Three Packers Earn Spots on Pro Football Network’s Top 100 List

Posted by Admin July 15, 2024 NFL

GREEN BAY, Wis. – While the Green Bay Packers are considered a Super Bowl contender, only three players earned a spot on Pro Football Network’s list of the top 100 players for the 2024 NFL season.

Jordan Love is the highest-ranked player, checking in at No. 58 overall and No. 11 among quarterbacks.

“Love finished second in the NFL in touchdown passes (32), fifth in passing efficiency, and ninth in QBR while leading Green Bay to nine regular-season wins and a wild card rout of the Cowboys,” PFN’s Dallas Robinson wrote. “In 2024, Love could become an MVP candidate while leading the NFL’s youngest offense.”

Love took the NFL by storm down the stretch. After a rocky first half of his first season as the starter, Love threw 18 touchdown passes vs. one interception to help Green Bay win six of its final eight games.

“Just to see how much he’s grown over the last year has been awesome,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “Fun to just be around him, watch him grow as a leader, as a player and really take those big steps that he did last year to get us where we went. I’m expecting more of the same.”

A total of 14 quarterbacks made the list, including the Jets’ Aaron Rodgers at No. 80. Love is the only NFC North passer in the Top 100.

Cornerback Jaire Alexander is 90th.

“Jaire Alexander’s high-end play is as good as nearly any NFL corner’s, but injuries have kept him off the field” in 2021 and 2023, Robinson wrote. “However, he earned second-team All-Pro nods in 2020 and 2022, allowing a sub-70 passer rating in both seasons. If he can stay healthy, Alexander is the best player on a rebuilt Packers defense.”

Alexander, who was 10th of 11 cornerbacks in the Top 100, played in just 11 of a possible 34 games in 2021 and 2023. Even when he did play last season, his performance was far from its usual standard. However, he likes the new defensive direction being installed by coordinator Jeff Hafley and took part in OTAs this year after skipping the voluntary practices last year.

“I feel like I have so much more to put out there and display consistently, and I’m just ready to attack that,” Alexander said.

He added: “I think the biggest thing is just understanding that although I am on an island all the time and all day, it’s the culmination of everybody being around and the culmination of the chemistry that we’re building now that’s going to matter later on in the season. You’ll see it.”

The final Packers player on the list is safety Xavier McKinney at No. 96. The Packers made a rare splash in free agency by signing the top veteran available at the position.

“Xavier McKinney should be an immediate upgrade for a revamped Packers spine,” Robinson wrote. “The Alabama product played the best football of his career in 2023, spending time deep, in the box, and manning the slot while playing over 1,000 defensive snaps.

“McKinney allowed the fifth-lowest passer rating (52.1) among safeties with at least 200 coverage snaps.”

He’s also one of the top tacklers at the position, leading to this remarkable statistical comparison between himself and Darnell Savage, the five-year starter who McKinney is replacing.

McKinney in 2023: 116 tackles, three interceptions, 11 passes defensed, 5.7 percent missed-tackle rate (fourth out of 74 safeties with at least 500 snaps.

Savage in 2023: 50 tackles, zero interceptions, one pass defensed, 18.5 percent missed-tackle rate (69th out of 74).

McKinney is the sixth and final safety on PFN’s list.

“When you watch his point of attack (tape),” defensive backs coach Ryan Downard said, “he can play in deep zones. He can play in underneath coverage, as well. He can play in man coverage. He can box fit in the run game. He’s got a natural feel to fit the run in the run game, and then he can blitz.

“He was a single-digit missed tackle guy. He has been in his career, which to me, if you get a single-digit guy like that, he’s usually a pretty good tackler. Adrian (Amos) was actually that when he was brought in, as well. That was his strong suit, was tackling, but X has all those different things.”

In the NFC North, the Detroit Lions have five players, including four in the top 50, the Minnesota Vikings have three and the Chicago Bears have two.