Getty Images Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)
Before the Green Bay Packers take the field against the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL playoffs on January 14, a couple of the team’s stars took aim at the team they vanquished in Week 18 to clinch a postseason berth.
Chicago Bears safety Jaquan Brisker ruffled some feathers in the Packers’ locker room when asked after the game about the defense’s vulnerability to Jordan Love and a banged-up receiving corps in a 17-9 Green Bay victory.
“I felt like we could have tightened up on the receivers a lot more than we did today,” Brisker told reporters on January 7, according to Mark Grote of WSCR Radio. “We gave them too much room and I really have no respect for them at all, just to be honest … No one’s over there. No respect. They have no stars over there.”
The Bears allowed 244 yards and 2 touchdowns to the Packers’ wide receivers on Sunday afternoon, but it didn’t take long for Packers running back Aaron Jones and linebacker Preston Smith to fire back at Brisker.
“Isn’t it his job to cover them ?? Should have been a easy day at work, right? If we got no one over there. Rent was due today!!!!!!” Jones wrote on X, with four laughing emojis.
“Man look like he ain’t do his job… gotta plan that offseason now and get front row seats from the couch,” Smith wrote on X.
Brisker finished Sunday’s game with 8 total tackles, 1 tackle for loss and 1 fumble recovery. However, Love carved up Chicago’s secondary for 316 yards and 2 touchdowns.
However, Brisker took issue with the way the Packers operate.
“They try to play a little fake tough,” Brisker said. “Just doing extra stuff after the play, grabbing people’s face masks after the play and things like that. Just doing a lot of dirty stuff to get us flagged and stuff like that.”
While the Packers clinched a playoff berth against a division rival, the back-and-forth trash talk could seed this rivalry to take on some added vitriol in 2024.
Aaron Jones Has High Praise for Jordan Love
Love led the Packers to the postseason in his first season as Green Bay’s starter, but some of the 25-year-old’s teammates haven’t forgotten the criticism from the quarterback’s vocal doubters.
“I’ve been saying it,” Jones told reporters following Sunday’s game. “People have been calling me crazy for saying it. I had people all over my social media, but I keep receipts. And I hope he does too. I know these guys in this locker room keep receipts for him.”
Love finished the regular season passing for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns to 11 interceptions en route to a 96.1 passer rating while leading the Packers to an NFC Wild Card berth.
Packers’ Jayden Reed Continues to Pick Up Steam
The Packers’ wide receiving corps has been besieged by injuries throughout the season, particularly at the top of the depth chart, which cracked the door open for second-round rookie Jayden Reed to carve out a role.
Reed kicked the door in.
Sunday, with Christian Watson out and Romeo Doubs limited to just one target, Reed put a capstone on his rookie campaign by catching all four of his targets for a game-high 112 yards.
Reed finishes the 2023 season as the Packers’ leading receiver with 64 catches for 793 yards and eight touchdowns. Reed’s impressive rookie season inspires plenty of optimism about what his potential might be based on a strong chemistry with Love combined with the attention opposing defenses must pay a healthy Watson and Doubs.