Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
2nd Annual OPEES
32 Plays9 days ago
It’s awards season in Titletown 🏆🧀 as we present the 2nd Annual OPEes, our official awards show breaking down the 2025 Green Bay Packers season.
We’re joined by JJ Lahey from the DERAILED Podcast, adding extra insight, strong opinions, and zero filter as we hand out awards for the best, worst, and most unforgettable performances of the year.
From team MVPs, breakout players, and top position groups to coaching decisions, collapses, and moments Packers fans would rather forget, this episode delivers an honest, performance-centric review of the season. Expect a mix of serious football analysis, brutal accountability, and classic OPE humor.
In this episode:
- Full recap of the 2025 Packers season
- Player, unit, and coaching performance awards
- Not-so-good categories that still need answers
- Guest analysis and debate from DERAILED Podcast
If you’re a Green Bay Packers fan looking for season-ending analysis, awards, and unfiltered takes, this episode wraps it all up in true OPE fashion.
Go Pack Go. 🟢🟡
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Absences
00:00:56
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Ohana Packers Edition podcast. We are Ope. I am Iowa Joe. As you can tell, Mike is not here. He is out taking his kids to swim lessons.
00:01:08
Speaker
Well, which I guess being on a state that is 100% surrounded by water is kind of a good thing to make sure they they know how to at least doggy paddle around.
00:01:21
Speaker
but I just like that he has an excuse. Look, Mike has now been on my pat podcast and I've now been on his podcast and both times we were absent from our own show because Mike is a Michigan fan and I'm an Ohio state fan and everybody knows that putting the two of us in the same call together just wouldn't go well. So Mike, when you listen back to this, love you buddy.
00:01:47
Speaker
and for those that you know of you that are listening to this on audio only that is the voice of jj now i say like hey because i just love saying la hay but i've got to trailer park boys uh you know sir you can start saying to f frig off leahy you know and That's the best way to get rid of me when I'm being too much. Yeah.
00:02:08
Speaker
but It's like Jim Leahy from Trailer Park Boys. JJ Leahy. Yeah, Leahy. Yeah, I get you. But I also like calling Jason Perrone Peroni because I just love here. I can only picture the most Italian guy in the world. Peroni. Peroni.
00:02:23
Speaker
So, but this is JJ Leahy, derailed podcast, draft guy Usually he's with his with his podcast partner, Jake Schvink, which for some reason I can actually get for tonight. Normally it's like shava and they sit up what or some shit like that, but I actually nailed it on the first try.
00:02:43
Speaker
i don't think that pronouncing it is too hard. It's having to spell it. And since I have to type his name all the time when I'm trying to promote the show, you know, I finally had to get good at it, but. Jake has so many consonants and vowels, like all in a row in the order you wouldn't expect.
00:03:00
Speaker
Like saying it is the easy part. He's got a typical Wisconsin name and I don't think Jake is from Wisconsin. Well, he lives in enemy territory among all the Bears fans, unfortunately. OK, so then, yeah, that Illinois thing kind of fits in there a little bit, too.
Packers' 2025/2026 End-of-Year Awards
00:03:17
Speaker
But anyway, this is a long way around to say we are doing our 2025 slash 2026 end of the year awards.
00:03:26
Speaker
And kind of funny, Mike wasn't at our last year's awards either. So I think he just doesn't want to do award shows. Hey, you know, I only came on here because I love you so much because you asked me to come on. You're like, hey, it's, you know, it's the award shows. and I hate award shows, but I am kind of partial to the Packers. So when you said we were doing a Packers award show, I said, you know, it's the least I can do. All right. Show up for my buddy, Joe, do a Packers award show for the wet fart of a season that was 2025.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, usually you would say like 2025 to 2026, but like, let's be honest, the Packers quit a few weeks before 2025 even ended. it really wasn't the 25 to 26 season. and we really wasn't the twenty five to twenty six season It was almost season.
00:04:18
Speaker
Pretty much, and as I normally tell people, we do an award show, but we're not like the Oscars and all
Unique Award Show Format
00:04:25
Speaker
that where we're going just call out the good. We're going to throw in some not so good in there, too. So we we don't hold. Well, Mike holds back, but Mike is a very goody two shoe type of guy, and I'm just the asshole of the group that I have no problems calling people out.
00:04:43
Speaker
for shit. So yeah, there will be some of that. We may even be getting Jake on at some point. Who knows? He's mentioned maybe wanting to jump in. So sit back, buckle up, get ready for whatever kind of shit we're going to throw against the wall.
00:05:03
Speaker
you you know, you sent me like the itinerary of which awards need to be handed out. And I was looking at a couple of them and it, they seemed so obvious that it made me question like, Hey, do we have to each give our own pick for some of these? Like give our own player for someone? Cause like there's one on here, I'm staring at it.
00:05:23
Speaker
It's the second to last one on the list. And I'm like, come on, man, there's only one person you could put in there. Like if, if you took that one first and I had to come up with a second, like,
00:05:35
Speaker
I'm just going lose and see I've got two in mind actually for it. I do have a backup, but it's just he's like so far behind the the first one, you know, but let's go ahead and do that one
Rashawn Gary's Disappointing Season
00:05:48
Speaker
first. we'll We'll start out with a little bit of doom and gloom so we can see what we're going to end up with.
