From the Vault: Ryan's Season Simulation, and Every Packer Fan Emotion in 17 Games (May 18)

From the Packernet vault, originally aired May 18, 2026.

Back in May, everybody was doing the same old game-by-game win/loss picks after the schedule release. Ryan thought that whole exercise was pretty pointless, so he tried something different. He handed the 2026 Packers schedule to multiple AIs, including Grok, Claude and ChatGPT, and had them simulate the season week by week, with final scores, key plays, and the reason the Packers won or lost every game. Three of the four models landed at exactly 11-6.

What came out is an accidental portrait of what being a Packer fan feels like every single year. The Week 1 loss in Minnesota that sends everyone into full panic. The Jets win that doesn't really count. The Micah Parsons homecoming against the Bears. The Rams loss on two costly interceptions that breaks everybody. The Bills loss at home that makes you question everything. The Christmas Day win in Chicago that brings everyone back. Then the Week 18 loss to Detroit on a missed field goal that sends you into the playoffs feeling somehow both good and terrible about 11-6.

Ryan's takeaway: there's no combination of six losses that feels good. But 11-6 is 11-6, the off season is actually kind of relaxing, and the regular season was always going to be exactly this, all of it. Now that we're deep into the real thing, go back and see how the robots did.

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