It was supposed to be the Last Dance. If you followed the 2021 Green Bay Packers at all, you remember the Instagram posts from Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams—the cryptic nods to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. It felt like the end of an era before the first kickoff even happened. Honestly, it’s still one of the weirdest, most stressful, and ultimately heartbreaking seasons in the history of the franchise. They were so good. 13 wins. The top seed in the NFC. And then, a frozen nightmare at Lambeau Field against the 49ers.
People forget how much drama surrounded this team before a single pass was thrown. Rodgers was in a standoff with Brian Gutekunst. There were rumors he’d never play for Green Bay again. He showed up to training camp looking like he’d spent the summer soul-searching, but once the ball was snapped, he played some of the most efficient football of his entire career.
Winning 13 games in the NFL is hard. Doing it three years in a row, which Matt LaFleur pulled off, is nearly impossible. But the 2021 Green Bay Packers weren't just about the record. They were a team defined by high-wire acts, a defense that finally found its teeth under Joe Barry, and a special teams unit that—to put it bluntly—was a disaster waiting to happen.
The Rodgers-Adams Connection was at its Absolute Peak
If you want to talk about the 2021 Green Bay Packers, you have to start with the chemistry between number 12 and number 17. It was telepathic. Davante Adams wasn't just catching passes; he was deconstructing defensive backs. He finished that year with 123 catches for 1,553 yards. These weren't cheap yards, either.
Opposing coordinators knew exactly where the ball was going. It didn't matter. Rodgers would look left, pump-fake, and then fire a back-shoulder fade that only Adams could grab. It was art.
The season opener against the Saints was a total catastrophe, though. A 38-3 loss in Jacksonville (because of Hurricane Ida) had everyone screaming that the season was over. People said Rodgers didn't care anymore. They said the distraction of his "immunized" comments and the off-season drama had finally rotted the locker room. They were wrong. The team rattled off seven straight wins after that embarrassment.
What made that stretch impressive was the "next man up" reality. David Bakhtiari was out. Elgton Jenkins went down. The offensive line was essentially a group of guys named Yosh Nijman and Royce Newman holding back some of the best pass rushers in the world. And it worked.
The Defensive Identity Shift Under Joe Barry
For years, the knock on the Packers was that they couldn't stop a cold. Mike Pettine’s defense had its moments, but it lacked a certain grit. When Joe Barry took over for the 2021 Green Bay Packers season, fans were skeptical. His track record in Washington and Detroit wasn't exactly legendary.
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But something clicked.
De'Vondre Campbell came out of nowhere. A late-offseason addition on a one-year, $2 million deal, Campbell played like a First-Team All-Pro. He was the middle linebacker the Packers had been missing for a decade—someone who could actually cover a tight end and fill a gap. Then you had Rasul Douglas.
Seriously, the Rasul Douglas story is the most "2021 Packers" thing ever. He was on the Arizona Cardinals' practice squad in October. By November, he was jumping a route in the end zone against the undefeated Cardinals to save the game. He ended up with five interceptions and two touchdowns. It was lightning in a bottle.
The defense wasn't perfect, but they were opportunistic. They kept the team in games when the offense stalled. They were the reason Green Bay felt like a legitimate Super Bowl favorite, not just a flashy passing team. They actually played physical football.
The COVID Controversy and the "Immunized" Moment
We have to talk about it because it looms so large over the 2021 Green Bay Packers timeline. In November, Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19. That’s when the world found out he wasn't vaccinated, despite his earlier comments about being "immunized."
The fallout was massive.
Jordan Love had to start against the Kansas City Chiefs on short notice. He looked like a deer in headlights. The Packers lost 13-7 in a game that was entirely winnable if the offense had even a shred of rhythm. The media circus that followed was exhausting. Rodgers was appearing on The Pat McAfee Show every Tuesday, explaining his philosophy, while the rest of the team tried to focus on the Seattle Seahawks.
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Surprisingly, the locker room didn't fracture. You’d think a controversy that big would tear a team apart, but the veterans stuck together. If anything, it created a "us against the world" mentality that fueled them through the winter.
The Special Teams Meltdown That Everyone Saw Coming
If the 2021 Green Bay Packers had a tragic flaw, it was the "third phase" of the game. Maurice Drayton’s special teams unit was statistically one of the worst in NFL history. Not just that year—ever.
They gave up big returns. They had penalties on every other punt. They missed field goals.
Fans were terrified every time the kicking unit took the field. It felt like a ticking time bomb. Every week, Matt LaFleur would say they were working on it. Every week, something else would go wrong. In the regular season, you can mask those flaws if your MVP quarterback is putting up 30 points a game. In the playoffs, where the margins are razor-thin, those flaws become fatal.
The Divisional Round: 10-13
January 22, 2022. Lambeau Field. The temperature was hovering around zero. The 49ers came to town with a mediocre Jimmy Garoppolo and a ferocious pass rush.
The Packers started beautifully. A clinical opening drive ended with an A.J. Dillon touchdown. It looked like a blowout was coming. But then, the offense just... stopped. Lewis Marcedes fumbled. Rodgers started hyper-focusing on Adams and ignored open receivers like Allen Lazard.
And then the bomb went off.
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A blocked field goal before halftime cost them three points. Then, the nightmare: with under five minutes left, the Packers were punting from their own end zone. The 49ers blocked the punt, recovered it for a touchdown, and tied the game.
Green Bay’s offense had one last chance. They went three-and-out.
The 49ers kicked a field goal as time expired. The 2021 Green Bay Packers, the best team in the league for four months, were out. They didn't even make the NFC Championship.
Lessons From the 2021 Season
Looking back, that season was the high-water mark of the Rodgers-LaFleur era in terms of pure talent and regular-season dominance. It was a year where everything felt aligned except for the details.
- Depth matters more than stars: The offensive line held up because of coaching, but the lack of a true #2 receiver behind Adams finally caught up to them when the 49ers doubled-teamed him into oblivion in the playoffs.
- Special teams are not "extra": You can't ignore the bottom of your roster. The 2021 Packers spent so much effort on the starters that the special teams units were filled with guys who weren't prepared for high-pressure moments.
- The "Last Dance" mentality is risky: When a team plays with the "this is our last shot" vibe, the pressure in the postseason becomes suffocating. You could see the tension on the sidelines during the 49ers game.
The 2021 Green Bay Packers ended up being a cautionary tale. They were a brilliant, flawed, exciting, and frustrating group that proved once again that the NFL playoffs don't care about your regular-season resume.
If you're looking to revisit this era, the best way is to watch the condensed game replays of the wins against Arizona and Cincinnati. Those games showed the team's heart. But for the full picture, you have to acknowledge the flaws that led to that January exit.
To really understand the current state of the Packers, you have to look at how they've rebuilt since then. They've prioritized youth and speed on special teams. They've moved on to the Jordan Love era. But the ghost of 2021 still hangs over Lambeau—a reminder of a Super Bowl window that was wide open, only to be slammed shut by a few blocked kicks and a cold winter wind.
What to do next
If you want to dig deeper into why the 2021 Green Bay Packers struggled in that final game, go back and watch the "All-22" film of the third down plays in the fourth quarter. Pay close attention to the spacing of the receivers. You'll see several instances where Rodgers passed up short, intermediate gains to try and force the ball to Adams. It's a masterclass in how defensive pressure can disrupt the most elite quarterback-receiver connection in the world. Check out the official NFL Game Pass archives for the full coaches' film to see the tactical breakdown that the TV broadcast missed.