Five takeaways from the Packers’ 2025 schedule

Well folks, the most important sports day of the year has finally happened: The National Football League has released the 2025 schedule. This will remain the most important sports day of the year for the next 365 days, give or take, until the 2026 schedule comes out.

When I say “the most important sports day of the year,” I don’t mean the league’s announcement of when the schedule will be released – that’s the second-most important sports day of the year, which happened during the NFL Draft in Green Bay last month. I’d say a distant third is the Super Bowl, followed by the deciding game of the World Series. Rounding out the top five, it’s neck and neck between the start of March Madness and the final day of the American Cornhole League World Championships.

I’m going to level with you guys: I find all the hoopla around the NFL schedule release a little annoying. Look, I get it. The NFL is a several-billion-dollar corporation that, in order to remain profitable and culturally relevant, has to constantly increase (or at least maintain) the number of eyeballs, clicks, and views on its content, and the only logical way to do this is to make the NFL season a year-round affair. You have the regular season, and the playoffs, and the Super Bowl, of course. But then you have a few weeks of post-Super Bowl coverage, followed by the free agency circus, three-ish months of nonstop Draft coverage, the Draft itself, post-Draft coverage, the announcement of the day of the schedule release, rumors and leaks surrounding the schedule release, the schedule release itself, coverage of the schedules (guilty as charged), OTAs, minicamps, training camps, the preseason…then the whole thing starts over. I think only the real sickos (myself included) are truly locked into every facet of the NFL day in and day out, but it’s clear that the league wants the more casual fans among us to be increasingly involved in what used to be considered its more or less procedural aspects. The Draft is a good example – after holding it in New York City for many years, the NFL made the (very wise) decision to move it from city to city each year, highlighting the league’s diverse markets while providing those markets with an influx in revenue. I went to the Draft in Green Bay, and I’m proud to say my beverage purchases helped sustain the local economy. If you’re reading this from the greater Green Bay area: you’re welcome.

Although we know pretty much right after the end of the regular season who teams will play the following year, the order of the games is undeniably important. There are a few, for lack of a better word, goofy details about the Packers schedule this year. Keep an eye out for a more in-depth breakdown of each matchup closer to the start of the season. For now, here are a few thoughts on the Packers’ 2025 schedule.

NFC North teams face the toughest schedules

The NFC North teams – the Packers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and the Minnesota Vikings – are projected to have four of the toughest schedules in the league in the upcoming season.

I’m always a little dubious on strength of schedule, which is essentially calculated by adding up the previous-year records of a team’s impending opponents. Strength of schedule is useful in that it can be used as a tiebreaker in standings, and it’s a decent projection of how a team’s season is anticipated go. But the key word there is “projection.”

Strength of schedule is one of those things no one’s talking about once the season starts, because it’s simply a projection, and projections and reality can end up being quite different as the season goes on. Take the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals, for example. They were eyed as a near lock for the playoffs in the AFC, but they lost four of their first five games, and although they went on a heater and ended the season with five straight wins, they ultimately missed the postseason with a 9-8 record. For various reasons, sometimes teams we think are going to be dangerous simply don’t live up to the hype. And conversely, there are always teams that are surprisingly good. Strength of schedule can offer a rough idea of what a team can expect in its opponents, but it’s probably not something they should spend too much time thinking about.

Nevertheless, Green Bay is slated to face several teams that are expected to be good in 2025. Notable matchups: Each division opponent (Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions,  Minnesota Vikings) twice, as usual; and the Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, and Baltimore Ravens. Green Bay also faces the Pittsburgh Steelers – maybe they’ll get to chum around with Aaron Rodgers a bit before kickoff?

The back half of the season is division matchup-heavy

The placement of the Packers’ division games is, to me, by far the most bizarre thing about their 2025 schedule.

The Packers host the Lions in Week 1 to kick off the season. But after that, Green Bay doesn’t face another NFC North team until Week 12, when the Vikings come to Lambeau. Let me rephrase that: the Packers have a 10-week stretch in which they don’t face another team from their division. That’s wild! So, that means the back half of the season is obviously loaded with division games.

