After Lost Offseason, Packers Must Make Every Moment Count
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Coming off a lockout that eliminated offseason workouts and practices, the reigning Super Bowl-champion Green Bay Packers hit the ground running to start the 2011 season.
The Packers scored 21 points in the first quarter and beat the New Orleans Saints 42-34 in a season-opening shootout at Lambeau Field. Green Bay scored a league-high 35.0 points per game on the season, with its 560 points being the third-most in NFL history.
Fast forward a decade, and the Packers are embarking on an unprecedented season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no offseason workouts or practices this year, either. When coach Matt LaFleur spoke to reporters for the first time of training camp on Sunday, his players had gone through only one walk-through session.
The parallels between 2011 and 2020 don’t go a lot further. In the 2011 preseason, quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw 47 passes. He had an embarrassment of riches on the perimeter with Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, James Jones, Donald Driver and a rookie by the name of Randall Cobb at receiver, along with Jermichael Finley at tight end and Ryan Grant and James Starks in the backfield. When it was time to play, Green Bay’s offensive firepower overwhelmed just about every defense it played.
In 2020, there will be no preseason games to work out the kinks. And while Rodgers will be surrounded by a terrific backfield and a premier receiver in Davante Adams, there’s no comparing the perimeter groups between 2011 and 2020 in terms of talent and experience.
Thus, Rodgers and Co. are going to have to make every moment count in this six-week sprint to Week 1 at Minnesota.
“So much of this game is not just about what happens on the field,” Rodgers said on Monday. “It’s the conversations and communications off the field, in the meeting room, in the locker room, in the breakout groups, in the walkthroughs. I think that's going to be even more important than in years past because we're not possibly going to be able to rep every play enough times in our practices to work out all the kinks of every play, whether it's a new play or a play that worked last year or a play that didn't work last year that we're trying to get to work this year. So, it really comes down to those side conversations, those meeting conversations, those conversations in the walkthrough. I think those just take a bigger importance this year.”
After finishing in the middle of the pack in scoring last season, the Packers needed an infusion of talent on that side of the ball. However, the rookie class might be of minimal importance – especially early in the season. That group’s development was thrown for a major loss without a rookie camp, four weeks of OTAs and a minicamp to gain knowledge and comfort in the experience. Obviously, first-round quarterback Jordan Love wasn’t drafted to play this year but there were expectations on second-round running back AJ Dillon and third-round tight end Josiah Deguara. The first draft pick on defense was fifth-round linebacker Kamal Martin.
“I’ve had very limited exposure with these guys out on the field,” LaFleur said. “There are certainly some things that they have no idea what they’re getting into, just like how we practice, the pace of what those walkthroughs look like. We’re going into the archives, we’re showing film from last year. We’re going to show them the tape from yesterday to try to teach them. We need them to make the corrections at a really fast pace, but I think absolutely, all around the league, every rookie is going to be a little bit behind because they haven’t been in the building, they don’t know what it’s like. It’s just how fast we can get them up to speed with how we do things around here.”
Thus, if Green Bay’s offense is going to make immediate gains after last year’s debut under LaFleur, it will be up to the likes of Rodgers, Jones and Adams to make plays, but also receiver Allen Lazard and tight end Jace Sternberger to make big gains after showing some flashes last season.
“In 2011, I felt like we really had to rely on some of the older players who had been with us early on in the season,” Rodgers said. “Some guys need a bit of an acclimation period, as we saw from some of our draft picks last year, and those guys are going to need to just learn as quickly as possible, and in the meantime we may have to rely on some of our older guys at the beginning of the season.”
