After three weeks of the 2026 NFL season, the Green Bay Packers were 1-2, coming off an embarrassing 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in primetime, and their issues were clear.
The offensive line.
Quarterback Jordan Love had been pressured from quite literally the first offensive snap of the season, through the end of that Thursday Night Football game against Atlanta at home. The numbers and charting data backed that up, as through the first two weeks Love had been pressured on 44.4% of his dropbacks, behind only Bryce Young, Caleb Williams, and Deshaun Watson, as charted by Pro Football Focus.
And on those dropbacks, Love had completed just 36% of his passes for 300 yards, zero touchdowns, and a pair of interceptions.
That led to some additions along the offensive line, as the Packers came out of that Thursday-night loss and entered something of a mini bye week. Green Bay added Laken Tomlinson, Mekhi Becton, and Kevin Zeitler, a trio of veterans, to help bolster the group.
Tomlinson slid into the starting lineup for Green Bay’s Week 4 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, getting the start at left guard. While he has been the only one of the three additions to see the field — Becton remains on the practice squad and Zeitler, who was active for Week 5 against the Chicago Bears, was behind Travis Glover on the depth chart for that game — the offensive line has seemingly turned the corner.
Consider this. While Love was one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the NFL through Week 3, since then the narrative has completely changed. Over Weeks 4 and 5, Love was pressured on just 13 of his 65 dropbacks, or 20%, according to Pro Football Focus.
Out of the 34 quarterbacks who played over Weeks 4 and 5, that was the lowest percentage rate around the entire NFL.
And it is not as if Matt LaFleur and the Packers coaching staff suddenly leaned into a horizontal passing game, in an effort to get the ball out of Love’s hands quickly. Over this recent two-game stretch, Love has attempted 13 passes of 20 yards downfield or more, deeper route concepts that require more time in the pocket.
Only Jameis Winston has attempted more.
To drive this point home, consider the very first play the Packers ran on Sunday against the Bears. Backed up in their own end of the field, with Love lining up quite literally in the shadow of the end zone and the goalposts, LaFleur and offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich called for a … slow-developing flea-flicker ending with a screen to tight end Tucker Kraft:
Not exactly lacking confidence in the protection when you have this at the top of the game script.
Stenavich had this to say about that play on Tuesday when he met with media in Green Bay:
The Packers first reached the end zone on this deep shot to Christian Watson, working off play-action. We’ll return to that point in a moment but first, watch Tomlinson on the interior, first by helping center Sean Rhyan, and then helping left tackle Jordan Morgan, hold up in protection:
The Bears actually bring pressure on this play, blitzing both Tyrique Stevenson and Jaylon Johnson off the edges, but the line holds up just enough for Love to make the Chicago defense pay.
Love again punishes the Chicago defense on this vertical shot to Watson, who splits the two-deep safeties. The route concept, with a trio of vertical routes to the left side of the formation, tasks linebacker D’Marco Jackson with trying to “carry” Watson’s vertical route, and help the Cover 2 safeties in the middle of the field as the wide receiver splits them.
The quarterback, after a quick fake toss, sees the coverage and gets his eyes right to Watson, as the protection holds in front of him:
Now as noted above, it is time to return to the play-action elements at work here. All three of these examples contain some level of run action — a flea-flicker, a run fake, and then a fake toss on the third snap.
Through the first three weeks of the season, Love and the Packers used play-action on 18.8% of his dropbacks, which ranked just 35th out of 37 qualified passers. Only Jalen Hurts and Cooper Rush used play-action less over Weeks 1 through 3, as charted by Pro Football Focus.
These past two weeks?
Love has used play-action on 30.6% of his dropbacks, ranking 13th in the league over that stretch. And on those plays, Love has completed 25-of-32 passes for 424 yards (a completion percentage of 78.1%) and three touchdowns, without an interception. He has also averaged 13.3 yards per attempt, second to only Lamar Jackson over the past two weeks.
Against Chicago alone, 41.2% of his passing plays were on play-action, and Love went 12-for-14 for 245 yards and a touchdown.
So these concepts have, seemingly, helped.
But sometimes, you just need to block some guys, and your quarterback needs to finally feel comfortable stepping up in the pocket:
The Bears bring a … we can call it a slow-developing stunt here. But the offensive line picks it up, Love feels comfortable stepping up in the pocket (something that was missing earlier in the season) and the Packers are in the end zone again on an absolute heat-check of a throw.
After a tough start, the Packers seem to have found their footing, particularly up front along the offensive line. And they have also identified some concepts in the passing game that have helped to slow the rush across from them, and create some explosive plays in the passing game.
And they are finding their best five to put out there in front of Jordan Love:
There is an old adage about the NFL, that you find out what you are not doing well in September, fix it in October, and prepare for a stretch run in November and December.
It seems like the Packers have checked those first two items off the to-do list.