00:05:53
Speaker
And that is the disappearing act. The player who vanished too often for the Green Bay Packers. I will let you go first so you can get your main one out of the way and we'll see if we match up out of it.
00:06:05
Speaker
Well, I mean, this guy is paid to be there every down. He's got the big boy money. And if we hadn't made this humongous, colossal trade this season, he should have been the face of the defense.
00:06:22
Speaker
And I think a lot of us are asking where the heck was Rashawn Gary this year? Just, uh, disappointing effort all year i'm i'm just waiting and you know any day now one of these beat writers going to come out and tell us that rashaun gary secretly was dealing with a gnarly hangnail on his big toe that you know would just made this season unbearable and he was really secretly a hero for playing through it but yeah i mean rashaun gary just way too often pulling up early jogging, standing still, you know, kind of doing a late stage Kenny Clark impression.
00:07:00
Speaker
And the, obviously, especially once Micah went down, you know, the defense was really hurt by it. But even before that, like Mike is drawing double and triple teams and like, can't Rashawn get home on the other side.
00:07:14
Speaker
No, he's going to get chipped by a tight end. Come on, man. For sure. and And obviously that one's the the big pick. and I'm assuming if you would ask 10 Packer fans, 9 out of 10 of them are going to say Rashawn and the 10th guy is probably going to be Kiwano. And that's just because Rashawn is a Michigan boy. So Kiwano is going to stick up for the Michigan guy. Michigan's being biased.
00:07:43
Speaker
but Hey, I can't say nothing. I'm Hawkeye and
Joe's Loyalty to the Hawkeyes
00:07:45
Speaker
I'll always be a Hawkeye. I'd never even played for the Hawkeyes and I consider myself a Hawkeye because my knee surgery was done by the same guy that worked on the Hawkeye players.
00:07:56
Speaker
So, but yeah, Rashawn- You did about as much for Iowa's offense as most of their players have in in the last 10 years. Pretty much. Outside of a couple of guys, yeah, pretty much.
00:08:07
Speaker
But yeah, Rashawn, and what really sucks about the Rashawn one is, For like the first three weeks, it looked like we were gonna have a tremendous one-two punch with him and Micah.
00:08:22
Speaker
And then that's more or with Micah and Van Ness before Van Ness got hurt and missed, you know, the entire season. basic Right. But when you look at look at Rashawn stats, you know, his seven and a half sacks pretty much all came within the first the majority of them came within the first couple weeks of the season.
00:08:42
Speaker
And then I know the popular stat is after week eight, he just was gone. i i will say he was weirdly a pressure monster he had 60 pressures on just 446 pass rush attempts way above the you know threshold of what you're looking at for which is you want at least 10 percent which of course would have been you know 44 45 so he's at 60. so just a incredible pressure rate but
00:09:13
Speaker
you know, it didn't pass the eye test. You're watching him play and you can see plays that are there to be made. And he just stops fighting halfway through the play. And when the whole fan base starts noticing it game after game after game, you know, that's when the frustration builds. And so even though he had this extraordinary pressure season that, you know, didn't even really taper off once Mike got hurt, like he, he still had the same number of pressures per game after that.
00:09:42
Speaker
But I mean, he he got himself you know basically benched against Chicago in the in the second game. And you know like everybody just is is watching as he pulls up early, jogs when there's a tackle to be made, takes a banana angle.
00:09:58
Speaker
And it's just not what you're expecting from former first-round pick, highly drafted first-round pick, who is supposed to have been the the face of your defense this year.
00:10:09
Speaker
And, you know, very well compensated, you know, two years removed now from the ACL or three years. Is it two or three? Two years removed from the ACL. Yeah, it'll be three this coming of season. Yeah. And, you know, i I think everybody who has watched him just kind of acknowledges that, like, the explosiveness and the speed and the stamina just aren't there anymore post ACL injury.
00:10:32
Speaker
And, you know, it it doesn't take – a lot of like confirming your priors when you're listening to micah talk about needing more from his teammates to like listen to them with rashawn gary in mind and think like you know some of these things that micah is saying are like very specific to there's only a couple of guys that could have been and of those guys that could have been Rashawn is the only guy who had lofty expectations on him. You know, Mike is talking about, Hey, I want my teammates to try and beat me to the quarterback. Well, there's not a lot of guys on the defense who are rushing the passer consistently.
00:11:13
Speaker
You know, and like a, Okay, maybe he's calling out Devontae Wyatt. Yeah, maybe. Or maybe it's Rashawn who's lined up on the other side. And, you know, like Micah's out there fighting through every single play.
00:11:27
Speaker
You know that when he's watching the tape back, he's noticing what Rashawn's doing on the other side. And like, man, I'm working three times as hard as you on this on this snap. And I created an opportunity. I flushed the quarterback right into your lap and you pulled up early.
00:11:41
Speaker
And or or, you know, the running backs coming right at you. And then he just bounces outside and you're like, oh, oh, well plays over. i thought the one that really drove the nail home was because obviously like you said when you see mike outrun rashawn well mike is always going to out outrun rashawn because rashawn was never known for a speed but the one that really drove the nail home was in the wild card game when you see the same exact thing where kobe wooden is out hustling rashawn gary yep
00:12:15
Speaker
and kobe wooden should like no yeah no offense to to colby but uh he and i have similar physiques
00:12:24
Speaker
thats if you say so I'm not going to touch that. We're going to move on. But so I had another one in mind, but this one just popped in and I'm going to mention it just because oh the contract he got, because you mentioned that with Rashawn.
