Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spafford, joined as always by the one the only Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field to talk about the Packers' twenty twenty four schedule. Wes. The schedule is out. It has seventeen regular season games on it. I was hoping for sixteen, nine at home, eight on the road. We knew all that beforehand. We knew who the opponents would be. Now we know the order, we
know the game times. Just your initial impression when you took a glance at the schedule, what jumped out at you first?
Nothing? Which is interesting because there were so many years where there'd be like an early bye week or some bizarre stretch of road, or you know, some things that just catch right. This was the most, as I wrote in our Insider Inbox column, the most straightforward schedule I think the Packers have had in all my years covering the team. To answer your question truthfully, it is that
primetime slate of games. Four straight weeks of primetime games late in the season, including that Thursday night Thanksgiving game. Against the Miami Dolphins. But by and large, Mike, it was a very balanced schedule. The Packers got the bye week's smack dab in the middle of the season. There's no week once for once, there's no Week four, there's no Week fourteen, Week thirteen, Week five. No, it's right there in Week ten. Some pivotal games sandwiched around that.
Being able to host the Detroit Lions. You want to win that one going into the bye week. You and I'll be talking about that leading into that game, sure, and then on the other side of it, facing Caleb Williams for the first time. I believe on that one. Yeah, because they'll get them on the finale at Lambo. So pretty straightforward schedule, and honestly, I think for the Green Bay Packers, especially with that start in Brazil, as normal as you could hope for. Yeah.
Absolutely. As you said, the bye week is in a normal spot for the first time in a long time. It's after nine games and then eight games beyond that, So that's as close to the middle as you're going to get with an odd number of regular season games. A couple other things that jumped out at me, and we'll talk a little bit more about about the stretch of primetime games late in the year, which which really is an anomaly. It's it's the one true, like quirky
thing about this schedule, quite frankly. But the other thing too is other than during that stretch of primetime games late November and early December, the Packers don't have back to back road games except for when they have the Thursday night game at Detroit in early December and then ten days later they have another night game at Seattle. Otherwise, you know, every time the Packers go on the road, they come back, you're not preparing to go right back
on the again for another game. I think that's something that could really benefit this team because, as you said, there every year there seems to be a stretch where it's, you know, four road games in five weeks or you know,
something like that. Obviously, this year, with the Packers having the extra home game, nine home games versus eight road games, and then one of the road games was already known as the trip to Brazil early in the season, and you kind of figured that the NFL would put a home game in Week two after the Packers are coming back from that long flight, and that's h and that's
exactly what happened. I think in that respect, the schedule, the schedule sets up nicely because you don't look at it from a travel standpoints as saying like, oh, that's going to be you know that that's going to be really tough on everybody. That that's sort of what what jumped.
Out of It is the craziest thing, Mike, because the most difficult challenge I'm talking just from a pure body composition standpoint is going to Brazil and then coming back nine days later than you got the Indianapol. Yeah, making that type of time difference, trying to use the long weekend to sort of reacclimate yourself to Central time zone and all that type of stuff, and getting your sleep
cycle back. But overall, I mean, even when you look at the back to back games that they have Sunday, November twenty fourth against San Francisco at home, then they come back and on Thursday play the Thanksgiving game against Miami, Well that's two that starts two weeks after they're bye, so it's not even like you've gone through this long, arduous sort of stretch and then you get the two
games in four days. Even then you're relatively rested, you would hope, because it's just the game going down to Chicago. That forty minute flight down to Chicago that runs before that the part that I love. And again you never know how these things are gonna go flex scheduling and
everything that goes into that. But the season starts with four straight home games at noon Central start times Indianapolis Colts, which, by the way, I love that matchup because it gives the Packers, you know, Anthony Richardson coming back hopefully healthy once again, and Jordan I mean, two of the more recognizable young quarterbacks in this league. Could be very exciting
from that standpoint. Then you get the Minnesota excuse me, you get the Minnesota Vikings Aaron Jones coming back, and then you get the back to back games with Arizona and then the Houston Texans, which is a game that you pointed out seeing the reigning NFL offensive rookie of the Year in CJ. Stroud. It's an exciting stretch to begin the season, and then on the back half of it you have some big games with some huge implications. But in some ways it also lines up okay with
the way the home slate sort of works. Itself out.
