One-season wonders: Green Bay Packers

Whether we like to admit it or not, one-hit wonders are awesome no matter how cheesy they are.

The same goes for pro football players and even though they weren’t cheesy, many of them have a place in the heart of cheeseheads.

Green Bay has been blessed with relative consistency at important positions for years, but there have still been a handful of Packers that had one main season of production with the team.

Since the Packers have been playing NFL football since 1921, this exercise is limited to players in the post-Vince Lombardi era.

Here’s the best of the bunch: (Note: listed in alphabetical order)

QB Matt Flynn (2011)

He may not have had a one-season surge with the Packers, but his Week 17 performance in 2011 deserves recognition. Green Bay had already locked up a first-round bye by the end of the 2011 season, so its regular-season finale against the Lions appeared to be an afterthought on the NFL schedule. However, Flynn made sure that did not happen by throwing for 480 yards and six touchdowns in the Packers’ 45-41 win. That win gave Green Bay a 15-1 record and helped Flynn earn a contract with the Seattle Seahawks, so it worked out for everyone, except Detroit of course but that is nothing new.

LB Ted Hendricks (1974)

It’s rare for a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to be on this list, but Hendricks makes it since he played in Green Bay for only one year after he was traded there from the Baltimore Colts. During the 1974 season, Hendricks picked off five passes, recorded a safety and made the Pro Bowl while being named a first-team All-Pro. The 6-foot-7 linebacker was much more disruptive than those statistics show but sacks and tackles were not officially recorded back then, so it’s more difficult to measure his exact impact.

CB Jerry Holmes (1990)

After eight seasons with the New York Jets and Detroit, Holmes spent his last two NFL seasons with Green Bay from 1990-91. Holmes started all 16 games at cornerback for the Packers in his first season and had three interceptions, three fumble recoveries and a sack.

WR/KR/PR Desmond Howard (1996)

The 1991 Heisman winner showed why he was such an electric player in his first one-year stint with the Packers. Howard finished the 1996 regular season with only 95 receiving yards but more than made up for it in the return game with 58 punt returns for 875 yards (an NFL record) – an average of 15.1 yards per return — and three touchdowns. He also recorded 460 kick return yards and was named a first-team All-Pro for those efforts. Howard continued his dominance in the playoffs with a punt return touchdown against in the Packers’ 35-14 divisional round win over the San Francisco 49ers and capped off his memorable season with a 99-yard kick return that essentially clinched a Super Bowl win for Green Bay.

Keith Jackson (1996)

Not to be confused with the legendary American sports commentator, Keith Jackson the 6-foot-2 tight end spent his last two years in the NFL with the Packers in 1995-96. He had previously made Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams with the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins and proved he still had some gas in the tank in 1996 when he caught 40 balls for 505 yards and 10 touchdowns. Jackson helped Green Bay in its Super Bowl run and was a Pro Bowler that season. Talk about going out on top.

QB Don Majkowski (1989)

The “Majik Man” played six seasons for the Packers and 1989 was by far his best season in the NFL. Majkowski started all 16 games and threw for 4,318 yards, 27 touchdowns and 20 interceptions and totaled 75 rushing yards and five touchdowns. He led Green Bay to a 10-6 record in 1989, which was the team’s best since 1972, and made it to his first and only Pro Bowl. The Packers did not make the playoffs that season, but that should not discount Majkowski’s great year.

RB Terdell Middleton (1978)

Middleton’s 1978 campaign was the clear bright spot during his five-year career with Green Bay. He did not play much for the Packers as a rookie in 1977 but burst on to the NFL scene the next season. In 1978, Middleton rushed for 1,116 yards and 11 touchdowns and caught 34 passes for 332 yards and a score, resulting in a Pro Bowl appearance. The former Memphis Tiger was not able to repeat his production going forward, scoring just six more touchdowns in his final three years in Green Bay.

WR/RB Ty Montgomery (2016)

Montgomery stepped up into a unique role for the Packers in 2016. Injuries forced Montgomery to switch to running back from wide receiver that season and the Stanford product made a big impact out of the backfield, albeit wearing No. 88. In all, Montgomery rushed 77 times for 457 yards and three touchdowns (5.9 yards per carry), caught 44 passes for 348 yards and contributed in the return game.

TE Richard Rodgers (2015)

Rodgers was a reliable tight end for the Packers from 2014-17 and his best season came in 2015 when he had 58 receptions for 510 yards and eight touchdowns. While he did not put up a particularly gaudy yardage total, his eight scores obviously helped the team win. In fact, his Hail Mary touchdown catch was literally the difference in Green Bay’s 27-21 Week 13 win over the Detroit Lions.

WR Javon Walker (2004)

Walker was a pretty good player for the Packers in 2002 and 2003 and even recorded two 100-yard playoff games in those seasons, but his numbers exploded in 2004. A year after accumulating a respectable 716 receiving yards, Walker became Brett Favre’s top target and made 89 catches for 1,382 yards and 12 touchdowns. Although he made his first Pro Bowl, Walker’s string of good fortune in Green Bay would end when he tore his ACL in the first game of the next season. He was eventually traded to the Denver Broncos in 2006.