Packers Offense Should Look Familiar For Seahawks

The Seahawks face another strong offense under the bright lights, but the Packers offer similarities to other systems they have faced in the past.

Jon Alfano | 19 Hours Ago

Oct 20, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur celebrates while walking off the field following the game against the Houston Texans at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks haven't played the Green Bay Packers in the regular season since 2021, but their defense should know what to expect in Sunday night's pivotal matchup.

How so? Well, they've faced this type of offense many times before.

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is one of the top offensive minds in the league, and he shares his background with several other coaches around the league that he learned under earlier in his coaching career. Namely, both Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, two of Seattle's NFC West rivals.

Obviously, LaFleur's offense isn't a carbon copy of McVay's or Shanahan's and has developed some of his own wrinkles to a tried and true formula, but the similarities are absolutely there.

"You feel that this is his vision for his players, and you have to have a starting point somewhere," Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said Wednesday. "You can't just have no one invent stuff. Everyone learns from people and kind of comes up through the ranks. That's what Matt (LaFleur) does, but you can definitely tell this is his vision for their offense."

"I'm sure there's some common language and stuff, but you could tell it around their players and how they build stuff formationally. But yeah, it's definitely unique to them."

Despite that, Macdonald and LaFleur haven't faced off since 2018, when the former was the Baltimore Ravens' linebackers coach and the latter was the Tennessee Titans' offensive coordinator. It goes without saying, but so much has changed since then that that matchup is almost meaningless.

"There are a couple underlying things, but yeah, you've got to do your homework," Macdonald said. "You've got to go through, hit all the boxes, make sure you're as thorough as you can be. We've had coaches on staff who have played the Packers in the past too. Utilizing that feedback and just kind of having all hands on deck to try to generate as much information as you can."

The Seahawks will get quite familiar with the NFC North over the next few weeks, as they play the Packers, Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears back-to-back. For now, though, their focus is on their longtime rival in green.

"They play winning football. They've been doing it throughout their entire franchise history and especially since Matt's got there and doing his thing," Macdonald said. "We've got a lot of respect for them and how they play. They're a physical football team, they play really hard, they attack the football, and they take care of it on offense. They do all the things necessary that you need to do to be a really good football team. They do those things."