Yeah. I think another thing that I like, because this doesn't always happen, is that the one time the Packers are on the short week with regard to the Thursday game, not only is the Thursday game at home, which is the Thanksgiving night against the Miami Dolphins. The Packers have another Thursday game the following week at Detroit. But obviously you're not on a short week there because you're going
Thursday to Thursday. But when you're on the short week, you have that game at home, there isn't the travel involved, and the Sunday before you're at home, so you're not coming back from a road game, and then suddenly you know you're cramming in that short week where then you know you're playing on a Thursday. Now, obviously that's a difficult, you know, that's a difficult two steps, so to speak.
Two games in five days both at Lambo is nice, but San Francisco forty nine ers the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which obviously is a rematch of the NFC Divisional Playoff from last year, and then the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving Night. That's back to back playoff teams. YEP from twenty twenty three, that you're playing in a span of five days.
I do need someone from the league to actually explain to me, like why the Packers keep getting matched against Miami for holiday games?
Yeah, that is really that is strange. Twenty twenty two, it was Christmas Christmas in Miami and now this year it's a Thanksgiving at Lambo.
As uncommon opponents go. That's pretty strange. Yes, I don't know about you. I don't think about the dreen Bay Packers playing on Christmas in Miami, nor do I think of the Miami Dolphins being a Thanksgiving team. But be that as it is. This is the schedule that you have and the very unique swing of Miami Dolphins football, and then basically a regular seven day recovery stretch before
you travel to Detroit. You make that leap across like Michigan overall again, even the back to back games, having the ten days between the two of them before you go to Seattle, which is a big stretch. I mean, that's a big trip. But yeah, it's pretty laid out, pretty good, Mike. It's pretty pretty wild that way.
The other thing that's interesting, and this is what I wrote about on our website with regard to with regard to the four consecutive night games, and again just for
the rundown. It starts Thanksgiving night with Miami at Lambeau, the following Thursday night at Detroit, then after the little Mini Bie on the weekend, the following Sunday night, you're at Seattle, and then you come back with the consecutive primetime game Monday Night Football, which is the Packers' only appearance this season on Monday Night Football, Monday Night Football
against New Orleans. Here's the thing, though, if that Week eighteen game, which the way the NFL does things now, nothing is set in stone with red to Week eighteen, could be Saturday, could be Sunday. You don't know what
time you're gonna kick off. A lot of that stuff gets determined kind of at the last minute, based on the playoff picture obviously, But that Week eighteen home game against the Bears, if the league decides to put that one in primetime, which you can't rule out, yep, No, then five of the last six regular season games will
be night games for Green Bay. After having a stretch in the early part of the season where after the Packers come back from Brazil, they have six out of seven noon Central time kickoffs, which is the type of stretch that we haven't really seen in a long time around here. Either have a stretch of seven games and only one of them is not a noon Central time kick From a work standpoint for us, we love that, right. Yeah.
From a marriage standpoint, it's kind of nice. Yeah. I remember two years ago, I think it was the Packers had one noon home game.
Yeah, that was it.
That was it. Yeah, So to have four right off the bat, like, that's pretty cool. I will say this too. I threw this in my news and notes. There's always something quirky about these schedules. I remember a couple of years ago. It was actually when I was still at the pres Gazette, I wrote about how the Packers, because the Vikings want to open US Bank Stadium against green Bay, green Bay ended up having back to back road games to start the season. That was the first time they'd
done that in like ninety three years or something. Yeah, this particular schedule very interesting. Note for as often as the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears have played each other, this is the first time since nineteen thirty two and thirty three that they've had back to back regular season finales against each other, and if you want to take it even further, it's the first time Green Bay has ever hosted the Chicago Bears in back back regular season finales.
Just wild when you think about how many different schedules, how many different combinations, how many machinations of this NFL, you know, seasons have been created that we're gonna kind of see an opening first chapter here in a book that is pretty darn long.
Yeah, And it's interesting too because because in you know, in sort of the recent Packers history, Packers Bears finales in the regular season have ended up having a lot of significance. You know, you look at obviously, twenty ten got the Packers in the playoffs, started them on the run.
Twenty thirteen at Soldier Field was the division title on the line, with Rogers and Cob both coming back from long injuries, and we all know the fourth and eight from the forty eight, and then last year the Packers had to win that game to get into the playoffs and launched what almost became a very extended playoff run and and might have been if if not for letting that game in San Francisco just get away and final five minutes.