00:12:44
Speaker
Brian Goodkuns brought in two guys in
Aaron Banks' Underperformance
00:12:46
Speaker
in the offseason as they're as touted as their big time free agents, gave them big time money.
00:12:54
Speaker
or this one player got big time money out of it. And yeah, he was hurt for a few games, but outside of that really showed nothing, maybe a little bit more towards the end of the season.
00:13:07
Speaker
But that is Aaron Banks. he the left guard he just for this big road greater type guard that they paid what was it 77 million for four years ten the million yeah and to be that guy they moved their all pro elton jenkins from the left guard position just because they brought him in you know and
00:13:39
Speaker
he did nothing i mean obviously the offensive line as a whole was just weak this year injuries really hurt elton looked rough at center which sucked because you know he was a center when he was drafted they just had moved him all around and he was supposed to be this guy that you could move around and not miss a beat but He struggled. Obviously, the moving around of Jordan Morgan did not help him at all.
00:14:08
Speaker
Finally, Belton settled in as that right guard and and played okay-ish for the most part. and And Kennard was never used more than a sixth.
00:14:20
Speaker
offensive line and like third tight end at the most extreme moments which i still think he deserves to be re-signed based on his catch and run alone uh But yeah, Banks, I got to say, is is probably my disappearing act just because you're handed this big bag of money.
00:14:42
Speaker
and you know And the thing is, is you come from a prestigious college of four offensive linemen. I honestly don't know much about him while he was with San Francisco.
00:14:54
Speaker
But if these guys are thinking that you're the second coming, that they're moving their all pro left guard to center, just and sign you to this big money contract and then you put up the year that you did yeah there's there's something not right there yeah i wasn't a fan of this i wasn't a fan of of the signing and even less of a fan of the season he turned in but hey he's got plenty of fans on social media who will ardently defend him i i don't think that having him on the team is the worst thing i just don't understand
00:15:30
Speaker
paying him like a bona fide starter, like a, you know, premier left guard when he's, he's below average. And especially when you could have gave a smaller contract to Runyon and probably got the same, if not maybe a little better production out of him.
00:15:50
Speaker
I think you could have, I mean, Josh Myers. Yeah. Retaining Josh Myers over Aaron Banks. and There's not a lot of people who would have, said in the moment, hey, let's bring back Josh Myers. But obviously hindsight being 2020, the majority of the fan base would have been happy to bring back Josh Myers for this year in hindsight now, analyzing what this offensive line turned into.
00:16:15
Speaker
And there's certainly an argument to be made that that you are much better served giving a lot less money to Josh Myers, keeping Elton Jenkins at left guard and getting through the season that way.
00:16:28
Speaker
Rather than, you know, now we're in pretty much in cap hell and all the money that we're given to Aaron Banks, like if we cut him now. Then i then it's it's twenty nine or. or $31 million or something, $29 million dollars for one season from the guy. So, of course, they're not going to do that. They're going to bring him back for a second year. and However, if you do a post-June 1st, you save a shit ton more money. I looked at that on Over the Cap. And if you if you designate him as a post-June 1st cut, it saves a bunch of your... oh In the short term, yeah. You still have to pay that out next year.
00:17:08
Speaker
yeah but there's there's less dead money and there's a lot more cap savings out of it yeah yeah doing it as a as a post-june one allows you to split it across two years instead of just paying it all just the one year so it's the same uh it's the same amount of money but it's it's across two years right but yeah he's he's definitely the guy that i would have to say the disappearing act award So let's go ahead and move on to let let's get a little bit more cheerful on this.
Micah Parsons' Excellence Recognized
00:17:38
Speaker
Let's do the Lambeau Standard Award, the most consistently excellent Packer of the 2025 season. I'll let you go first, since you're the guest. thanks that's a good one and there were a couple names that i was considering and i i want to put a emphasis on this we will have an actual mvp so if anybody's listening no this isn't our mvp p award we'll do that at the later but this is just the guy that has been the most consistently excellent throughout the season i'm gonna go with
00:18:11
Speaker
kind of the easy, obvious one of Micah Parsons, because he really had it turned up to a 10 every snap of every game. You know, like the dude just didn't, he never took, i mean, even going back to like week one, all right.
00:18:27
Speaker
And a lot of us thought that he would kind of be slow rolled into this one, right? He had missed training camp, even with with Dallas the entire summer. you know, there was questions of like, how in football shape is he actually gonna be?
00:18:41
Speaker
And, you know, he doesn't know our defense at all. like He's had like five minutes to get caught to speed. And then he comes in and like plays the majority of week one. And then, you know, by week two, he's out there for basically every meaningful snap.
00:18:56
Speaker
and and and And you just look at just the consistent down to down effort. And there's a couple of different players, particularly on offense, that I think were,
00:19:06
Speaker
certainly deserving of being talked about in this conversation. And so if you don't mention them, I think I'll bring them up at the end just to make sure that they yeah, we can give a couple of honorable mentions. But yeah, Mike is just a good respect that that they do deserve. But for me, Michael was just so consistently what he needed to be.
