The Green Bay Packers have had a rather tumultuous first half of the 2024 season. But despite drops, penalties, and interceptions galore -- plus a series of injuries to starting quarterback Jordan Love -- the Packers still sit at 6-3 heading into their week 10 bye.
That record is good for 3rd place in the NFC North division right now, but it still keeps them squarely inside the NFC playoff picture as the #7 seed. That probably helps explain why the Packers' fan base is and has been generally confident in the team's overall direction throughout the entire season so far.
Today, let's take a look back at how that confidence index has trended over the course of the first ten weeks of the season, according to respondents to our Reacts surveys. Here is a graph of the rate at which fans answered "yes" when asked if they are confident in the team's direction leading up to the start of each week of this season:
This week, fan confidence dropped 20 points from 92 percent to 72 after the Packers' loss to the Detroit Lions. That's a pretty solid fall, and it's much larger than the drop after the team's previous loss, which came in week 4 to the Minnesota Vikings. Confidence fell just three points from week 4 to week 5, though that game was Jordan Love's first one back from his knee injury.
The 72% rate is not the low mark for the season, however; that came after the opening week loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, which coincided with Love spraining his MCL and being out for two games. However, Malik Willis' performance in week two sent the vibes back to a near-season high, climbing 25 points to 95%. Since then, overall confidence peaked at 97% in week 8's survey, which immediately followed the Packers' last-second victory over the Houston Texans.
While fans are still feeling good overall about the Packers' direction, sportsbooks also remain confident in the team. At FanDuel, the team's over/under on total wins is set at 10.5, which would require them to go 5-3 or better in the last 8 games to hit the over. Ultimately, even a 4-4 finish should get the team into the postseason, but given the team's schedule, another five wins feels doable -- they play a Saints team that just fired its head coach, plus two struggling NFC West teams and a pair of games against the spiraling Chicago Bears. If the Packers can steal one game from either the Lions or Vikings on the road, they should be set up nicely for a strong finish and a very good shot at hitting that over.