The battle between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers could emerge as the most fierce rivalry in the sport this season, as a legitimate argument can be made that the NFC North foes are the NFL‘s two best teams.
The Lions and Packers will clash at Lambeau Field in their season opener on Sunday, and with Micah Parsons now in Green Bay, the matchup has that much more juice.
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While the Packers are the favorite at home, ESPN’s Seth Walder has revealed some potentially bad news for Green Bay in his latest prediction involving Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
“One of my favorite stat splits is the discrepancy between a running back’s receiving numbers against man and zone coverage,” Walder wrote. “Backs were targeted on 10% of man coverage dropbacks last season and caught passes on 8% of such dropbacks. But against zone, those same numbers jumped to 18% and 15%, respectively. That’s almost doubling the reception rate when facing zone looks! Well, take a guess who ranked third in receiving yards among running backs and which team ranked second in zone coverage rate last season. That’s right, Gibbs and the Packers. He should be set up for a huge day.”
Gibbs is one of the most explosive weapons in the league and is coming off of a 2024 campaign in which he racked up 1,412 yards and 16 touchdowns on 5.6 yards per carry while also hauling in 52 receptions for 517 yards and four scores.
Now, it should be noted that Gibbs did not go off for huge performances in either of his two meetings with the Packers last year, so perhaps Green Bay absolutely has the recipe to keep him in check.
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But this is definitely a matchup we should all be monitoring, especially with the new-look Packers defense appearing mighty formidable heading into the 2025 campaign.
Detroit swept Green Bay last season.
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