00:19:25
Speaker
You know, when when he was on the field, you felt like you always had a real chance. And let's face it, once he went down, that looked like pretty much the end of the season for the Packers. yeah So, yeah, that one's a good one. Don't be surprised if he shows up at at a later point in the award show. hum I'm going to come out from left field for this one. I've been thinking about this for a while. You know, there's names, a couple of honorable mentions. You know, I could throw Javon Bullard out there because this was a really good season for him.
00:19:58
Speaker
You know, last year it looked like he was kind of lost and everything. And this year it looks like he really started putting together. i originally was thinking Romeo Dobbs because, you know, he he has been consistent. I've said this. I said this last week on our episode that.
00:20:17
Speaker
If there was a way that they could financially make it work to keep Dobbs at in Green Bay, and if he wanted to stay in Green Bay, I would do it in a heartbeat because I would feel more comfortable with Dobbs and Golden than I do Golden and Watson because really their their play styles are very similar.
00:20:36
Speaker
with the Watson and golden, whereas Dobbs adds that little bit of extra out there, but you know, those can be a couple of honorable mentions. This one I'm going to throw out there because the, the key word here is consistently, and this player has consistently been an excellent player, you know, especially on a on a, in a, uh,
00:20:58
Speaker
in heo in a in a position that we've had some issues
Daniel Whelan's Consistent Punting
00:21:03
Speaker
with before in the past, on on the side of a ball that we have had issues for for many, many, many, many many many many many years.
00:21:13
Speaker
And that's Daniel Whelan, the Irish cannon on my short list. You know, this guy has been amazing. Very rarely do you see him, you know,
00:21:26
Speaker
Screw up. I mean, that's that's the easy way to put it. He's had to deal with Orsic. He's had to deal with McManus. And he's consistently not only is his kicking great, but his, you know, wrangling some of these long snaps that he's had to wrangle to put in a position to even give McManus or even have risk a shot at making the field goal, even extra points. This guy has been consistent. And I think so we finally just need to give him some recognition for that because, you know,
00:22:00
Speaker
for special teams being as weak as they all have been for like i said many many many years he's been like the lone bright spot the last couple yeah certainly considered daniel whelan and absolutely a pro bowl snub or all pro snub the fact that that he didn't make the all pro he's clearly head and shoulders the best punter in the nfl jake Shevink pointed out to me a couple weeks ago that if you look at EPA, Daniel Whelan was far and away the most valuable punter in the NFL.
00:22:37
Speaker
and the And the fact that he didn't get the all-pro recognition is is crazy. But... I was just looking here because I got pro football reference up just so I could look at some things and his yards per punt was 51.7 and his long was 72.
00:22:54
Speaker
And that's just when you think about all the years that we've had these makeshift punters and thinking about some of you know, with with a couple of them, we were lucky they were even getting like 40 yards a punt, 50 yards of punt. And you've got this guy here that is consistently, you know, kicking them with inside the 20 and not always a touchback, not always a shank. Very rarely do you see it mess up that, yeah, this's give them the Opie. I forgot to mention that. We call our awards the Opie's.
00:23:29
Speaker
The OPs. I love it. I love it. I forgot to mention that the start. See, this is why I let Mike run the show and I just throw in comments once in a while because he's usually good about remembering this shit. But these are the OPs.
00:23:44
Speaker
So, yes. Did you have any honorable mentions that you wanted to throw out there real quick? Yeah, I thought that Jordan Love and Josh Jacobs both certainly deserve to be out here. out here yeah I think Zach Tom like should be it should be in conversation for honorable mention. Jordan Jordan to me was pretty consistently excellent just not quite to the same degree that Micah was where there were i felt like a few more plays during the season where you'd look at Jordan love and and say hey there was some more meat on the bone there that I would have liked to you to go out and be there and get and with Micah it's just you just never really felt that way frankly Yeah, yeah. and you know, again, it goes without saying that without when they lost Micah, that was kind of the final nail on the coffin for things.
00:24:39
Speaker
So we'll go ahead and move on to I love this one because this is my favorite Lombardi quote and I use it all the time. What the
Least Valuable Players Discussion
00:24:49
Speaker
hell is going out going on out there award? Basically, this is our least valuable player award.
00:24:56
Speaker
And on the defensive side of the ball, there's so many of them, but there are a few that you probably mentioned on the offensive side. And there's probably also a couple mentioned on anywhere else. So go ahead and give us your least valuable or what the hell's going on out here award.
00:25:11
Speaker
Well, and this is the problem is that is how you named it. Cause if you just only said least valuable, I would go with a different name, but since you're calling it the, what the hell is going on out there award, only one name fits. It's Keyshawn Nixon.
00:25:25
Speaker
I mean, see now I got another one in mind that fits it perfectly too. The dude was just a, a hilarious clown show all year. And you like you'd have, he had his five pass breakup game that,
00:25:38
Speaker
Drew all of his supporters out of the woodwork to, you know, come out and lecture everybody for being underwhelmed with the dog water performance, you know, the week before. And just like the absolute comedy at times for him where you're you're just watching him play and you're like, how, how in the world?
