Jordan Love-Led Packers Passing Game Getting Limited Yards After Catch

A longtime strength of the Green Bay Packers’ passing attack, yards after the catch, is mired in mediocrity this season.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In last week’s loss to the Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers receiver Dontayvion Wicks caught six passes for 97 yards. Almost half of those yards came after the catch.

YAC – yards after catch – long has been a hallmark of Green Bay’s offense. Not this year, though. According to league data, of 30 qualifying passers, Jordan Love ranks 17th with 5.10 YAC per completion.

Wicks, a fifth-round rookie who is coming on strong, has been excellent. He’s averaging 6.1 YAC, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s the best mark among the Packers’ receivers. Of 100 receivers who’ve been targeted at least 29 times this season, Wicks is tied for 11th, according to PFF.

Wicks has neither game-breaking speed nor elite quickness. So, what works so well for him?

“You kind of saw it in college, if you really watched the tape,” receivers coach and passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable said. “He has a great mindset but, if you really watch him on contact, he kind of has a running back lower half where his whole foot gets in the ground on contact and his lower half is strong.

“He does a good job when the first guy touches him, that his pad level is low and he runs through it. He’s done a tremendous job, from the Atlanta game, when he scored his first touchdown, broke the tackle there, to last week just because of his YAC mindset.”

What is that mindset?

“You’ve got to show me you’re tougher than me while we’re out there,” Wicks said.

Beyond Wicks, the Packers have lacked a YAC attack.

According to Packer Central’s charting of games, Wicks has broken 10 tackles. That’s as many as the rest of Green Bay’s receivers and tight ends combined. According to PFF, Wicks has forced nine missed tackles. The rest of the receivers have six and the receivers and tight ends combined have 11.

Here’s how Vrable coaches it to his players.

“If you’re a receiver that plays outside the numbers, if you’re close to the sideline, a lot of times you’re going to end up out of bounds. But our goal is to make the first [defender] miss. And then anytime you’re in between the numbers, it’s just north-and-south mentality. We like to finish with violent intentions, which means your pad level’s down underneath the defense and get what you can get, but we want to have great ball security.”

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Improving after the catch can be taught, and that had better be the case. Christian Watson forced four missed tackles while catching 34 passes as a rookie but has just one out of 28 receptions this year, according to PFF. Romeo Doubs’ only missed tackle out of 94 career catches came last season.

Fortunately, rookie receiver Jayden Reed (five out of 54 catches) and rookie tight end Tucker Kraft (two out of 18) have shown potential as after-the-catch playmakers.

“First and foremost, we talk a lot about body-ball-boundary,” Vrable said. “When you’re running on the sideline, if you get it in the outside arm and the DB’s inside, you can use a stiff-arm, you can be violent. If you’re going into the middle and the DB’s on your outside, well, then the ball ends up on the inside. Some receivers coming out of college, they struggle to carry the ball with both arms. It seems simple but there’s some guys here in the past who would’ve been here for three years and I’m like, ‘Man, you’ve got to start using your left arm. You’re going to get more YAC.’

“There’s a lot of fundamental things that we stress. The beginning of practice and throughout practice and when you’re watching the clicker, ‘Hey, that’s a great play but if you get the ball here right away on the catch-tuck transition away from the defender in the middle, you’ve got a chance to get more yards.’ There’s a lot of things out there that you can continue to grow on.”

YAC depends on a lot of factors, from play-calling and scheme by the coach, to athleticism and mentality by the pass-catcher, to accuracy and timing from the quarterback.

The numbers here are interesting:

Rodgers’ annual rankings in average YAC under LaFleur were ninth in 2022, fourth in 2021, second in 2020 and eighth in 2019. From 2009 through 2022, he was in the top 10 – usually well within the top 10 – in all but three seasons, with a low mark of 12th in 2015 and 2016.

His one true outlier season just happened to be his first year as the team’s starter, when he ranked 24th in 2008.

“There’s a lot that goes into that. It depends what type of route they’re running, what’s the coverage, where’s the ball placement,” coach Matt LaFleur said. 

After a couple follow-ups, LaFleur wondered why he was being asked so much about YAC. Simple: The Packers have struggled and the Panthers have the second-highest missed-tackle percentage in the league, according to Sport Radar.

“Just depends what kind of concepts we’re calling," LaFleur said. "Are we calling a bunch of short, run alerts then you typically get a little bit more yards after the catch? There’s just a whole list of factors that go into that.”

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