Why Packers’ Slew Of Big Injuries Are Actually Helping The Team

One of the most impressive aspects of the Green Bay Packers‘ comeback win over the New Orleans Saints is they pulled it off without five of their best players.

Aaron Jones, Jaire Alexander, David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins, and Christian Watson were all ruled out before the game due to the respective injuries each player is currently dealing with. For a young team like the Packers, it can be too much to overcome and that certainly looked to be the case before Anders Carlson’s 38-yard field goal went through the uprights with 11:00 left in the game.

For a young team to come together under all of those circumstances and pull off a win is nothing short of huge. It’s only going to build confidence, which is obviously imperative for this roster.

Guys who typically wouldn’t get starting reps -you know, your Rasheed Walkers, Carrington Valentines, etc.- are getting valuable starting experience and it’s creating chemistry and cohesiveness along the way.

“It’s been good. I mean, we’ve got a lot of reps going through OTAs [and] training camp, just with everybody,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said when asked if the injuries are creating chemistry. “So the mindset when guys are down is always next man up and credit to all those guys that stepped up. They made some huge plays right there and it’s never gonna be perfect, but, those guys stepped up and did big things today. It’s that Next Man Up mindset.”

Sure, as a football team, you want your best guys on the field as much as possible. It’s also football, however, and we know that’s not going to be the case every week.

Therefore, teams have to find ways to win with the guys they have. The Packers did just that on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints and even though there is plenty to clean up ahead of Thursday – you can’t discount the invaluable experience gained throughout Sunday’s win.

“I think it’s just confidence for a whole team – the way we were able to stick together. Nobody flinched [and we were] able to put up a comeback win like that down 17,” said Love. “I think that’s a huge confidence booster for our whole team. And more importantly, to bounce back off the loss we had last week. I think it’s a huge confidence booster and it brought us all together a little bit closer today.”

The best part about all of this is the Packers are making themselves better as a team. Once their stars get back to action, they’ll have experienced depth that has figured out how to win games.

And that, in itself, is something that could really help the team down the road when it matters most in November and December.