00:25:58
Speaker
are you allowed to go out there and and play the next snap after what you just did there? Like it's just, it's crazy. had no one else to play. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, when you build a roster that only has three cornerbacks on it, you kind of just got to keep playing those three cornerbacks all year, especially when one of them,
00:26:18
Speaker
is hurt two-thirds of the year oh i i guess we're just only playing two cornerbacks we're not even gonna work anybody out we have two cornerbacks that's just our our defense it's two cornerbacks what gonna do if we play you know a really passive team lose yeah yeah you know hope michael out as love to be able have sacks but yeah, I agree. Like very clearly the plan on offense on defense was just, Hey, let's just pressure the quarterback so much, uh, or, or let them run all day.
00:26:54
Speaker
And, you know, nobody's going to try and throw on us. They'll just, they'll just assume that we can stop the pass and, uh, you know, maybe, maybe we can coast our way to hoisting a Lombardi trophy without anybody trying to pass on us.
00:27:09
Speaker
And see, I've never had an issue with Keyshawn per se I never thought he was that great of a corner. He definitely surprised us all with his returnability. But the minute he said he wanted to be the number one corner on the team is the minute i was like, nope, I'm out.
00:27:27
Speaker
Because there were too many times that before he became that quote unquote number one CB on the team that he just seemed lost out there.
00:27:37
Speaker
And you saw it even more now when they relied on him more. And yes, if you look at his stats, they are okay. You got 17 pass defenses, 72 tackles, and he's got the one inter game ceiling interception.
00:27:53
Speaker
But If you actually look at his body of work, it is not number one CB. And that was the whole thing Mike and I railed on the whole offseason that they they didn't draft anybody except for the seventh round kid out of out of Tulane.
00:28:10
Speaker
Tulane. And Michael Robinson. And. And it wasn't even the one that Brian Moffey wanted. It was the other one. it could he was so ticked when that was the corner that they took out of Tulane.
00:28:27
Speaker
But yeah, so mine, i I think I can pretty well put him in here. And you'll this is kind of a pattern for the last two awards. This one is definitely Brandon McManus, McAnus, if you want to call him that or mix or suck anus or whatever you want to call him.
00:28:50
Speaker
He is another one off the top of your head, how many wins he cost us this year. at least four yeah it was five because of the the dallas uh yeah so he caused us to win in that one so he got us eliminated cost us three outright wins where where we lost otherwise and cost us the win against dallas yeah and my this was another one mike and i were come completely against it from the beginning when everybody kept talking about well we got to bring mcmanus in no i don't want him for one he's nothing more than what mason crosby gave us which was like an 80 kicker for two you have all the off the field stuff that you have no idea i know they dropped the charges or whatever but you don't know if that actually means he did it that just means they didn't have enough to go forward with and you know that's just what he got caught on
00:29:49
Speaker
We don't know what else he's done out there that he he didn't get in trouble for. And i knew that he was a headache when he was in Denver. That's the whole reason he wasn't in Denver anymore.
00:30:00
Speaker
i think he went up to Detroit and outstayed his welcome in Detroit. And then, of course, all the stuff that happened when he in this short time down in Jacksonville. So...
00:30:11
Speaker
this one i never understood then we got into the like you said the dallas game where that whole shit went down then it got to the point where the floor wouldn't even try kicking it in obvious kicking situations because he didn't know if he could trust him then the whole injury and the haveris and well we're not going to play haveris we're just going to keep throwing our our injured guy out there who's going to continue to miss kicks and that This lives up to the name of the award, what the hell is going on out there, because what really was going on out there that he kept you know running that that player out there. That's where I say that Bisaccia has LeFleur's ear too tightly, and I think that's why we have a Keyshawn. I think that's why we have a Nate Hobbs. That's why we have a Brandon McManus.
00:31:07
Speaker
And... It just, yeah, i I just, yeah, that's all I can say about it. But it doesn't help that the Packers do not care about special teams at all. They don't care.
00:31:21
Speaker
Which is weird because they I kind of got in this with Mafia the other day too when Damofsky called out Justice Mosqueda or Moscato if you want to call him that, about the article he wrote about the Packers being cheap on their special teams and Mafia, we weren't arguing but we just had this small back and forth on it that For one, I don't see how they can be cheap when they're making hand. You know, it's not like they're having to use salary cap on coaches and they make truckloads of money in Green Bay.
00:31:55
Speaker
So it's not that they don't have the money for it. I just think it's a LeFleur thing that he wants his buddies. And the other reason I say that I don't agree with it is because you can't tell me Bisaccia came to Green Bay on the cheap.
00:32:10
Speaker
Well, Basachi is the but was immediately made the highest paid special teams coordinator in the league. But when you look at roster construction, they they dedicate next to no assets to special teams. Except for who Basachi wanted, because that's why we had Dallin Levitt and why we have Zane Anderson and guys like that on the team.
00:32:33
Speaker
Sure, sure. But we've we we have had... in the last couple of years, like routinely the most valuable special special teamers on the roster in a given year are not brought back the next year. They get let go to go to Minnesota and be outstanding special teams there or, or, you know, what have you. And how many times have we had a guy who was doing a decent job at returns and then, Hey, let's trade them away. Let's move into a different position. Let's cut them out. Right.
