I feel ya, Chicago Bears fans. The Green Bay Packers have pulled their own Khalil Mack trade and acquired Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. Cue the dirge. RIP Braxton Jones.

But before we pack up and go home and crown the Green Bay Packers, rather than actually play the 2025 NFL Season, here are a few notes of caution before the Cheeseheads uncork the champagne:

Trading for Micah Parsons and paying him in excess of $45 million places serious strain on the Packers’ cap situation, especially given they are already paying Jordan Love a ton of money to be their #1 QB. Furthermore, the Packers will eat $35 million in dead cap by trading Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys, given he had already signed a $64 million contract extension with the Packers in 2024.

And it gets worse when we cast our eyes at the Green Bay free agents in 2026 and 2027.

Those are a number of good-to-very-good players that the Packers will find it difficult to pay after 2025. For example, their Pro Bowl-level guard, Elgton Jenkins, is a serious candidate to be a cap casualty as early as 2026. And now they will be missing, just as the Chicago Bears did after the Mack trade, their cost-controlled first-round picks for the next two seasons.

The Green Bay Packers were fifth in the NFL in rushing yards per game in 2024, allowing only 146.8 yards per game on the ground. A big part of that run defense was Kenny Clark eating double-teams in the middle of that Packers defense. While the Packers’ edge rush is going to be something to behold, with Rashan Gary and Micah Parsons crashing the edges, the Packers’ interior defense has taken a serious blow with Kenny Clark headed to Dallas. And outside of going out and trying to sign Christian Wilkins, there are no obvious solutions for GB to fill the hole Clark leaves in their interior defense.

It’s not just their interior rush defense that the Green Bay Packers have to worry about in 2025. The Green Bay secondary, outside of Xavier McKinney, is the Achilles heel of this defense, a secondary that saw Jaire Alexander hop ship for the Baltimore Ravens. Keisean Nixon, Carrington Vaentine, and Nate Hobbs aren’t striking fear in the hearts of any of the offensive coordinators in the NFC North. So Green Bay’s pressure better get home, or they are likely to be gashed in the passing game, particularly in the deep third.

On offense, the Packers should still feature a solid rushing attack with Josh Jacobs and Matt LeFleur, and they added a first-round receiver for the first time in decades with Matthew Golden. But I for one was underwhelmed with their offseason acquisitions. They paid a bunch of money to Aaron Banks, who had trouble staying healthy for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, and was fairly middling when he was healthy. Jenkins is starting to get long in the tooth. It has always seemed like the Packers are able to field a top third offensive line no matter who they plug into their starting five, but color me skeptical that this offensive line will be as dominant as past Packers teams. Oh, and speaking of Jacobs – he will be 28 years old next season, an age where running backs tend to fall off the cliff.

As Chicago Bears fans can tell Green Bay Packers fans, trading for a generational defensive talent doesn’t guarantee you get to host the Lombardi trophy at the end of the season. Indeed, despite the dominance of Khalil Mack as a Chicago Bear, the Bears never won a single playoff game with Mack. The most significant factor in that result was not Mack failing to live up to the hype – he did. No, it was Mitch Trubisky busting out as a starting NFL quarterback. The Green Bay Packers can take solace in the fact that Jordan Love doesn’t appear to be as bad as Trubisky was, but he hasn’t exactly set the league on fire either. In 2024, he threw for 25 touchdowns but 11 interceptions in only 15 games played. His yards per game ranking was 18th overall, below the man he displaced, Aaron Rodgers, and in the company of players like Kyler Murray and Bo Nix. Unfortunately for the Packers, Love does not add a rushing component to his game like Murray and Nix do. The good news is Love, combined with LaFleur’s offensive approach and a great offensive line, was elite at avoiding sacks – only being sacked 14 times in 2024. Is that enough? Perhaps. The Eagles won the Super Bowl with Hurts – but Hurts, again, is a dual threat. Love is a traditional pocket passer. If we look at the top teams in the NFL, there are few pocket passers featured on teams like the Bills, the Ravens, and the Eagles. And Jordan Love is no Patrick Mahomes. If Love can’t move into the top 10 of NFL quarterbacks, it is likely the Packers will squander the Parsons window – just like the Bears squandered the Mack window.

Speaking of the Packers in 2024 – lost in the fact that they won eleven games and went to the playoffs — is they were just a blocked field goal away from going 0-6 in their division. The Packers failed to win a playoff game, getting trounced by the Eagles, and only scoring 10 points in a game that saw four Green Bay turnovers, including three interceptions by Jordan Love. Much has been said about the Bears not being a player away, and why they shouldn’t be looking to make a Mack-like splash in the 2025 season. But are the Packers really just a player away from competing for the NFC championship – let alone the Super Bowl? While the Packers’ Vegas odds of winning the Super Bowl doubled overnight, I’m not sure we should put our money on the Packers’ Super Bowl run in 2025. They are still in one of the toughest, if not the toughest, divisions in the NFL – meaning that even if they win the North, they may find it difficult to win enough games to earn the bye. Have they done enough to overcome the Washington Commanders, let alone the Eagles? I guess we will see. I for one am going to save my money on that particular bet.