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Are the Green Bay Packers rebuilding in 2023? Two players don't agree on the situation.

Christopher Kuhagen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·7 min read
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Are the Green Bay Packers in rebuild mode this season and eyeing 2024 and beyond for truly being a contender?

Are they retooling with a younger roster at key positions, including at quarterback, though still aided by playmaking veterans elsewhere?

Is it a reset of a franchise that had been led by Aaron Rodgers since 2008?

Or are they simply reloading and ready to make a push toward winning the NFC North again and return to the playoffs as soon as 2023?

Is it all of the above?

Whatever term you want to use, those type of questions have been a hot topic with Packers Twitter this week as the team's roster begins to take shape after the 2023 NFL draft and the offseason moving into OTAs and minicamp over the next month.

Even the Packers' own players aren't in agreement. For one, their senior most player, David Bakhtiari, says they're rebuilding. By definition, a rebuild is building something again after it was destroyed. Is that the Packers? For Green Bay, the 2022 season ended without a playoff berth and the team is starting anew with a new leader at the most important position — quarterback.

"We're moving on from a Hall of Fame quarterback," Bakhtiari said in an interview with Mike Silver of The Volume Sports last month. "What are we gonna say, it's not a rebuild? That is what that is."

Then there's Keisean Nixon, the Packers' All-Pro kickoff returner, who objected to seeing the word "rebuild" surrounding the Packers in 2023. He took exception to a tweet from Pack a Day Podcast host Andy Herman, who wrote that, with the Packers "jettisoning vets," the Packers are already looking toward 2024.

"Keep that rebuild (expletive) off my (timeline)," Nixon tweeted. "This ain't that..."

What happened when Aaron Rodgers took over for Brett Favre in 2008?

Do fans not want to hear that word "rebuild" since some could see this as a long process toward being competitive again? Some rebuilds don't have to take long, as we saw with the Milwaukee Brewers during the early years of the Craig Counsell tenure.

The Packers had their own "reset" from the Brett Favre era to the Aaron Rodgers era and, like there is now with Jordan Love taking over, there were unknowns then.

Love will be 24 when the season starts, just as Rodgers was in his first season at the helm. And like Rodgers did, Love sat and learned the offense for three seasons after being a first-round draft pick.

Rodgers started zero games before taking over, though in 2007, he showed the Packers brass what he could do in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys when he entered the game after Favre was injured. The same thing happened with Love last season when Rodgers left the game with an injury in the second half of a game against the Philadelphia Eagles and didn't return. The Packers lost the road game but LaFleur praised Love's growth and poise from his first start a year earlier.

The Packers finished 6-10 in Rodgers' first season, made the playoffs the next year and won the Super Bowl the next as Rodgers turned into a future Hall of Fame quarterback and the team brought in key veterans and boasted rising stars. Will the formula work again? We'll quickly find out.

Jordan Love will lead the Packers offense in 2023 after siting behind Aaron Rodgers the last three seasons. While his receiving corps will be young he'll have a veteran backfield to also turn to led by Aaron Jones (pictured).
Jordan Love will lead the Packers offense in 2023 after siting behind Aaron Rodgers the last three seasons. While his receiving corps will be young he'll have a veteran backfield to also turn to led by Aaron Jones (pictured).

Does the Packers roster signal this will be a rebuild season?

Love will be throwing to wide receivers with limited NFL experience, though it's clear there's potential in the returning wideouts, headlined by Christian Watson. Like Watson, Romeo Doubs and Samori Toure are second-year players who will be relied upon. They'll be joined by three rookie wide receivers (Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks and Grant DuBose). The average age of those six receivers is 22.7.

The tight end group is also getting a makeover. Robert Tonyan is on the Chicago Bears and veteran Marcedes Lewis is likely not returning. Enter two rookies in Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft.

On the other hand, it's not like the Packers haven't completely torn apart their roster and still have several All-Pro and Pro Bowl players to help lead the way.

So, here's how Packers Twitter views the "rebuilding/reloading" situation.

Team reload

The Packers rebuild/reload talk all comes down to Jordan Love

It's all about expectations

It's a rebuild but there's still potential to accomplish big things

There are different levels of a rebuild

Does this Packers roster look like a rebuild?

Maybe we just have to change the way we feel about the word 'rebuild'

More: What does the NFL flex proposal mean for Packers ticket holders? Nothing good, according to fans

More: Packers believe Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs provide ideal one-two tandem for Jordan Love

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Are Packers rebuilding? David Bakhtiari, Keisean Nixon speak out.