00:33:05
Speaker
You know, they're, like returner is just it it has no value to the Packers at all. They do not care about having a returner. Even when your returner is turning the ball over like that's been a thing the last couple of years and they still they don't really make moves there.
00:33:21
Speaker
Or when you have to start running back out there in the in the playoff game to return kicks. and I mean, there's no plan. There's no strategy. There's no plan. there's no answers. They're still grasping at straws in the return game in in the playoffs.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, and and if if you were to have the ear of LeFleur for a minute and ask him, like, hey, would you, if I could tell you way that you could gain a free 10 yards every single drive,
00:33:53
Speaker
would Would you be interested in that? He'd say, of course. And he'd say, well, your offense is routinely starting their drive 10 yards further back than where they need to be because you can't return.
00:34:07
Speaker
You know, there's there's time to run the ball out and you're just not. And you're to you're you're getting the ball at the 5 or the 10. And like the teams you're playing against aren't doing that. They're getting the ball at the 20, the 30, sometimes even better.
00:34:21
Speaker
and and that just and to speak on that you know it shows that teams are knowing that the packers aren't going to do this so they don't kick it where uh yeah where you would but want them to uh kick it so but yes that's my guy i i mean there's a couple others that you could throw out there i was thinking and i hate to just because i think it's more they don't know how to use him and and he's got ballerina legs and you know musgraves uh but mcmanus like you said when i first mentioned it has cost us too many games and it's not even just this year i mean there were a couple last year that it's like yeah i don't i don't blame mcmanus for that i blame the coaches for understanding what is going on in front of them and not caring enough to make any kind of changes
00:35:17
Speaker
and there were no There was no effort to go out there and find a different kicker after they decided, hey, we've decided that Haversick is unacceptable to go out there and be our starting kicker for some reason.
00:35:30
Speaker
So he can't do it. So we're just not even going to try and you go work out other kickers or anything. It's just it's McManus or bust. or they had one on Ross and I'm not saying saying that Haversick was our savior for anything. It's just you had one on roster when McManus was dealing with his injury that it would have saved some headache there. But J.J. Remind me i've in 2022 when Aaron Rodgers has a broken finger in his hand and like can't throw the football.
00:36:04
Speaker
and they refuse to you know benjamin let him get healthy they refuse to put him on ir whatever because he i think that's part of rogers too i think that was the whole fight with rogers was he i don't know uh that's a whole nother podcast episode that we could do on ship but since you're putting a time limit on us jj we gotta we gotta to bust through a couple more of these sure so let's go ahead and do the run it back award this is the guy that you're looking forward to the most in the 2026 season that either performed well during this season so you're looking how he takes next step forward may not have performed up to esteem but showed enough that you're looking forward to it or however you want to take it but it's the run it back op of 2025.
00:36:55
Speaker
can i can you
Matthew Golden's Promising Rookie Year
00:36:56
Speaker
do this one first and then let me rapid fire three names that I that I want to see running it back next year oh mine's the easiest one of all I will say this to the because I called my shot before the draft okay and selected this guy in the first round in my mock draft the like three days before the the first round of the NFL draft Matthew Golden, especially with with kind of his breakout game in the wild card with 83 yards, 84 yards, and getting his first touchdown on a play that probably on most guys would have probably been dropped two yards short of a first down.
00:37:42
Speaker
You know, he fought, they they've not used him a ton. So yeah, Matthew Gordon is definitely the guy that I look forward to in 2026. right, so he was one of my three. So the other two would be that I i really thought that year three was going to be the breakout year for Lucas Van Ness. And when he was on the field, that was absolutely on track but before and after the injury.
00:38:05
Speaker
And it sucks that he missed so much time to injury this year. So we were really robbed of what I think was was clearly going to be his breakout season. So I'm hoping that he hits the ground running in year four and gives us what he really would have given us this year had he been able to stay healthy. And it's just unfortunate that he was hurt so much this year.
00:38:26
Speaker
So Lucas Van Ness. And then also, you know, so I mean, there's a couple of guys who I think we're expecting to not be back this year. I think that more than likely Jordan Morgan is going to be the left tackle that Rashid is not going to be left tackle anymore. You know, it's and same with like, you know, moving on from Rashawn probably is going to happen. And so then you'd have, you know, a full, a full helping of Lucas Van Ness out there. So,
00:38:50
Speaker
But Jordan Morgan at left tackle, finally playing the position he actually is supposed to play. It's the only position that I actually want him playing. I don't want him at right tackle. I don't want him at guard. He's not a guard. I don't think he can play guard. Never thought he could play guard.
00:39:04
Speaker
So like to me, jordan love or Jordan Morgan is purely only a left tackle. I don't want to see him anywhere else. So if he is our starting left tackle next year,
00:39:16
Speaker
I'm excited to actually see our first round pick actually get some playing time and hopefully look good If nothing else to kind of kind of support Goody and his decision to take Jordan Morgan over a couple other players that he probably could have took at that spot in that draft. Yeah, there were not a lot of people who who agreed with that draft pick at the time. and I mean, there there were a couple, but you know the the vast majority you know had Cooper DeGene circled or Edger and Cooper or who was the other defensive back who went early in the second round? It was Cooper DeGene and was it Kool-Aid? People weren't really wanted Kool-Aid. mc history People wanted Kool-Aid and then people wanted
00:39:59
Speaker
No, Tarion went before that pick. Yeah, Tarion was off the board, and so was the cornerback from Toledo, Quentin something cute. Yeah, Quentin mill Mitchell.
