There is an old, weathered cliché tossed around NFL locker rooms every September: "You can only play who is on your schedule." Coaches love it because it preaches focus. But if we are being completely honest about how successful seasons are actually built, the cliché needs a drastic rewrite.
In the modern NFL, it is not who you play. It is when you play them.
The marathon of an 18-week season is a war of attrition — whether you like it or not. A team that looks like an absolute juggernaut in May can become an entirely different animal by October, purely dictated by the cruelty of the injury report. For a Green Bay Packers squad currently sitting at a frustrating 1-2 after a bruising, mistake-heavy home loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the football gods have just offered a masterclass in calendar fortune.
It remains to be seen if the Packers will be able to cash in on this massive gift.
Green Bay’s next two opponents are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears. On paper at the start of the year, that looked like a grueling back-to-back stretch. Tampa Bay features a veteran team with high aspirations. The Bears are an intense, division-rivalry matchup where records are usually thrown out. If the Packers had to play these teams 100 percent healthy, given Green Bay's current offensive line and run-game struggles, fans would be sweating cheese curds.
Instead, the Packers are staring at a golden opportunity to completely reshape their season. Why? Because over the next two weeks, Green Bay is scheduled to face two backup quarterbacks.
The dominoes began to fall when Tampa Bay starting quarterback Baker Mayfield suffered a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand. The Buccaneers are now forced to hand the keys of their offense to Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas. Daniels is a mobile, dynamic young player, but he is completely unproven. Following the trip to Florida, the Packers return home to Lambeau Field to face the Bears. That’s a team that is similarly dealing with a vacancy at QB1, thanks to Caleb Williams being sidelined 3-4 weeks with a hamstring strain.
For defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, this is the ultimate gift. The Packers’ defense has shown real flashes of dominance, but it has also suffered from consistency issues. Now, they get a consecutive two-week stretch where they do not have to worry about elite, veteran pre-snap adjustments or quarterbacks who can effortlessly dissect a complex coverage scheme. They face a rookie making his first career start, followed immediately by a backup thrust into a hostile division environment. Gannon can dial up the pressure, disguise coverages, and force these backup signal-callers into making the predictable mistakes that define inexperienced players.
This is where Matt LaFleur’s coaching staff must capitalize. Good teams do not just win the games they are supposed to win; they ruthlessly exploit the situational advantages handed to them by the calendar. Jordan Love and the offense have been stuck in first gear, crippled by protection breakdowns and an unstable ground game. Facing an offense led by a backup quarterback naturally shortens the game, changes field position, and alleviates the pressure on your own offense to score 30 points just to survive.
If the Packers played Tampa Bay or Chicago in December, both teams might be healthy, clicking, and dangerous. But playing them right now? It is a total structural advantage. The NFL does not hand out style points, and it certainly does not care if you beat a starter or a backup. A win in October counts exactly the same as a win in January. It is time for Green Bay to take advantage of the clock.
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Cory Jennerjohn is a graduate from UW-Oshkosh and has been in sports media for over 15 years. He was a co-host on "Clubhouse Live" and has also done various radio and TV work as well. He has written for newspapers, magazines and websites. He currently is a columnist for CHTV and also does various podcasts. He recently earned his Masters degree from the University of Iowa. He can be found on Twitter: @Coryjennerjohn