With the start of the 2025 NFL campaign right around the corner, Sports Illustrated senior NFL analyst Conor Orr has dropped his annual article in which he predicts the outcomes of all 272 regular-season games.
And as you've likely already gathered from the headline, the Green Bay Packers, who went 11-6 a season ago to make the postseason for the second straight year, didn't get a ton of love. We should probably make some sort of Jordan Love pun here, but we're guessing that Cheeseheads won't be in a laughing mood once they see the breakdown (it would've been good, too).
Orr has Green Bay finishing the season 9-8, taking third in the NFC North but missing the playoffs.
Sports Illustrated prediction has Packers missing the playoffs in 2025
There are obviously plenty of things for Packers fans to hate here, which we'll get into in just a moment, but the biggest disappointment overall is that the 9-8 record would keep Green Bay out of the NFC playoff picture, which Orr has shaking out as follows:
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (12-5)
- San Francisco 49ers (11-6)
- Philadelphia Eagles (10-7)
- Detroit Lions (10-7)
- Los Angeles Rams (10-7)
- Minnesota Vikings (10-7)
- Washington Commanders (10-7)
As you can see, Orr has the Detroit Lions once again winning the NFC North, with the Minnesota Vikings taking second for the second consecutive year to earn a wild-card berth.
The good news to start is that he predicts Green Bay to take down Detroit when the longtime rivals meet in Week 1 at Lambeau Field. But things get bleak from there, as he has the Packers losing two of their next three before their Week 5 bye, including a Week 4 loss to the rival Dallas Cowboys.
And after the bye, he's got them dropping three straight, the last loss coming to none other than Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8. Sorry, Cheeseheads, we warned you.
Orr does have the Packers bouncing back nicely by winning five of their next six, and after a loss to the Lions in Detroit, they take down the Chicago Bears at Lambeau, which is always nice.
But after predicting a Week 15 loss in Denver to the Broncos, he's got them dropping their second matchup with Chicago at Soldier Field. Again, we warned you there would be a lot of hatred here. But at least he's got the Bears again finishing last in the division at 7-10, so there's that.
Orr does have them winning their final two games against the Ravens and Vikings in a too-little-too-late scenario, and he explains why in his full breakdown of his Green Bay predictions:
"This Packers team has a streaky potential to me. I think there could be weeks when this offense is white hot and weeks where it looks out of rhythm—a bit like the 2023 team that had longer NBA-like runs of brilliance and confusion."
"I did want to reflect it all coming together offensively toward the end of the season with two consecutive wins over very good defenses in Baltimore and Minnesota—an acknowledgement that when this offense is fully understood and coherent, it’s going to be really good."
These are all just guesses, of course, and there's obviously no way to know exactly how the season will play out for Green Bay—or any other team, for that matter. But I'll certainly give Orr credit for the effort here, as it's easy to say a team will finish with this record or that record without taking every game into account.
Packers fans will obviously hope he's wrong on a lot of this, but we'll just have to wait and see how everything plays out.