Green Bay Packers are making moves to optimize their roster for the ongoing NFL season. One of the key changes is the re-signing of outside linebacker Justin Hollins.
Hollins had been with the team earlier this season but was released. His return is seen as a strategic move to bolster the Packers’ defense, which has been under scrutiny.
Conversely, the team has parted ways with running back Patrick Taylor. This decision comes amid criticism of the Packers’ running game.
The offensive line has faced backlash for its poor run blocking, and head coach Matt LaFleur has been under the microscope for his play-calling. Specifically, he has been criticized for not putting his running backs in situations where they can succeed.

The focus of the Packers’ offense is currently on Aaron Jones, particularly the health of his hamstring. Jones is a dual-threat, effective in both the running and passing games. His performance often dictates the flow of the Packers’ offense, and it’s clear that Taylor was not able to fill that role effectively.
These roster moves reflect the Packers’ intent to strengthen their defense and address issues in their running game. While Hollins’ return is a welcome addition to improve the defensive lineup, Taylor’s release indicates dissatisfaction with the team’s ground attack.
The Youth Dilemma
The Packers’ offense is notably young, with only three players aged 27 or older actively playing. This youthfulness has led to a series of challenges, including poor execution, miscommunication, and penalties. Head coach Matt LaFleur acknowledges these issues, stating recently that the Pack often finds itself in difficult situations due to negative plays or penalties.

Criticism from a Former Packer
Former Packers backup quarterback Kurt Benkert has openly criticized Matt LaFleur’s offensive scheme, calling it “outdated.” Benkert, who was a practice squad player for most of 2021 and briefly made the active roster, suggests that the team’s current struggles are more about the scheme than the players. He also reveals that he had disagreements with LaFleur during his time with the team.
I have heard a lot of folks say MLF is a great play caller, but honestly, I don’t see it. I think he’s very predictable. How many times have we sat there looking at pre snap formations and thinking, here’s another run up the middle and 90 percent of the time it’s a run up the middle. The 49ers exposed his play calling over and over. The rest of the league has caught up. I won’t say Rodgers made LaFleur, but I think he was basically another coach both from a scheme selection and guiding the younger players, even if it was just to tell them they ran the wrong route or blocked wrong.
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Unfortunately, Love is what I predicted he would be. I watched Marino and Montana other accurate QBs destroy teams, hitting players on time, in stride, anywhere on the field. I believe accuracy is the most important trait in a QB and Love’s arm is only slightly better than the terrible Packer QBs of the 70s and 80s. By the end of the season he’ll lead the league in interceptions.
I recall watching college highlights of Love after Gute drafted him. I’m thinking to myself this guy isn’t a very accurate passer and wondering what Gute saw that made him want to trade up to draft him in the first round. After all, he did lead FBS schools in interceptions one of his years in college which should tell you something. The funny thing is, his long ball accuracy seemed ok. Now he can’t hid the broad side of a barn when throwing deep.
“Jones is a dual-threat, effective in both the running and passing games. His performance often dictates the flow of the Packers’ offense,”
Which is why you take care of your own, (cough) your only difference maker on offense, and offer him a pay cut of 5 million. đź‘Ť
(Gute has a plan)
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“These roster moves reflect the Packers’ intent to strengthen their defense….”
Because sometimes, 8 1st round picks, just isn’t enough.
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I personally don’t care what Benkert says, if he’s not on our roster, or anyone else’s roster, it’s because he doesn’t belong in the NFL, period.
He’s inconsequential.
Tommi….that means he irrelevant.
Also meaning…he doesn’t matter.
Hope that clears that up for you.
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I’ll judge MLF, Gute, Murphy on their own merits, within my own brain.
I don’t need some loser who may have an axe to grind, or some viking fan, or simpleton, to influence my thought process.
After reading all the stupid sh.. that’s been written in here, that should need no explanation.
