Packers Zoom Into the Offseason

The Green Bay Packers are trying to make the best of an unprecedented situation.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The virtual offseason created by the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t ideal for any team. It could be worse, though. At least Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur isn’t building his program from scratch.

“I think that’s critical, just having the guys understand what we’re all about,” LaFleur said during a conference call on Friday afternoon.

Like the rest of the NFL, the Packers have Zoomed into an unprecedented offseason. By this point in May, the Packers typically have held their rookie orientation camp and would be entering organized team activities. But this, of course, is not a normal year. Rather than installing the playbook on the practice field, it’s being installed via Zoom meetings. Rather than flinging passes to Davante Adams, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he has been working out with a couple players who reside near him in the Los Angeles area.

“Our coaches have done an unbelievable job of being creative, because the majority of our installs and whatnot have been more of those voice-over type installs, and you want to keep the guys entertained,” LaFleur said. “Our coaches have done a really good job of being creative, and I think it’s been going really well. You spend a lot of time, you make these videos and they take a lot longer than you would normally just prepare to go out, go down and present in front of the team. But it’s given us a great opportunity as coaches to watch ourselves. And we’re always constantly evaluating our players, but you do a lot of self-evaluation now in terms of how effectively do you communicate. So, I think it's been a great tool for our coaches.”

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How teams adapt to what’s going on in May could go a long way toward determining which teams are playing deep into January.

At this point in 2011, the Packers were coming off a Super Bowl championship but the NFL was in the middle of a lockout as the league and players tried to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement. When the lockout finally ended in time for training camp, the Packers were off and running. They went 15-1, Rodgers won his first MVP and the team scored the third-most points in NFL history.

That was a veteran team with a veteran coach. This is a veteran team, too, but it’s a second-year coach. Can the Packers take a Year 2 leap under LaFleur without the benefit of an offseason program to build upon all that went right in 2019 but fix what prevented them for getting to the Super Bowl?

“Everybody was thinking the product was going to be a lot worse on the field and guys weren't going to have the same type of time to prepare,” Rodgers said during his own conference call. “There’s a greater accountability on players to prepare, but on the coaches, as well. There has to be a real streamlined approach to the most important parts of those installs, and the finer details are at a premium. I think it's probably making the coaches better coaches. You expect great accountability where guys now have the opportunity. What are you doing during your off time? We all have a lot more off time now because we don't have the schedule constraints that we would in a normal life situation. Guys have more time to study, more time to work on themselves.”

Using running back Jamaal Williams, who has posted numerous workout videos on social media, as an example, Rodgers continued: “I think that's the beauty of this time. It really separates the guys who are the self-motivated, self-starters and the guys who maybe need a little bit more direction. Those guys that need more direction are going to be better in the setting where we're all together. The other guys are going to be more ready to rock and roll once Day 1 comes.”

Through the Zoom meetings, Rodgers has gained a new appreciation for the sense of humor of offensive line coach Adam Stenavich and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, whom Rodgers called a “wild man.” If the 2020 Packers are going to take the next step after being blown out in the NFC Championship Game, it will be up to the players and coaches to make the best of the circumstances.

“We understand that, going into Year 2, there's pressure with how we performed in Year 1 for the most part,” LaFleur said. “There's going to be some heavy expectations and we've all got to be ready to embrace those and make sure, again, that we're doing everything in our power to get better each and every day so we can live up to those.”