The Green Bay Packers have 26 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A few of them are coaches — Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau — but almost all of them are players.
From this large group, arriving at the seven greatest Packers of all time and then ranking them becomes a complicated task.
Let's try to do the best we can and let you decide. First, let's start with the three Packers who exist outside of the top-four locks:
7. Don Hutson
Hutson preceded the Lombardi era, and is therefore easier for younger football fans to forget or at least minimize in a consideration of the greatest players to play for the Packers. However, Hutson is regarded by many football historians as the NFL's first great wide receiver.
Playing in the World War II era, Hutson pioneered the art of route-running, setting a template and an example generations of receivers were able to follow and develop in subsequent decades.
Hutson also led the NFL in interceptions as a safety in the 1940 season. He finished his career with 30 picks. He was a remarkable two-way player who revolutionized the game. He deserves to be part of this list for the Packers.
6. Reggie White
The difficulty of these selections for the greatest Packers of all time can be expressed in a few different ways. One is the challenge of choosing between players who played the same position.
Do you pick defensive end Reggie White in the late 1990s, or defensive end Willie Davis in the 1960s under Lombardi? It is very hard to compare across eras to begin with, but the 1960s in pro football were wildly different from the 1990s.
Another key tension point: Is it important to pick a long-term Packer such as Davis over a player — White — who spent several seasons with another team (the Philadelphia Eagles)? Some people would say that longevity with the Packers matters, and that's a fair claim.
Yet, I go with White because he was instrumental in lifting the Packers to greatness in the 1990s under Mike Holmgren. If White wasn't on the 1996 Packers' roster, the team probably wouldn't have won the Super Bowl at a point in time when the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers were still hugely formidable in the NFL.
If you want to say Willie Davis is better, though, I won't fight you. These are subjective choices.
5. Ray Nitschke
The tension point here: Why would Nitschke rate higher than other stalwarts of the Packers from the Lombardi defenses, such as Willie Wood and Herb Adderley? Again, it's a relatively subjective question.
I choose Nitschke because football was more of a run-centric sport in the 1960s. This doesn't invalidate or reduce Wood's or Adderley's massive achievements with the Packers; it merely elevates Nitschke, because he had to take on so many responsibilities in his role at linebacker. That's it. That's the tweet.
Now let's present the top four Packers of all time:
4. Brett Favre
The three greatest quarterbacks in Packers history have to be in the top four. One simply cannot assert that the Packers would have become such a storied franchise without their iconic passers. Lynn Dickey was a solid quarterback for the Packers in the 1980s, but he was no Brett Favre.
The Packers' prominence in the 1990s rests on the cornerstone of Favre and Reggie White. The Packers were off the radar in the 1970s and 1980s because they lacked the quarterback who could knit everything together.
3. Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers rates ahead of Favre. Why? Like Favre, he won a Super Bowl. Unlike Favre, he has had a lot less help in Green Bay. We see this year after year, and it's obvious. Does Brett Favre win a Super Bowl without Reggie White? I don't think so. It's close, but I don't think so. Imagine Rodgers having a defense akin to the 1996 Packers, and having it for three or four years.
He would probably have three Super Bowl titles.
2. Jerry Kramer
The stature of the Packers in the larger scope of the NFL's 100-year history is primarily built on the aura of Vince Lombardi, arguably the greatest coach not just in pro football, but in ANY sport. Lombardi is that influential in the history of coaching.
No member of the Packers has done more to spread the Gospel of Lombardi more than Jerry Kramer, who has a claim to make as the most famous offensive lineman in NFL history. If one player could be seen as the soul of the Packers, Kramer is one of only two possible choices. The other one is the next one:
1. Bart Starr
The game-winning drive in the 1967 “Ice Bowl” against the Dallas Cowboys is the greatest drive by any Packer quarterback, period. Bart Starr led not just the first two Super Bowl champions in Green Bay; he led several NFL champions under Lombardi before the Super Bowl era.
We could debate players 2-4 or 5-7 all day. Bart Starr as the No. 1 Packer player ever? I don't think many will disagree with that call.
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