NFL playoffs strategy guide: Understanding the Packers
Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur have collaborated to build the Packers offense.
It’s been a long NFL season, but the postseason is finally here. Now, you probably didn’t get to study the entire playoff field in-depth during the regular season. No worries. We’ve put together guides that will help you become an instant expert on all 12 teams making up the field.
These guides will tell you how each team uses its personnel on both sides of the ball, what its strategic tendencies are and how efficient the team is based on several advanced metrics.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at the Green Bay Packers, who earned a bye after winning the NFC North with a 13-3 record. Let’s get to know them…
(To check out another team’s profile or explanations for the metrics featured below, click here.)
PACKERS OFFENSE
(AP Photo/Mike Roemer)
The Packers offense has been a mix of what we’ve seen from them in the past (a lot of three-receiver sets) and what Matt LaFleur was doing before he got to Green Bay. The first-year coach played with two tight ends more often in Tennessee but a third of those plays have been replaced by two-back sets, with FB Dan Vitale playing a big role in the offense. That shift may have been necessitated by Jimmy Graham’s blocking allergy.
After a rough start, the Packers passing game has evolved to better fit Aaron Rodgers’ style of play. We’re seeing a lot of quick passing concepts, which include packaged plays that give Rodgers an option to hand the ball off of flip a quick pass out to a receiver (usually Davante Adams) based on a pre-snap read of the defense. The Packers have increased their usage of play-action but it’s not the typical play-action approach we’re used to seeing from a Shanahan-style coach. When Rodgers carries out a play fake, he’s typically staying in the pocket.
The passing game may be more Rodgers than LaFleur but the running game belongs to the coach. And it’s pretty damn good with Aaron Jones working as the primary back. Under McCarthy, Green Bay was a team that liked to run man-blocking concepts out of shotgun formations. Now, it’s mostly zone running plays from under center. But with Rodgers preferring to throw from the gun, there isn’t that same cohesion between the pass and run games that we see from other Shanahan coaches. That hasn’t limited the effectiveness of the rushing attack, though.
PACKERS DEFENSE
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
This might be the most “modern” defense in the NFL. The Packers don’t seem to care about defending the run and will prioritize stopping the pass by putting as much speed on the field as possible. No other team in the league plays more dime packages.
Mike Pettine comes from the Ryan Family coaching tree but you wouldn’t know it based on that blitz rate. The Packers don’t really need to blitz to get pressure thanks to the free-agent acquisitions of the Smiths, Za’Darius and Preston. Pettine is letting his front-four try to get home on their own while playing a lot of zone coverages behind the standard rush. Pettine would probably like to play more man coverage, but Jaire Alexander is really his only reliable cornerback at this point.
This is where you can see the effects of Pettine’s personnel usage. The Packers are almost always at a disadvantage in the size department, so teams have been able to run at will against them. But look at those passing numbers. That’s the trade-off, and in today’s NFL, it’s better to be good against the pass than it is to be stout against the run. Pettine is taking the correct approach.