đź’Ż
My only question is how does Kurt Benkert “mesh” with his current HC? Oh, that’s right, he’s currently unemployed. And since Kyle Shanahan was last to cut Kurt Benkert. The camp arm must have also “butt heads” with the SF HC since MLF runs the same “antiquated” offense.
What Benkert is telling you is he got along great with Nathaniel Hackett who failed miserably in Denver as a HC and is hardly setting the world on fire in NY as OC. Got it. Thanks Kurt, no go back to your construction job and wait for that call from the XFL.
This is LeFluers last year, he better be a part of black Monday end of season. Typical Packer hire, some no name no one ever heard of. See McFatso also. One was OC of 1-15 49ers, and LaPew OC of 28th ranked Off in Tenn. Way to hire winners.
and of course they come CHEAP!
MLF isn’t getting fired at the end of this year. He will get another year with Love to see if he can figure it out. He probably should be fired but it won’t happen. Barry is going to be the fall guy for what is happening this year. Barry should have been fired last year but oh well. MLF thought he deserved another year to absolutely prove he isn’t a D-Coordinator. It’s the Packer way.
Joe Barry won’t get fired either as long as the defense plays the way it did Monday night. The defense is the least of this teams worries. As I’ve said from the very beginning, it all about the QB. Jordan Love now has a 12 game audition to convince management he’s the answer moving forward. It’s not about wins or losses or stats. It’s about consistency. Can he elevate those around him? Can he show us he’s a franchise QB?
It took Arizona one year to move off top ten pick Josh Rosen and pick Kyler Murray. It took the 49ers two years to move off top five pick Trey Lance. Chicago is about to do the same with Justin Fields. It didn’t take the Jets long to figure out that top 5 pick Sam Darnold wasn’t the answer and drafted Zac Wilson. There’s no guarantee Jordan Love gets another year. With a strong college QB draft class, management will move off of Love without hesitation if they determine he’s not the answer. It’s now or never. The only one who might not be back next year is Jordan Love.
“The only one who might not be back next year is Jordan Love.”
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Lol, ok there Flip Flop. You go from telling us how Rodgers was shaking in his boots thinking about Love taking the starting job and how Love is a franchise QB. Now you’re acting like a hard ass claiming Love won’t even make it more than a year and he’ll be the first to go out of anyone. Then your solution is to turn into the Vikings and draft a 1st round QB every few years.
This is why no one takes you seriously 🤡🤡🤡🤡
This! ^^^^
I’m not a guy who has ever really been inspired by MLF as coach. He came on when the team had a pretty good roster and those three 13 win years were in spite of him and not because of him. If I was in charge of making a Hallmark Channel movie and the storyline had football in it, I would cast MLF to play the coach. He would be absolutely swell at that.
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I can only imagine that every time some announcer states that MLF is from the Shanahan coaching tree, someone in the Shanahan family says, “No he’s not. We ain’t claiming him.” All the homers in fandom forums who thought someone was changing up too many of MLF’s plays at the line and derailing his special offensive schemes. If only GB could have a QB who would listen to the coach and run the coaches plays as he called them. Okay then, you’re here.
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I don’t particularly think he inspires much as a coach. As others have mentioned he doesn’t seem to scheme well and he is slow to make adjustments. Some of that I will forgive on the youth and inexperience of the team. But MLF is the head coach and as such he is in charge of the coaching staff. The people he has under him and who remain under him are his. Joe Barry is shaping up to be Mo Drayton 2.0. Someone who will be hung onto well past the expiration date. The defense should absolutely not be a problem with this team with all the high draft picks they’ve been gifted. Maybe the way things are set up at 1265 he really doesn’t have too much to say about the hirings and firings but if he does, he should take that responsibility and do something with it.
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I don’t want to bag too much on the coach. This team is run by Murph and Gute as well and as we’ve been told, Gute has a plan. I’m sure we’ll be told that just like in the case of Jordan Love and the new players, it just needs more time.
