It’s not a secret to anyone who has watched a handful of plays featuring the 2025 Green Bay Packers defense, but they’re pretty good. So good that your favorite analyst’s favorite analyst has already flipped their Super Bowl predictions to include Green Bay.
Of course, Green Bay came into the season with some defensive question marks. The cornerback room seemed particularly void of proven talent. The edge rushers, before Micah Parsons showed up, were underwhelming.
The defensive line had exciting pieces, but Kenny Clark was shipped off, leaving a lot of unproven youth instead. The linebackers are the most exciting group, but even they still have something to prove as they take the next step.
But now we’re two weeks into the season, and not only are the Packers 2-0, but they did so at the expense of two of the league’s top offenses and made it look trivial in the process. Now the question has shifted from "Can the defense step up?" to "Can anyone in this league step up to the Packers’ defense?"
So far, that question has been met with an emphatic "no."
Explosive plays don’t exist against the Packers right now
The Packers' defense has allowed the smallest percentage of explosive plays of 15-plus yards through two weeks, a whopping 3.7 percent, according to ESPN NFL data scientist Sam Hoppen.
That stat is absurd, but paint a broader picture by numbers, and it only gets more insane.
The 3.7 percent only comes from passing plays. The Packers haven’t allowed a single ball carrier to pick up 15 or more yards out of the backfield. Not one.
Washington accounted for just two plays out of that 3.7 percent, including the 20-yard touchdown pass caught by Zach Ertz in the third quarter. Comparatively, the Commanders only had three drives that lasted longer than 15 yards.
Detroit only had three explosive plays themselves in Week 1, and only one came in the second half. They had four offensive drives that lasted longer than 15 yards, and one of them was the garbage-time touchdown drive.
Keep in mind, the average NFL defense has given up an explosive play on 10 percent of its plays. Cincinnati ranked 16th among defenses with a 10.2 percent mark, but nine teams, nearly a third of the league, were within a percentage point of their mark.
But that brings us back to the only team with a marginally comparable rate to Green Bay, the New Orleans Saints. Of course, the Saints are 0-2, unlike the Packers, but they have allowed explosive plays on just 4.5 percent of their defensive snaps.
They played the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, two teams that have had struggles offensively early this season. Arizona picked up some explosive plays against Carolina in Week 2, while San Francisco is dealing with a ton of injuries.
While the 49ers could get healthy and into the NFC race at some point, there’s no denying that the competition comparison between New Orleans and Green Bay is nearly non-existent. The Packers held two of the league’s top offenses to five total plays that picked up at least 15 yards by comparison. It only helps the Packers’ cause that those offenses looked like their 2024 versions when they weren’t playing the Packers.
This week, the Packers take on the Cleveland Browns, who have an explosive play on offense just 7.4 percent of the time, which ranks 26th in the NFL. It’s daunting to imagine what Green Bay’s defense is capable of against the lowly Browns after watching it dismantle two of the league’s top offenses.
Credit the impact of Parsons, the growth of young, highlight-skilled players, or the aptitude of defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, but all three aspects are contributing to one of the most impressive defensive performances we’ve seen in the NFL in recent years.