00:40:11
Speaker
Quentin Mitchell. Yeah, Quinion Mitchell. Quinion Mitchell? think that was his name. Quinion, yeah, Quinion. Yeah, Quinion and Tarion were both off the board before we got in the clock. Was it the one that ended up in Baltimore?
00:40:22
Speaker
Wiggins? Yeah, people like na Nate Wiggins as well. I was a little lower on Wiggins. I really didn't like rake straw who Lions ended up taking. I was nervous that they might go for him, but like, I think everybody wanted Cooper to Jean or everybody wanted edger and Cooper in the first round. I think either one of those would have home run first round picks, you know, and, and then you, you could obviously you could have gotten this, the second one of those two guys in the second round and, you know, doubled up on them. So,
00:40:52
Speaker
So yeah to to actually get some return on the Jordan Morgan investment would be pretty nice, even though it's not really a scheme fit. But the the Packers have some soul searching to do on offense anyway. So we'll see what their offensive identity is in 2026 anyways.
00:41:10
Speaker
And this offensive line is going to have a lot of of change over there there's not going to be a lot of returning faces on that uh if i had to throw an honorable mention out there it'd probably be baron sorrell i think he started really putting together things towards the end of the season and hell was out shot out uh efforting if that's a word rashawn gary for a while so i i look forward to that one too and plus he's got the feel good story from the draft anyway let's do
00:41:41
Speaker
let's do the ice in the vein awards uh this is the best clutch performance uh i'll let you pick this one because i gotta look something up real quick it's pretty tough frankly like ice in their veins is kind of the opposite of what the identity of the 2025 packers was which is like hey we're gonna
Tucker Craft's Clutch Performances
00:42:04
Speaker
crumble in the biggest moments so you know that makes it tough like you could consider Daniel Whelan, you could consider Josh Jacobs or Romeo Dobbs or Micah Parsons. I think I'm probably going to give this one to Tucker Craft, just bailing us out a lot early. you know and Plus continuing to have the be number one in like, what was it? Yak out of all tight ends and he missed half the season. Yeah.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah. you know and And, you know, there there were some guys early in the season who I think at different points in the season, you might have handed this award out to, say, Dontavian Wicks, who did not finish the season very well.
00:42:47
Speaker
Or maybe Evan Williams or Edger and Cooper certainly were deserving at times earlier in the season. i think Xavier McKinney should certainly be included in this conversation as well. Yeah.
00:42:59
Speaker
like you know Jordan was fantastic. Josh Jacobs was fantastic. you know they they They certainly deserve some some recognition there. My guy, and it's basically more one specific game than anything, but just because of him having to step up after Josh Jacobs got injured, and that's Emmanuel Wilson. I think Wilson's performance in the Minnesota game, you know, 107 yards, two touchdowns, and then, you know, like I said, the rest this season he pretty well
00:43:36
Speaker
stepped in for josh whenever he needed to so yeah that's coming off this guy being an undrafted free agent coming out from a small school uh i think he was in denver first before ending up with green bay in in his rookie season and just coming out of nowhere and then biden his time and this year being our number two running back and really Being that guy that they could lean on when Josh couldn't play or or was dealing with whatever.
00:44:07
Speaker
got to give it to Emmanuel Wilson just because of that. Pretty good. I don't think I have an honorable mention that I can think of off the top my head. So since we've only got a couple of minutes because JJ's got to go spend time with his family.
00:44:24
Speaker
And obviously Jake didn't show up. So I got smack him around a few times. The next time I talk to him, we're going to go ahead and throw out there our MVP of the Green Bay Packers 2025 season.
Debating the Packers' MVP
00:44:37
Speaker
and this you know obviously this is like the NFL MVP this is the guy that is top for the Green Bay Packers so we probably could come up with the same one but always how many how many guys did you consider because I considered it two I've got two off the top of my head I may be because I'm good at at justifying things that I probably could sneak a third or fourth one in there if I had to just for justification.
00:45:11
Speaker
But I definitely got just two and we probably got the same two in mind. Yeah, I had one on offense and one on defense. And then there's a second guy on defense that you could make maybe a compelling argument for.
00:45:25
Speaker
and And that guy would be Devontae Wyatt. Okay, that's not the one I was thinking When Micah was on the field and Devontae wasn't, the defense was still awful.
00:45:39
Speaker
And and that that is the thing. And I consider Jordan Love. He was the engine that but that was making the offense go.
00:45:49
Speaker
he had an incredible season. If the rest of the team hadn't been so bad, I'm mostly like pointing fingers at the defense, pointing fingers at the offensive line, the vanishing acts that the wide receivers would pull.
00:46:03
Speaker
and and or Or even just had hand Brandon McManus made his all of his kicks and we had those five extra wins that we should have had, Jordan would have absolutely been in MVP consideration. He would have been in talks for MVP.