You and I last week we were talking about the Detroit game. I had to laugh because I was rewatching parts of that episode in our last one earlier this week. I should say, you were talking about, Hey, maybe Detroit in the finale. I was like, hey, maybe week two versus Detroit, and they are gonna play a primetime game, a Thursday night football game there on December fifth. But it was funny to me that, you know, the two
soothsayers over here kind of. I mean, we're all swinging at pitch as we can see, but right, it's still pretty funny that, oh, yeah, well maybe it'll be the finale. Well, maybe it'll be the beginning. Maybe it'll be both. It's actually neither. Yeah, so congratulations, Wes.
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subs fifty plus years of better. All right, we know about you know, the Brazil game, and we know the significance of the division games and all that. Is there a game on this schedule that you know isn't really being talked about all that much or whatever, but that you think when the time comes, it's going to have maybe a bigger spotlight on it then we might predict at the moment.
It's a really good question, Mike, because the one that when we did our instant reacts, you know, pick a game out that really jumps off the page. Whew, I said, Detroit. But it was for the exact opposite reason of what you're describing, because it was a team that's the defending NFC North champion that went to the NFC Championship game, came within a nail of getting to the Super Bowl, and you're going to host them the week before the
bye week. So in terms of consequential games, I feel like that is the that is the close of the first half of the season. That's that's right before halftime, trying to run the two minute drill here, right, Yeah, But the game if you if you structured under that construct.
It probably is week five at the Los Angeles because that's where green Bay, you would hope, can build up, Like Mike McCarthy always used to talk about that quarter pole, that first quarter of the season, build up some momentum and take on a team that I thought, you know, green Bay made the big run and everybody was so excited about it. I thought that green Bay's run during the final six seven weeks of this season, it's sort of overshadowed everything the Rams were doing. Once Matthew Stafford
got healthy, right, yeah, you know this. The Rams had quite the rally there too at the end of the season. And again, if there wasn't for the seventh game, they would have been able to close out that that last playoff spot. So for green Bay to go off of that start, get some early momentum hopefully, and then travel and play that first game out in Los Angeles against the Rams, I'm very interested, I should say at SOFI.
Obviously they played at the Coliseum in eighteen, but that's gonna be kind of a little bit of a meter and you know, measuring stick moment because then you come back and you know, you have Arizona and then we'll see where things go for the Cardinals, but then you have Houston, then you have Detroit, then things really start to ramp up.
Yeah, and as I mentioned in the video that the video that we shot with Larry, I kind of had my eye on this, you know, regardless of where it was going to fall in the schedule. But this whole matchup with Houston, which ends up in Week seven, it's a noon start at Lambeufield Sunday, October twentieth. You have the Packers and the Texans, two teams that a year ago at this time, nobody would have said they're going
to the playoffs. In twenty twenty three, they were the two teams really the one team from each conference that were the surprise playoff qualifiers. And then, as you mentioned before, it's c. J. Stroud, the reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, Jordan Love at quarterback. These two guys, you know, young up and coming quarterbacks who could be big time stars in this league for a long time to come,
and this will be their first matchup. And it's a matchup because of Houston being in the AFC, it's not one that you're going to see all that often. Potentially more than once every four years because of that seventeenth game thing. Now, but still AFC versus NFC, these two young quarterbacks, they're not going to square off a whole heck of a lot. And uh, and this is the first one here in October.
Yeah, you won't hear me complaining either. I really want to go to Energy. I have not been to Energy yet, I miss. That's right.
You had you had mentioned that that that's one. That's one one of three I haven't been to. I've I distinctly remember that the time I was there, that twenty twelve Sunday night football game where the Texans were either four and oh or five and o or whatever. There was, yeah, five and oh, and the Packers were kind of struggling because they had they had they had lost the Fail
Mary game in Seattle. They had lost on another kind of a tough controversial decision in Indianapolis because of a because of a roughing the passer thing where it looked like the Packers were gonna get a strip sack and that got taken away. And then they go down they go down to Houston, and you know, Aaron Rodgers throws for a gazillion touchdowns and they completely blow out the last undefeated team in the NFL. Still, that season.
To me the most one of the most bizarre seasons that not the Packers. Well, I'll flip this both ways. Let's start where I was gonna say about the Texans. That was the Texans only lost in their first twelve games. So not only did was they the last team undefeated team to lose, they went on a six game winning streak after that.
