 2025 season, chances are, you’re mistaken.

Jordan Love’s head coach also needs to prove this year

The Packers have been thriving under the leadership of head coach Matt LaFleur. LaFleur took the helm back in 2019 and has a top-tier win/loss record of 67-33 in the regular season. But the postseason? Oh, that’s where it gets shaky. Across his six-year tenure in Green Bay, LaFleur led the Packers to the playoffs five times, no doubt. That’s some eye-catching resume if we’re really being honest.

But the thing that might get overlooked is his postseason record. At this point, it’s 3-5, with just a single win in the past couple of years. So, entering the 2025 season, everyone has just one take: Is Matt LaFleur on the hot seat? It seems like he does. The reason? It’s the contract extension. In the meantime, the head coach still has a couple of years left on his deal.

But to spice things up, the Packers’ incoming new President, Ed Policy, clarified that he isn’t keen on extending LaFleur’s contract, as well as that of the general manager, Brian Gutekunst. “All three of them [are] under multi-year contracts,” Policy said, addressing the HC, GM, and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball. “None of them are up at the end of this year. We won’t be doing anything going into this season.”

Though Policy mentioned that he has a “terrific” relationship with LaFleur and believes that the HC will continue to perform at a high level. However, he pointed out that wins and losses for a team are “too simple an answer” to the question of LaFleur’s longevity with the team. “At the end of the day, we are here to win football games, so it does start with that,” he added.

“But coaches are fundamentally teachers, I think. They develop people, so you evaluate them on how they’re developing people.” Translation? Well, the head coach is safe for now. But Ed Policy isn’t promising any long-term commitment yet. If LaFleur wants a new deal in the future, he’ll need to keep winning games this season and help players improve.