You might be on to something Mitch. I’ve always felt LaFleur was the weakest link in the management team. He had no control over Rodgers and I think he’s trying too hard to cater to what Jordan Love wants to run. The deep and intermediate routes. Stick to the Kyle Shanahan offense. The slants, rubs, screens, all with motion. That worked to start the season and the offense has since gotten away from it.
LOL, still flippin and floppin as usual. For years you touted about how amazing Matt LaFleurs offense was and how it was all Aaron Rodgers’ fault it didn’t do any better. “If only LaFleur had a game manager who didn’t care about stats, threw more interceptions, and ran this offense the way it was supposed to run this team could really go places! Who needs a HOF QB who happens to be the most efficient passer in the history of the league. He’s the the one who’s really holding this team back!”
Now that Rodgers is gone you can’t blame it on him and you have conveniently switched, or should I say flipped, from bragging about Maff LaFluer’s amazing offense to claiming that MLF actually needs to run Kyle Shanahan’s offense. So was it Rodgers that was making MLF’s offense work for three years or were those just Rodgers audibles that brought the team to three 13 win seasons?
Look girls, I don’t make excuse for Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love. You either get it done or you don’t. I was ready to move off Aaron Rodgers years ago when it became painfully obvious he could no longer win in the playoffs. He’s in the Drew Brees/Kirk Cousins tier of QB’s and nowhere close to Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes as all you fanboys like to tell each other. Aaron Rodgers will only get you so far and that’s not good enough. Not for me. And according to all you pro football experts you were in favor of trading him several seasons ago. Taking Brian Gutekunst to task for giving him an extension while secretly you were all giddy as school girls he was staying.
I’m not giving up on Jordan Love, he’s done some good things. But he has to play better. A lot better. There’s a lot a stake over the next 12 games and he knows it. Yes, the OL and WR’s have to play better but it all starts with the QB. If Rodgers and Love isn’t the answer, you don’t waste time, you cut your losses and move on to the next guy.
“I was ready to move off Aaron Rodgers years ago when it became painfully obvious he could no longer win in the playoffs.”
How do you know it was Rodgers’ fault and not MLF’s fault for not running the Kyle Shanahan offense?? Surely it would have worked better than the MLF offense, right coach Flip Flop? Yet, you’re the one who told us they were the same offense in the first place and that we need to get on board because it “turns average QB’s into millionaires!”
“If Rodgers and Love “isn’t” the answer, you don’t waste time, you cut your losses and move on to the next guy.”
If a back to back MVP isn’t the answer, pretend like everything is his fault, get rid of his All Pro WR while running him out the door as well. Do all of this because your coach has an offense that supposedly performs better with shittier quarterbacks and WR’s who have never played a full season in the NFL.
Brilliant!
In my estimation Cheese, Aaron Rodgers was a flawed QB. Not by talent but by ego. He was ridged in his thinking, quick to blame others, aloof and distant with teammates. And as he was quick to point out, he was always smarter than coaches, players, doctors, and scientists. He looked down on the humble masses. Quick to educate them with book clubs and internet conspiracy theories that he loved to recite as fact.
With talent, money, and perceived intellect, much is expected. In a word, championships. Rodgers didn’t deliver. Therefore instead of Rodgers behavior being over looked as eccentric. He’s viewed by many as a selfish, self absorbed, diva. With his legion of fans left constantly making the most ridiculous excuses for him.
We needed to get off the Aaron Rodgers treadmill that was going nowhere. And we did so just in time. It may get worse before it gets better. Nevertheless it needed to be done.
I could care less what Benkert has to say. I got an ad on my computer for an E-book that said it would show you how to become a successful quarterback and it just so happened to be written by none other than “5 YEAR NFL QB” Kurt Benkert who was displaying photo’s of himself in a Packers jersey. Trying to cash in on that wealth of knowledge, Kurt? Funny how your NFL career stat line doesn’t have any passing statistics. That’s because he’s never thrown a single pass in the NFL aside from preseason. He has two rushing attempts and -1 yard from kneeling the ball at the end of the game.
5 year NFL QB that has never thrown a pass in the NFL lol. Now buy my E-book!