The Carolina Panthers, currently holding a 4-4 record, will travel to Wisconsin this week to face the Green Bay Packers, who are 5-1-1. The Panthers aim to recover from their recent 40-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 7, which ended their three-game winning streak.
Running back Chuba Hubbard addressed the team’s response to the defeat. “We looked at the tape in the film and discussed what the reason was behind it, and from that we just fixed things and moved forward,” Hubbard said on Monday. “We got Green Bay this week, so that’s where our focus is.”
The Packers are coming off a 35-25 primetime victory over Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Historically, the Panthers have struggled against Green Bay with a 6-12 all-time record. This includes a 4-6 mark at home and a 2-6 record on the road, as well as one playoff loss. Their last meeting was on Christmas Eve in 2023, when Carolina lost in a high-scoring game, 33-30.
Tight end Tucker Kraft has become a key player for Green Bay’s offense this season. He leads the team with 30 receptions for 469 yards, ranking third among NFL tight ends in receiving yards and trailing only Travis Kelce by five yards. Kraft has also caught six touchdown passes—making him quarterback Jordan Love’s top red zone target—while his teammates have combined for seven touchdowns. At six-foot-five and weighing 259 pounds, Kraft excels after catching the ball; he leads all tight ends with 346 yards after catch (YAC), which is more than any other player at his position by a significant margin. Against Pittsburgh on Sunday night, Kraft recorded seven catches for 143 yards—131 of those after the catch—the third-highest single-game YAC by a tight end since 2016.
On defense, Micah Parsons has made an immediate impact since joining Green Bay through an offseason trade from Dallas. Parsons has registered 6.5 sacks and leads all front-seven defenders in quarterback pressures with 44 so far this season. His presence forces opposing offenses to adjust; he faces double teams on more than one-fifth of his snaps but still disrupts plays frequently enough that Rashan Gary leads Green Bay with 7.5 sacks. Together, Gary and Parsons rank fifth and sixth in total sacks across the league—the highest total for any duo this season.
Quarterback Jordan Love maintains strong chemistry with wide receiver Romeo Doubs—a connection that began developing after Doubs was drafted in 2022 and strengthened when Love became starter last year. This season, Doubs has caught 27 passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns from Love. Rookie receiver Matthew Golden has added another deep threat with an average of twelve yards per reception on twenty-one catches.
Additionally, running back Josh Jacobs provides a reliable option out of the backfield with nineteen receptions for nearly two hundred yards.
Wide receiver Christian Watson returned from an ACL injury sustained at the end of last season to make his first appearance of this campaign against Pittsburgh. Watson caught four passes for eighty-five yards—averaging over twenty-one yards per reception—and reached a speed of just over twenty miles per hour during one play.
The Panthers continue preparations as they seek to improve their standing against a challenging Packers squad led by standout performances on both sides of the ball.