The Week 12 Vikings matchup marks a seven-week run where Green Bay plays five North teams. Immediately after the Vikings, the Pack travels to Detroit, and then hosts the Bears. Three-straight division games is…interesting! After that, the Packers go to Denver before facing the Bears again – this time in Chicago. In the final two weeks of the season, the Packers host the Ravens and travel to Minnesota.

To have so many division games in the stretch run of the season presents some challenges – and opportunities.

Let’s address the back-to-back-to-back NFC North matchups. Regardless of what shape the Packers are in heading into that block of games, if they lose them all, their season could be cooked. Even if Green Bay goes 1-2 in those games, unless Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota are each dumpster fires, the Packers will likely be on the ropes through the rest of the year, and they’ll probably have to play near-perfect football through the end of the season to have a shot at the playoffs. The Packers could have help in avoiding this scenario with at least one of the other three North teams being bad and outside the playoff bubble. I mean, the Packers could also simply win all three games. That’s certainly possible, and would be cool and good, in my opinion. If they do that, a playoff berth is very realistic.

You also have to hope the injury bug avoids the team in this key part of the season. This is a tall order. It’s football, man. Guys are going to get hurt. You can’t try to plan for injuries, but you can cross your fingers and hope you’re relatively healthy when it matters. And, with a Week 5 bye (more on this in a bit), Green Bay won’t be able to bank on a break later in the season. Let’s pray that the Football Gods are kind to the Packers this year.

Week 5 bye (insert thumbs down emoji here)

Here is my nuanced, fully fleshed-out take on the Packers’ Week 5 bye: it stinks!

Simply put, a Week 5 bye does basically no good for anyone, except the teams you have to play later. I know that’s a little hyperbolic; if a player’s got, say, a hamstring thing going on in the beginning of the season, a week off might help him be good to go for the rest of the year. But ideally, you’d like to have a bye somewhere further down the line, when you’re (hopefully) gearing up for a playoff run. And with Packers’ most important part of the season happening in the final seven weeks, an early bye could come back to haunt them if they’re beat up. Are you listening, Football Gods? It’s me again.

Staying in the States

After opening the 2024 season in Brazil, the Packers won’t be playing abroad in 2025. There were some rumblings that Green Bay was going to face the Steelers in Dublin, Ireland, in Week 4, but the Vikings ended up getting that game, and the Packers will instead head to Pittsburgh in Week 8.

Look, I’m not necessarily going to complain about the Packers having no international games this year. I think it’s great that the NFL is now a global market, and you can make the argument that playing in another country provides neutral ground. But traveling can present challenges: players might not adjust well to the time change, and playing in another country can be weird, from a routine perspective. Also, field conditions are not always the best, as we saw in Brazil against the Eagles last year. It’s also worth noting that it’s a bummer to have to give up a home game to play not at home. For this year at least, the Packers won’t have to worry about any of these things.

Primetime games

The Packers have four primetime games on the schedule this year – and more may be coming.

The four locked in primetime games are in Green Bay against the Commanders on Thursday night in Week 2, in Dallas on Sunday night in Week 4, in Pittsburgh on Sunday night in Week 8, and in Green Bay against Philadelphia in Week 10. But they face the Bears in Chicago on the Saturday of Week 16, and that game will either start at 3:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. And the dates and kickoff times of Green Bay’s final two games – hosting Baltimore and traveling to Minnesota – are TBD. Each could fall on the weeks’ respective Saturday or Sunday.

I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to the see the Chicago game get the 7 p.m. timeslot, and a Week 18 Vikings showdown in primetime would be compelling. The Packers are as national and worldwide as any brand in the NFL, so the league certainly has incentive to put them in as many night games as it can.

It’s been a pleasure to be back with a new Free Play – thanks for reading. Keep an eye out for more columns ahead. But please, for the love of God, don’t make me write about the fact that the Cubs are good.

Jalen’s columns, “The Free Play” and “Movies You Gotta See,” can be found online at www.medium.com/@jalenmaki.