The boys are back in town...and if Christopher and David wanna fight, you better let ’em. Fortunately, no blood was spilled, and no drinks flowed, since this particular session was recorded over the lunch hour and even Wisconsin boys understand there are limits to what HR will tolerate before 1:00 p.m. Yes, Packers Therapy is back for Season 22, which means Chris and Dave have apparently learned absolutely nothing from the first 21. Or perhaps they have. They’ve matured. Evolved. Grown wiser. Which is why they spend the opening minutes calling themselves Christopher and David, administering a true-or-false examination about Ticket King, discussing cortisone injections, grandchildren, medical imaging, deodorant accessibility, and discovering that after more than two decades of podcasting they can no longer reliably remember the names of people they watched play football six months ago. Welcome to the future. Eventually, actual Packers football intrudes upon the proceedings, courtesy of Green Bay’s first practice game against Pittsburgh. The fellas wisely refuse to perform a Zapruder-level analysis of August football involving men who may soon be delivering your patio furniture, but there were enough breadcrumbs to awaken the dormant football lobe. Most encouragingly, the defense appeared interested in attacking somebody. Jonathan Gannon’s group showed pressure looks, defenders crowded around the line of scrimmage, one-high safety formations and the occasional suggestion that third-and-long might finally be treated as an opportunity to assault the quarterback rather than politely escort him toward an 11-yard completion. Lukas Van Ness and Brenton Cox generated pressure, the young secondary flashed some actual tackling, and for several intoxicating moments Chris and Dave contemplated an exotic possibility: What if the Packers defense became...aggressive? Naturally, everyone is advised to remain seated until September. Elsewhere, Keisean Nixon continues his fascinating campaign to become the first player simultaneously annoyed by his best position and determined to make Packers fans nervous at another one. A particularly casual attempt at tackling provides Dave with an opportunity to revisit his theory that Nixon might benefit from being told, very firmly, what his job is. Meanwhile, the Packers appear to have other return options, which could eventually make the entire discussion considerably less theoretical. Then there’s Trey Smack. Two 58-yard field goals. Right down the middle. That’s it. That’s the bit. The man is named Smack, he kicks footballs extremely far, and Packers Therapy would like to formally request that he remain employed for the next decade so we can wring every possible variation of this joke out of the English language. The conversation inevitably wanders toward the offensive line, where Chris unleashes the scorching-hot observation that the Packers might be better if the people assigned to block other people successfully block those people. Jordan Love remains lethal when protected and somewhat less lethal when several 290-pound men arrive in his lap. Jordan Morgan has a tremendous opportunity at left tackle, Anthony Belton is moving around, Aaron Banks remains more investment than return, and the entire enterprise carries the faint aroma of something that could become surprisingly good or catastrophically important. In other words: football. There’s also Marshawn Lloyd, who remains tantalizing enough to make everyone remember why Green Bay drafted him while simultaneously carrying two seasons’ worth of bubble wrap. Tucker Kraft is back frighteningly early. Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed and Christian Watson give the Packers a beautifully dangerous receiving corps provided everyone remains assembled. Jay Michael Sturdivant arrives sounding less like an NFL receiver and more like the senior partner who will be handling your merger. And somewhere in Miami, Malik Willis continues providing Dave with material for the eventual “I Told You So” episode. Jordan Love gets the larger philosophical treatment too. Is he already very good? Yes. Can he become great? Maybe. Does he sometimes process the game at approximately the same speed Chris solves a New York Times crossword puzzle? That, ladies and gentlemen, is why you came back. And because this is the first episode of a new season, optimism eventually sneaks through the ventilation system. Maybe a quieter offseason was good. Maybe Gannon really will bring pressure. Maybe the offensive line settles down. Maybe Tucker Kraft comes back healthy. Maybe Micah Parsons returns and begins consuming quarterbacks again. Maybe this is one of those seasons where the Packers quietly become better while everyone is staring somewhere else. Or maybe they’ll emotionally bludgeon us again. The important thing is that Christopher and David have made a solemn commitment to handle the 2026 season with perspective, emotional restraint and healthy expectations. This should last until roughly the second offensive possession in Minnesota. There are no Ha Ha Clinton-Dix betting lines this week because even Packers Therapy listeners are not degenerate enough to gamble seriously on preseason football. Probably. Instead, the guys disappear for a couple more weeks while Green Bay ventures into the cursed territory known as Denver, where the primary preseason objective is simple: Nobody die. They’ll return the week of September 7 with the preseason postmortem, the annual razor-sharp predictions that have never once embarrassed anyone, the return of the betting lines, and everything necessary to prepare for another season of football-induced psychological experimentation. Season 22 has begun. The Packers are back. Packers Therapy never really left. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/packerstherapyPayPal: Packerstherapy@yahoo.com Posting its first show in 2005, Packers Therapy is the longest-running Packers podcast on the Internet. Hosts Chris and Dave began the show as a way of capturing the spirited chats the two co-workers had about the team around the office. The two have no pretense about being experts: they are just two opinionated shareholders who love the team, follow it closely, but don’t always see the Packers fortunes eye to eye. The guys encourage comments and questions via their Twitter feed @PackersTherapy or email to packerstherapy@yahoo.com and read and respond to as many as they can during each show. Packers Therapy is a part of the Packers Talk family of podcasts, serving up five distinct podcasts to satisfy the most fervent of Packer fans. Variety is the spice of life, so subscribe to Packers Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Packers Talk on Twitter and Facebook.