I didn't even realize that.
Yeah, and then they kind of taint yeah at.
The end of the sea. That's probably why I don't really remember it, because they ended up they did end up fading badly at the end of that season.
And then they ended up getting beat by the Patriots in the playoffs Green Bay. I've always maintained this is not where I want this conversation to go, but we're going there, so I'm just gonna drive and sit in the seat and drive. I've always said the twenty twelve season is one of the most one of the best Packers seasons that no one ever talks about, yep, because that was actually a pretty good team was ranked eleventh
that year. They actually krik Casey Hayward was a Rookie of the Year finalist on the defensive side of the ball. But then the Kaepernick game happened and you had the fail Mary earlier in the season. There's so many things that people remember about that year for the wrong reasons. But all that being said, yeah, the exciting thing to bring it back to this thing about Stroud is you covered the early days of Aaron Rodgers. I did not.
I was covering Green Bay prebble track and field in Luxembourg, Castle wrestling in all those times.
I did that for a long time myself as well. During the Brett Favra, That's what I was doing. But much of the Brett FAVERI.
What you saw that I did not see unless I was watching it on Sundays was Aaron Rodgers taken on Drew Brees for the first time, Aaron Rodgers taken on Tom Brady for the first time, Peyton Manning. The list goes on and on, and the exciting thing about Jordan at this at this part of it is you are going to see Anthony Richardson, you are going to see c. J. Stroud, You're going to see some of these young up and comers. We'll see what can happen here with Caleb Williams, Jared
Goff's second highest paid quarterback in the NFL. Now that Jordan has established himself and you still have to stay on that track and you know, keep keep climbing, but now you aren't so much thinking about, Okay, well how
is Jordan gonna play against this particular defense. You start to get sort of the celebrity, the off factor fact going into these games, and that it was fun this compared to last year where there were so many questions about the Packers and the players and the young, you know, youth of this roster. Well, this year, when I was looking at the schedule and how it laid out, I'm thinking a lot of times of like, oh, Jordan love
verus this team. You know, you look at you know guy like, you know, Josh Jacobs, what's he going to do against this defense? Yeah, that's cool, And that's what happens when you're a contending team.
Yeah. I didn't realize this until until you know, we turned on the cameras and started diving into this a little bit more. But you know, the the whole AFC NFC thing. This year, the NFC North is matched up with the AFC South, So everybody in the NFC North is going to play every team in the AFC South over the course of the season. The Packers have those four games against the AFC Souths within the first eight weeks of the season. Yep, like those those four matchups.
So then after that, the only AFC matchup you have left is the quote unquote seventeenth game, which which in this case becomes the Miami game on Thanksgiving Night at Lambo. So just kind of interesting in a sense how that fell. The four games against the AFC South. It's back to back weeks two and three home against Indie road at Tennessee, and then back to back weeks seven and eight home
against Houston on the road at Jacksonville. Just you know, kind of fit those games in a nice, neat little packages early in the season instead of being in like
weird spots or whatever. And again, as we started the whole conversation, the only thing about this schedule that feels quirky to me is the run of four consecutive primetime games starting on Thanksgiving Night, which I can't ever remember four consecutive primetime games, and that could turn into five primetime games in a span of six in a span of six if the Week eighteen game against Chicago ends up at night as well.
Well, in the fact that you remember, it may be kind of a scheduling quirk that did they end up being four straight primetime games, but it's not. It's not an oversight that it happened in the second half of the season, that happened down the stretch. Sure that tells you that the NHL, you know, sees these teams, the teams that they're playing. I mean, there's no pushovers in
that group either. I mean, I understand that Seattle didn't make the playoffs last year, in New Orleans didn't, but they were both alive the last week, last week of the season last year. So that part of it's really interesting to me. The other thing I always want to say, because so many people always bring this up an inbox that we talk about, is, you know, the strength of schedule. And I answered it this week, like why is the Packers'
schedule harder than the Lions? And again that's all subjective.
Yeah, I got I got that. I got that question a couple of weeks ago and tried to explain, you know, based on based on the matchups and how it works how either the Packers strength of schedule based on records the twenty twenty three records of their opponents. The Packers' schedule is the fifth hardest in the NFL for twenty twenty four as of right now.
