While it was a tough season for some star Green Bay Packers, like Rashan Gary, Kenny Clark, and Jaire Alexander, a handful of young players trying to establish themselves on the roster arguably faced more challenges making an impact in the 2024 season.

Coming into the year, players such as Lukas Van Ness, any of the wide receivers, or Devonte Wyatt were expected to ascend into greater roles and make their way toward the lights of stardom.

Instead, under new hotshot defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and a change to a more run-dominant offense, many young Packers found themselves sharing the wealth of snaps with numerous players at their positions.

While the season was still successful, with the Packers again dancing in the playoffs as the youngest team in football, this offseason will require the Packers' General Manager, Brian Gutekunst, to take a hard look at their platoons at wide receiver, defensive end, and defensive tackle. Meanwhile, Head Coach Matt LaFleur and Hafley will need to recalibrate a plan to get the most out of the 11 players they run out. 

EDGE

It's not impossible that Van Ness is a long-term solution at defensive end for the Packers, but this season definitely slowed that development. While Van Ness struggled to make much of a dent when he was playing, he was also in a constant battle for snaps with Preston Smith, Kingsley Enagbare, Aaron Mosby, and Brenton Cox Jr.

Unfortunately for the Packers, the platoon's results were, at best, just good—certainly not great.

The revolving door of who was run out at defensive end this season for the Packers impacted even the likes of Rashan Gary, who only lined up for 58% of the defensive snaps.

Compare that to premier edge rushers, as Gary is paid to be, and he is not playing anywhere near enough. For example, TJ Watt played 85% of snaps, Myles Garrett had 76% of snaps, Trey Hendrickson racked up 73%, and even some young players like Byron Young for the Los Angeles Rams put up 85% and 76% of the snaps in his first two seasons as he quickly ascends into stardom.

In fact, since snap counts first began being recorded in the NFL in 2012, this season was the first time the Packers had six players register at least 150 snaps as outside edge rushers. At most, teams have generally had four or five players register that many snaps as primarily edge rushers, the Packers having six this season was a rare outlier.

Besides Gary, the outcome of that style produced nothing but question marks about the group going into next season. The Packers very well could be seeking out another edge rusher as early as the first round of the draft, but if no one on roster departs the team in the process, there's an argument to be made that adding another body only makes the waters murkier for this group.

After all, Van Ness is still only two years into a rookie contract that Green Bay acquired through using a lucrative pick 13 to secure the Hercules-looking fella. He has shown signs of life, but for a recent first-round pick, is still sharing a ton of snaps and might just need the opportunity to start full-time; otherwise, spending first-round draft capital seems a bit miscalculated. 

As incredible as Hafley's first year as DC was, his plan treated the top-of-the-depth chart edge players as rotational pieces rather than affording any player a real opportunity to break out when adding in the emphasis on containing the run. Even Gary is coming off the field at odd times despite being the team's top run defender this year.

Cox injects a similar situation to Van Ness in that he was arguably the Packers' second-most consistent pass rusher behind Gary down the stretch.

From week 11 on, his four sacks were the second most on the team, he was not credited for a single missed tackle, and he clocked in as PFF's second-highest graded pass rusher in week 16 (89.6). The former five-star recruit, who cost himself what might have been a first-round worthy college career due to repeated off-field issues, has translated developmental reps on the practice squad to meaningful production on Sundays.

So what now?

This offseason will certainly reveal how the front office and Hafley view the group. Regardless, Green Bay needs a clearer plan from Gary, and that player may already be in the locker room.

While the run defense made massive strides in Hafley's system, the platoon style did not pay off by way of anyone from this group separating themselves as a pass rusher. The four-man pass rush can not be as ineffective next season for the Packers as it was this season.

Defensive Tackle

Speaking of the other culprits in a four-man pass rush that struggled to wreak havoc, the defensive tackle platoon is a familiar theme.

Kenny Clark is coming off arguably the worst season of his career, registering only one sack and poor run defense grades throughout the season. While his efforts taking on double teams certainly freed up the linebackers behind him, Clark was the eighth most doubled defensive tackle in football this year, and all seven doubled more than him were also more productive across the board.

