nERD: 12.17
Record: 11-5, lost NFC Wild Card

The 2009 Green Bay Packers were a team in transition. Only the year before was longtime starting quarterback Brett Favre traded away, and his heir apparent -- the promising but rough Aaron Rodgers -- given the reins to the team. Head coach Mike McCarthy cleaned house on the defensive side of the ball, hiring defensive guru Dom Capers to run the unit. The Packers would switch to a 3-4 defense that season, and the rest was history.

Like a car shifting into a new gear, the offense took a step forward in 2009, ranking 7th in Adjusted Offensive NEP per play after finishing 11th the year before. Rodgers began to look less like the big-armed but scattershot Favre and foreshadowed his future hyperefficiency in Year 2 of his starting tenure. Rodgers and tight end Jermichael Finley were the two Packers’ players to rank in the top-10 at their position in Total NEP, but running back Ryan Grant and wide receivers Greg Jennings and Donald Driver fell just outside of that range.

The real change was on the defensive side of the ball. Pro Bowl cornerback Charles Woodson had one of his best seasons ever, as he led the defense from a 13th-place berth in 2008 to 2nd in the league this season. Woodson himself earned All-Pro honors, and was voted the AP Defensive Player of the Year.

The playoffs that year would end in an overtime 51-45 shootout with the Arizona Cardinals, on a play where Rodgers fumbled the ball for a touchdown return. They would have to wait one more year for playoff glory.