2 winners and losers from Packers' Week 1 loss to the Eagles

Well that was a disaster!

The Packers' first game of the 2024 season went about as poorly as you could ask for, from questionable coaching decisions to poor defensive performances, capped off with a legitimately scary and concerning knee injury to the franchise quarterback. It was like a big Mad Libs of things that could go wrong. At least no one could tweet about it?

Still, there are plenty of non-Jordan Love storylines to sort through this weekend, and postgame content wouldn't be complete without some winners and losers. Here are two of each.

Winners and Losers from the Packers Week 1 loss to the Eagles

2 Winners

1. Xavier McKinney

As far as debuts are concerned, McKinney's went pretty well. His first-quarter interception was the biggest highlight, but he looked like one of the Packers' better defensive players throughout most of the game. Three of his four tackles were solo tackles, and he was one of only two defensive players to be on the field for 100% of their snaps.

He looked more or less like the Xavier McKinney that was worth the four-year, $67 million contract that the Packers gave him this offseason, which is to say he looked like one of the best safeties in football. It's just one game, etc etc, but in a game with so many other depressing outcomes, McKinney's debut was a bright spot.

2. Jayden Reed

The bad news is that it doesn't totally seem like the Packers' room of WR1s is totally a room of WR1s. The good news is that, after one game at least, there's a leader in the clubhouse: Jayden Reed. Reed had a game-high 138 receiving yards, and his first-half performance was quietly historic.

This entire conversation probably doesn't matter nearly as much if Jordan Love is out for a big chunk – or all – of the season, but Reed's performance was as encouraging as Packers fans could have hoped for heading into Friday night's game. His receiving numbers were plenty impressive, but that 33-yard touchdown run may have been the most exciting moment of the night – if he's going to be that kind of weapon for the Packers' offense, maybe things won't be terrible with Ryan Tannehill?

2 Losers

1. Matt LaFleur

I mean, he is technically the losing coach. It wasn't LaFleur's finest night, and his decision to kick a field goal while down five points was, by some metrics, one of the worst decisions of the entire night.

There's not a single Packers fan out there that needs to hear more about LaFleur deciding to kick a field goal in the wrong moment, so I'll be brief, but yeah – it was bad. (I'm not sure if everyone realizes just how big a win probability index over seven is; most "big" moments are closer to three or four.) Realistically, I'm not sure there's some huge conclusion to be made about this, but Friday night was another example of LaFleur's issues with in-game decision making.

2. Jeff Hafley

Speaking of defensive debuts, Hafley's was ... slightly? ... more underwhelming than McKinney's. And that may be putting it mildly, depending on how much you prefer to freak out about things on a week-to-week basis.

The Packers' defense turned the the ball over three times, but both of their interceptions were more an indictment of bad Jalen Hurts decisions than anything else, and you could probably say the same about the botched snap they recovered. Any time you allow 34 points and over 450 total yards, it wasn't a good day. There are more pressing concerns for now, but it was a rough watch.

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