We are officially through the first two weeks of the season, and so far the Packers offense has looked absolutely top notch. They’ve scored 27 points twice, looking sharp as Jordan Love has commanded the passing attack with deep throws and in improved chemistry with his receivers, who look fantastic to start the season. Losing Jayden Reed for 6-8 weeks is a blow, but may also give him the opportunity to heal up his foot fracture that he otherwise would have been playing through every week.
If there has been a wrinkle in the offensive dominance, it’s been a bit of a slow start with getting the run game going. When I say that, I want to be clear that I don't mean I think the run game has been absolutely terrible, because it hasn’t been! But let’s take a look at a few raw numbers to get an idea of where the team stands.
Through these first two games, the team has rushed for 213 yards total (with seven total rushers), two touchdowns, no fumbles, and a 3.9 YPA (Yards per Attempt). Again, not terrible. But the YPA is really the area I’d love to focus our attention on. A 3.9 YPA is just slightly below league average, which usually hovers around a 4.0- 4.5 kind of range. 3.9 has the Packers in 18th place right now, which tracks with those statistical averages. As I mentioned though, that 3.9 YPA includes seven total rushers, so what does that number turn into when we look at just the running backs? It drops down to a 3.5 average, now well below the NFL average, and would land the team at 21st in the league, just behind the Buffalo Bills. Josh Jacobs himself holds a 3.6 YPA average, with 150 yards over 42 attempts.
Looking back at last year, the team finished with a 4.7 YPA, which was eighth in the NFL. The running backs together held a 4.5 YPA, and Josh Jacobs himself ended with a 4.4 YPA. So clearly, through these first two games, there has been a dropoff regarding the efficiency of the run game as a whole. So where exactly does the fault lie? Run blocking? There’s no pretty picture there either.
PFF doesn’t tell the entire story obviously, but we can take a quick glance and see a decidedly average score, almost across the board for the starters. Elgton Jenkins leads the way with a 68.5 grade (remember that 60 is average), while Rasheed Walker, Sean Rhyan and Darian Kinnard also are within the 60s range. Behind them, Zach Tom and Anthony Belton are in the 50’s, and Aaron Banks / Jordan Morgan are living in the swamp, with scores in the 40s.
There’s a bit of an interesting split when you look at how their scores can differ, when factoring in zone blocking vs gap blocking. Again, take a PFF sized grain of salt with the information, but there’s a clear line of effectiveness. Rasheed Walker has a difference of +18.2 when zone blocking vs gap, while Darian Kinnard has a +35.1 difference in favor of zone. On the other hand, Sean Rhyan and Zach Tom have a higher gap blocking score, with differentials of 21.1 and 19.4 respectively. Everyone else has relatively similar scores between the two schemes. It’s also worth noting that the team has a mostly even snap count between the two systems, with 25 gap runs vs 22 zone runs. So we have a bit of a first clue: differing strengths along the offensive line, particularly when we look at zone vs gap running schemes.
When we look at how the Lions and Commanders actually played the Packers’ run game, we do see a bit of a through-line. In week 1, the Lions played an average of 7.6 men in the box on early downs, 8.4 men in the box on late downs, and 8.67 in the redzone (averaged across every play the Lions faced a run). The Lions played to shut down the Packers’ running game, and challenged the Packers to beat man coverage. Spoiler alert: they did. Still, the team finished that game with a 3.1 YPA.
In week two, these numbers dropped, but not by much: the Packers faced 7.3 men in the box on early downs, 7.0 on late downs, and 7.8 in the red zone. The Commanders adjusted to the passing success that the Packers put on display in week one, and lightened up the box slightly. The Packers still took advantage of lighter secondaries, and won with Jordan Love’s arm.
It’s no surprise that the early opponents of Green Bay have chosen to hone in on Josh Jacobs and the Packers’ rushing attack. In 2024, they were fifth in the NFL in rushing yards per game and in total rushing yards, and were also towards the top of the league in runs per game, averaging over thirty in total. A lot of that has to do with Jordan Love’s injury as well as the tendency to run the mall more when the weather gets colder. But we’ve also got our second clue: so far in 2025, teams are stacking the box vs Green Bay. It’s not impossible to run the ball against heavier defensive looks (look at Baltimore for example), but it sure makes it harder.
So which is it? Poor run blocking or stacked boxes? I went back and watched every single run attempt that the Packers have attempted in 2025, and I’m here to tell you the boring answer: it’s both.
In the Detroit game, as we noted, the Lions were committed to stopping the run. Completely, and utterly, and though it obviously opened up ways for Jordan Love to beat them himself, that goal of stopping the run was definitely accomplished. The Lions still have a ton of horsepower on the defensive side of the ball, even with injuries on the interior defensive line and an ineffective Aiden Hutchinson. Josh Jacobs did his best, but the Lions simply over powered the offensive line with numbers.
The second half of the game was when the rushing attack really started to find some legs, and this was done mostly with between-the-tackles interior rushing, and good leverage by the guards once it seemed everyone found their sea legs in week one. Week one is a tough place to try to draw conclusions from, as it is. Everyone’s tired, nobody is used to playing NFL football yet, and execution is never ideal.
In week two, I saw an extremely impressive game plan from Matt LaFleur & Co. to get the running game going. It was so fun to see those jet sweeps from the pair of rookie receivers, and I thought that was the real first opportunity we’ve seen for Golden to show off that 4.29 speed. I loved the backfield motion that the offense employed. There were cheats, orbits, and some spinner action that we saw a lot of last year. I thought this creativity led to a few less reps where Jacobs needed to make someone miss in the backfield.
We already have a proof of concept for this group as a whole, considering the pass blocking clinics that they have put out on tape so far. I know those concepts aren’t the same thing, but when you look at offensive lines on a year by year basis, units who are good at one area are usually pretty good at the other one too. Offensive lines are a weak link system, and we’ve got one player playing in a new position (Jenkins) and one new addition to the starting lineup (Banks), plus NFL-level backups in Jordan Morgan, Anthony Belton, and Darian Kinnard.
So in conclusion, I believe that any run game struggles that we have as a team are, in fact, a mirage. As Jordan Love proves himself week by week, we are going to see lighter boxes employed against Green Bay. As we move forward, I have faith that this offensive line is going to gel together in run blocking.