00:46:16
Speaker
And had Austin Booker not concussed him on a dirty ass hit, he probably would have still, he'd probably had those numbers too. Potentially, potentially.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, potentially. I think the offense still looking so good when Malik Willis is out there hurts Jordan Love's case a little bit. But but the biggest reason that in my mind you have to give it to Micah Parsons is because the entire plan on defense was Micah Parsons is going to terrorize everybody. And we're just going to pray that he doesn't miss any time because if he misses any time, we're screwed.
00:46:52
Speaker
And they didn't put together a secondary. They didn't put together a defensive tackle room. And, you know, the rest of the defensive end group end room couldn't really do anything on the opposite side of Micah. He was basically a one man defense. It was him and McKinney and Williams and the two linebackers. That was it. That was the entire defense.
00:47:15
Speaker
So when the entire defense is built on you and the season ends and you don't get any more wins once once you remove that player, like de facto, he has to be the most valuable player.
00:47:28
Speaker
The season's over because he's gone. I mean, had Had we still had a healthy functioning defense and Malik Willis at quarterback, it's a lot of people who have still picked the Packers to win a playoff game. I did not pick them to to beat the Bears because I thought, hey, this defense is not good.
00:47:48
Speaker
And I don't think that this offense is good enough to carry this defense.
00:47:53
Speaker
The only thing I got to say is it I'm going to use my favorite term here. And i hope because when I use this term or this this saying that it doesn't offend anybody, even though I am an asshole and I don't care if for the most part if it offends anybody. But i love the old saying, if my aunt had nuts, she'd be my uncle.
00:48:16
Speaker
Sure. So if you throw the ifs out there, because if Jordan Love's line gave him the time he needed to do the shit that he needed to do you know, we'd be looking at Jordan in a completely different light because he did.
00:48:31
Speaker
aces And obviously my MVP is going to go to Jordan just because he did the best he could with what he was dealing with. And it got so bad that I referenced this earlier with the canard catch in in the wild card game.
00:48:47
Speaker
He did that because he had to. He had no time to do anything else. And I think he was just trying to throw it away. But Kennard made this amazing catch and run afterwards, even though he did fumble. But you know big guys don't often get to catch and run with the football very often. So that that's you know not second nature for him. But you know had he been behind the line that he had even just last year or the year before,
00:49:17
Speaker
I think things would have been a lot different, even without Micah, even without Kraft, because we still had the talent at the wide receiver and the running back groups that I think this offense could have carried. That's not taking anything away from Micah. That's not taking anything away from Devontae.
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's just to say that those guys are the guys that carry that helped when Jordan didn't have what he could on offense.
00:49:45
Speaker
But if I had to throw justify it, the two other guys would have been the two linebackers, Quay and Edron, just because even when Micah was on the field, they were the guys that were.
00:49:57
Speaker
basically the only other pass rush we had when micah was getting double tripled and choked and and kneecapped and everything else those guys were really the only rush that they had and they were they were solid in coverage for the most part yeah quay still makes his mental mistakes yeah edge still makes his mental mistakes but they're not as prevalent as they were before so you know If I had to justify it and couldn't pick Micah or Jordan, then I would have to go with one of the linebackers.
00:50:31
Speaker
So that is going to be it for the 2025 slash 2026 OP awards. The OP year end Packer awards. JJ, I appreciate you joining us, even though, like I said, we didn't get Jake on here. So you're going to have to slap him when you next see him. And I'll do the same for Mike because I think.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think Mike's ducking you. He does that to me once in a while, too, when when it comes to things like that. But where can they find you and how did can they get a hold of you or see what you're up to?
00:51:05
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, if you guys want to check out the Derailed podcast, that's going to be derailedfootball.com. Go there and you can check out the show there and you can follow me on X at JJ Lahey. L-A-H-E-Y. Thanks for having me, Joe.
00:51:22
Speaker
Yeah, so you can find us at Ohana Packers on Twitter. You can find us Ohana Packers Edition everywhere else. We are doing our giveaway still over on Facebook, so please make sure you go over to Facebook, find the Ohana Packers Edition page, follow us over there. Once we hit 100 followers, we will be doing our bundle giveaway. i will try to post that video up again so you know everybody knows what we are giving away in that. It's a bunch of goodies between me and Mike.
00:51:53
Speaker
JJ, of course, hasn't went over and followed us yet, so we're going have to do some discussions on that one. But go over, do that. Follow us over there. The only reason we want to start gaining followers over there so we can start streaming over there and you got to have a minimum of 100 viewers or 100 followers to be able to stream over there.
00:52:15
Speaker
That's the finale of our 2025 Green Bay Packers season. We will be having JJ on eventually again in the future because we will be starting our draft discussions.
00:52:27
Speaker
Mike and I are going to take a break for a couple of weeks. That way we can get retool, get people in and we will start doing our position by position breakdowns leading up to the 2026 NFL draft in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
00:52:42
Speaker
So be sure it'll be on the lookout for that. Drop your comments. I didn't somebody requested something from us on Instagram the other day. I haven't forgot about it. It's just going to take with what you requested. It's going to take some work from me and Mike to put it all together. So be on the lookout for that one to go over, find our merch shop, buy some merch, support us. This stuff's not cheap.
00:53:05
Speaker
Well, it is kind of cheap, but I don't want to have to pay for it all. So go over, support us, buy some merch. if you got any questions, comments, reach out. But as Mike would say, go pack, go and