But the thing I always tell people is one one season does not dictate the next. You can ask the twenty two Packers that, yeah, and that schedule end up lying up to me, the more important thing is how your season lays out, rather than exactly who you're playing. You know, And I even heard I think Larry Mchaern was mentioning earlier today, it's about when you play certain teams.
Yeah, at one point hear you hear that a lot around this league. The longer, the longer you're connected to this league, you hear it a lot. It's not it's not who you play, it's when you play them. And and that that does end up playing a big factor in that respect. Not exactly sad to see that that, you know, Miami of Florida team might be coming here when it's a little chilly on Thanksgiving night, and New Orleans a Southern Dome team coming here two nights before Christmas,
when it could be even a little bit colder. Yet those kinds of those are the little things that might work in Green Bay.
And then the other aspect of it too is that, you know, I think back to last year with Atlanta, I would make no predictions in terms of how certain games would have played out, but in the Packers actually controlled most of that week to matchup against the Falcons. But if you play that game in December as opposed to September, yes, those are two very different teams by the end of the season, one trending up, one trending down.
Absolutely, and it's it's.
Just all about where you catch, guys. But the only thing you can hope for. And again, we'll see what Matt Lafleures say about and we'll see how things line up for green Bay once we get into this thing and how things look after Brazil. But for green Bay having a very unique and an unprecedented start to the season by traveling to South America, after that, I felt like it lined up pretty well for them. Yeah.
Absolutely, Well, all that's left is to play the games right west now.
Well, and we also got to OTAs and Maniki, oh yeah, that's right, and shareholders meeting and.
The players actually have to get ready to play this season now, even though you and I are ready to go.
Just I sort of man, I want I don't want to do the whole like click or whatever that Adam Sandler movie thing was. But like it's like sometimes with the stuff. It's Mike, we had a we had an announcement for announcement this week for a scheduling, and.
Then they were they were, they were trickling out these uh you know, these big matchups. One yeah, one like Tom Brady's Fox broadcast debut is going to be this game. And then you know, they even released like a week two game I think or something.
Yeah, I think I think half of that Kansas City our schedule was out by the time.
Yeah, that's the thing is all about all about Kansas City. Kansas City is starting the season with the Ravens and the Bengals back to back. Yeah, I mean, my goodness, you know, and those are you know, obviously two of their biggest playoff rivals at this point, and then you know they're not even into their their division rivalries.
I think you want to wrap up, but can I ask you this quick? Do you think we've ever had a team in the National Football League with two bigger stars than Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey. I mean, Trent Patrick Mahomes has become the face of this league. Yes, and he's a future Hall of Famer. I think he's what twenty eight years old, He's already in the Hall of Fame. Just put him in there. It's the first ballot. And then Travis Kelcey one, he's a Hall of Fame
tight end. But two, obviously, the relationship with Taylor Swift. That's about as Hollywood It's as a team has gotten.
I would I would say, I would say it's I would say it's reminiscent. But in the instance I'm going to bring up, it was three players Aikman, EMMITTT Smith and Michael Irvin with that Cowboys dynasty that won three Super Bowls in four years back in the back in the early nineties. It's reminiscent of that in terms of in terms of multiple guys on the same team kind of being the face of the league. Yeah, in the in Kansas City's case, it really is those two guys.
In the Cowboys case, thirty years ago, it was it was three guys and the and a head coach who not taking anything away from Andy Reid, but a head coach that was a little bit more bombast is Miami personality wise, was out there right in Jimmy Johnson.
So yeah, no, it's interesting and it's fun. And again, I remember last year when they booked the Chiefs and Packers for a primetime game. I mean, this is what happens when you have a young ascending quarterback. You're gonna see more of these things happen. I said it to you and Unscripted, I expected us to have a five primetime games. That's how it worked out. Yep. Really looking forward to covering game in Brazil with you at nine
to fifteen local. And I'm sure you and I won't hate each other when by the time we're flying back into Green Bay that following day, will be totally cool with each other. We won't be tired and agitated or anything at all playing the game.
Not not after sitting around in a hotel in Salpolo for two days just waiting to cover a football.
Maybe I'll get some sun.
Yeah maybe. All right with that, we're gonna call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team, all sorts of coverage of the schedule. What's out there. We got stories, we got videos. It's all there for you on packers dot com for well I Mike, thank you for tuning in.
Everybody.
We will see you next time.
M HM.