LaFleur on Quest to Add Explosion to Offense

Once an unquestioned strength to Green Bay's offenses, the Packers lacked a big-play element last year. The numbers are stark.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy liked to say he considered explosive plays a fundamental to football. It showed. From 2008 through 2018 – his 11 years with Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback – the Packers ranked fifth in the league in 20-yard plays and second in 20-yard touchdowns.

As Matt LaFleur looks back on his first season as the Packers’ coach, he sees the lack of big plays as one of his bigger problems. The Packers ranked 21st with 59 plays of 20-plus yards in 2019. Over the previous 11 seasons, the average was 87.8 – and that’s with Rodgers missing big chunks of two seasons.

“If you look back at last season, I know that one area that we really need to improve upon is creating more explosive plays,” LaFleur said on Thursday’s “Wilde & Tausch” radio show on ESPN Wisconsin. “I think it does start with the play-calling, maybe taking a few more chances to try to help generate those plays down the field. Typically, if you’re getting explosives, you’ve got a much better chance at scoring points.”

And a better chance to win games. In games with at least three plays of 20-plus yards, the Packers went 11-1. (The exception was a 34-27 loss to Philadelphia in Week 4.) In games with at least five plays of 20-plus yards, the Packers went 4-0.

Wanting more big plays is one thing. Getting more big plays is quite another. Scheme helps but so does talent. Those McCarthy-coached teams were juggernauts thanks to prolific perimeter groups. In 2011, when the Packers scored the third-most points in NFL history, Jordy Nelson had 19, Jermichael Finley had 14, Greg Jennings had 13 and James Jones had 11.

The current Packers have two explosive performers in receiver Davante Adams (12 receptions of 20-plus yards) and running back Aaron Jones (six receptions, five rushes for combined 11). However, even their combined 23 plays of 20-plus yards are fewer than Tampa Bay’s Chris Godwin, who had a league-high 25. The only noteworthy additions to the skill group are veteran receiver Devin Funchess, rookie running back. A.J. Dillon and rookie tight end Josiah Deguara. In his four full seasons, Funchess had 36 receptions of 20-plus yards or just nine per season.

Of the returning players, Marquez Valdes-Scantling had seven – but no gains of longer than even 11 yards in the final nine regular-season games – and so did Allen Lazard (including one rush) in essentially 11 games.

“This guy, he’s got the speed to run by anybody in this league,” LaFleur said of Valdes-Scantling. “We need him to make him a jump,” LaFleur said.