Packer Central

Former NFL QB: Packers Offense Will Be Better Than It Was With Adams

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky loves the direction of the Green Bay Packers’ offense. Some numbers support his contention.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers might be a woeful 21st in the NFL in scoring, but former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky is bullish on the offense’s outlook.

“The only offense in the NFC that I have more faith in is Philadelphia,” Orlovsky said on ESPN’s Get Up.

With 28.8 points per game, the Eagles are scoring exactly 10 more points per game than the Packers. So, why is Orlovsky so optimistic about the state of a unit that hasn’t scored more than 27 points in a game – a typical output the past three seasons?

“We’re boxing this unit in to thinking that, one, their quarterback’s not a Hall of Famer,” Orlovsky said of Aaron Rodgers. “No Davante Adams or not, he can do whatever he wants with the football. He can place it anyplace that he needs to.”

Nothing matters beyond the scoreboard. The NFL is about scoring points. Period. Nonetheless, the Packers enter this week’s game against the New York Giants in London ranked sixth in total offense. They are 10th in yards per play, ninth in rushing yards per play and ninth on third down.

Looking beyond the raw numbers, the Packers are second in the NFL with 35 big plays, according to SportRadar, with a big play defined as a run of 10-plus yards or a pass of 20-plus yards.

Rather than 20-yard completions to Adams or bombs to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Green Bay’s passing game revolves around short passes and run after the catch. According to the official league data, the average distance of a Rodgers completion is 4.10 yards. That’s the shortest in the NFL. However, Rodgers has benefited from 6.40 yards after the catch, fourth-best. In total, Green Bay is second in the league in YAC behind only the Chargers.

“Their explosive just looks different to us because their explosive is all these moving parts pre-snap and post-snap,” Orlovsky said.

With a dynamic one-two punch of Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon at running back, offensive linemen David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins rounding into form after their torn ACLs, and the potential of rookie receivers Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson, the arrow is pointed up – straight up – for Green Bay’s offense.

“Mark these words,” Orlovsky said. “This offense is going to be better by the end of the season than what it was last year with Davante Adams.”

Here’s the full segment.

- Led by NFL rushing leader Saquon Barkley, the Giants are No. 1 in the NFL with 192.5 rushing yards per game and No. 2 with 5.75 yards per carry. They have two of the three best rushing days of the season, with 262 yards in last week’s win over Chicago and 238 yards in the Week 1 win over Tennessee. Even in their lone loss, to Dallas in Week 3, they rushed for 167 yards.

- Handling Barkley will require sound tackling. Green Bay’s leading tackler, linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, missed only four tackles while making 145 tackles last year. That’s 36.3 tackles per miss. This year, Campbell has 36 tackles but missed six. That’s 6.0 tackles per miss.

- Speaking of missed tackles, Green Bay running back Aaron Jones has been electric. Of the 29 running backs with at least 40 carries, he leads the way in PFF’s elusive rating, a metric that measures the success of a runner “independent” of his blockers. He is second with 4.42 yards per carry after contact on the strength of 18 missed tackles. He’s on pace for 76.5 misses; his career high is 49.

- Green Bay beat New England on Sunday, thanks in part to starting quarterback Mac Jones being inactive with an ankle injury and backup Brian Hoyer exiting with a concussion. For the Giants, starter Daniel Jones has an ankle injury and backup Tyrod Taylor has a concussion. Jones might play, but how much of a factor will he be after averaging 6.23 yards per rush to start the season?“Daniel is feeling a little bit better today. We’ll just see how that goes,” Giants coach Brian Daboll told reporters on Monday. “I just think each day we take a look at him. He can throw from the pocket just fine. Obviously, he has another skill-set that you can utilize, whether that’s move the pockets or zone-reads. So, I’d say the first thing we do is make sure he’s as healthy as can be, and if he can do the things we need him to do for that game plan, then we talk about it. If he can’t, then he can’t.”Against Chicago, Barkley played some wildcard quarterback. Davis Webb, a third-round pick by the Giants in 2017, is on the practice squad.

- The Giants are the only team in the NFL without an interception. The Packers, who have one interception, have a league-low six passes defensed. Rasul Douglas has a team-high two.

- The Giants are the only team in the NFL without an interception. The Packers, who have one interception, have a league-low six passes defensed. Rasul Douglas has a team-high two.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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