He is entering his age-30 season in 2025 and will collect an $11 million roster bonus for the 2026 season unless something changes before that. Clark's usage this season, with only 726 snaps, was his lowest snap total of any full season he's played.

Like Van Ness, Gary, and Clark, the Packers drafted Devonte Wyatt with a first-round pick to compliment Clark and bring a dominant force up front. Instead, while Wyatt has maintained a fairly solid pass rush, he has to come off the field on obvious running downs and hasn't really taken his game up a notch in his first three seasons.

TJ Slaton has been a nice piece for the Packers in those situations to take Wyatt off the field, but Slaton is the inverse where he is generally not a "best 11" guy on obvious passing downs.

So introduce Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden to the mix to add relief in both areas and fill in for an injured Wyatt.

All in, the Packers have some good pieces at defensive tackle. They just don't have any great or complete ones, and contract decisions are looming.

The run defense was great this season far more because of the scheme than the players. Besides Gary, no player across the front four posted strong run defense grades, many stops, or tackles for a loss. They all played well in the system, which is important, but they also weren't exerting any dominance up the middle.

Similar to the EDGE players, adding another through the draft makes the waters murkier. However, with rare exceptions, NFL draft history screams to draft a defensive tackle in round one if you want a great one. This year's class happens to be one of the strongest defensive tackle groups in recent memory. 

It's gut-check time for Gutekunst across the entire defensive line. He got his slice of a strong offensive tackle class last year; will he again this year with defensive tackle? 

Wide Receiver

Jayden Reed leading the Packers with 55 catches, the lowest to lead the team since 2003, about sums up how this season went for an extremely promising group of young Packers pass catchers.

While Dontayvion Wicks seemed unable to shake dropping passes, both he and Reed tied for a team-leading nine drops.

Watson and Doubs both add elements of pop to the team and were far more consistent catching passes this year. Optimistically, it seemed like both were just regular usage away from ascending their status in the league. Reed, as well, after a hot start to the season, would disappear for much of a game throughout the season, but the talent never fails to show up when he is being used.

This whole group certainly has work to do this offseason, and their confidence and growth in their roles will be a big part of that. Unfortunately, Watson's season has been cut short with the week 18 ACL injury, and that creates a whole other wrinkle to the equation.

But what hurt this group more than their own struggles was Green Bay running the ball more than they have since 2003. 

The plan led to a very successful offense, as almost all of the playoff teams have seemingly developed potent rushing attacks, but it meant they didn't have the ability to support four developing wide receivers.

In fact, Reed, leading all Packers receivers with 721 snaps, was the fourth-lowest to lead a team (taking out the Texans and Buccaneers with numerous top receivers missing a chunk of the season).

Extend that down to Watson's 555 snaps being fourth on the Packers but most in the NFL for any fourth wide receiver in snap count on a team.

It's great if the Packers want to lean into Josh Jacobs and run at franchise-high clips again next season. However, a four-man attack at receiver, when all the guys lack the reps and involvement to really take off, does not pair well.

In that case, Gutekunst and LaFleur need to have an honest discussion about where the offense goes from here.

Right now, the receiver room is built for a lethal passing attack, but the run game always shows up center stage. With that, Green Bay would benefit more from adjusting their passing game accordingly by ensuring the top of their receiver depth chart is in great shape. Rather than in just okay shape going four deep but never establishing a guy or two to become the go-to targets.

With Jordan Love playing his best football when the Packers look to establish a rhythm in the passing game, it might encourage LaFleur to return to old ways and pick up with this receiver group where they left off after 2023. It also might encourage Green Bay to make a splashy move for a receiver in the draft, free agency, or trade.

Regardless, the platoon system of developing receivers with inadequate targets didn't complement the offense's operation in 2024.

With the clock ticking on rookie contracts, Watson's injury, and "the youngest team in the league" expiring as an excuse, Gutekunst and LaFleur have some tough decisions to make to take the Packers to the next level.