Packers: 5 players who deserved to be Super Bowl champions
By Jesse Fry
Honorable mentions
These players were good but did not do enough to be considered in the top five Packer greats to have never won a championship with the team.
WR Randall Cobb (2011-2018)
Randall Cobb‘s best season with the Packers was easily 2014. Cobb finished with 91 receptions for 1,287 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Packers finished about five minutes away from a complete game and a Super Bowl appearance.
Cobb started his career in a big way. In his first game in primetime, Cobb had two touchdowns including a 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that got the buzz started about him. While with the Packers he was one of Aaron Rodgers’ favorite targets and proved to be a tough cover form the slot. Cobb’s career with the Packers ended with 470 receptions for 6,352 yards and 44 touchdowns.
DE/OLB Aaron Kampman (2002-2009)
Aaron Kampman was an all effort player from Iowa who made a name for himself through hard work and determination. Kampman spent his first four years on the Packers being a secondary player before having a breakout year in 2006. That year Kampman had 15.5 sacks and proved to be more than a bit-player for the Pack.
Kampman was a large part of the 2007 team’s success and provided the team with another solid year in 2008. In 2009 the Packers switched to a 3-4 defense and Kampman was not a good fit for the new scheme. After a knee injury ended his 2009 season, Kampman moved on to Jacksonville for two years before calling it a career. Kampman finished his Packers career with 54 sacks in 112 games played.
DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (2000-2008)
As a fifth-round pick in the 2000 draft, not much was expected of “KGB” as he became to be known as. The Packers had taken Jamal Reynolds in the first round and he was expected to be the next big pass rusher for the team. Reynolds proved to be one of the biggest busts in Packers draft history while KGB became one of the most prolific pass rushers in Packers history.
In his second season, KGB finished with 13.5 sacks in a specialized role that saw him play mostly on passing downs. KGB left as the Packers all-time leading leader in sacks with 74.5 until Clay Matthews broke that record. What keeps KGB from entering the top five is he was mostly used in a specialized role. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila would sit on early downs and be used in pass-rushing situations as he did not hold up well on run downs and was best used in a limited capacity.