The Packers have to solve their play-action problem

Matt LaFleur admitted to altering the play-action play last year because of blocking issues, but they weren't fixed. Green Bay has to hope they've found an answer.

Matt LaFleur resuscitated Aaron Rodgers’ career with play-action, a long-dormant tool the four-time MVP had previously used to torment defenses under Mike McCarthy. But Rodgers grew tired of the under-center alignments and turning his back to defenses, preferring instead to see everything cleanly from shotgun. Joe Burrow prefers the same thing in Cincinnati.

LaFleur cajoled and prodded Rodgers back into play-action after the 2019 season, and it led to back-to-back MVPs, though the 2021 campaign featured fewer true run fakes and more RPOs. The offense had to evolve, but the run game faltered, and the Rodgers-to-Davante-Adams connection offered an easy solution.

Jordan Love never benefited from such an easy button with Adams, then busy watching his plan to play with his collegiate quarterback fall apart along with Derek Carr’s career. So, LaFleur leaned into some of the central tenets of his Kyle Shanahan background, leaned into more play-action, more bootleg, and designed quarterback runs to maximize Love’s eagerness to prove himself.

Green Bay had to evolve again in 2024, moving away from their under-center play-action game thanks in part to Love’s spate of injuries, but also due to protection issues. Love used play-action at the fifth-highest rate among qualifying quarterbacks in 2023, but that fell to 16th last season.

LaFleur offered a transparent answer about the reduction in play-action, citing the concern with tight ends having to block defensive ends in pass protection to make a pass look like a run.

Here’s an example from Week 1 against the Eagles from the red zone. On 2nd-and-5, the Packers go to a pet play where they fake like a receiver is motioning in to insert block on a run, then execute a play-action concept off it. To sell that, Tucker Kraft has Brandon Graham 1-on-1, and luckily in this case, he has help from Josh Jacobs. Kraft can’t lose cold off the snap like this, though; he has to win with dignity to give this play a chance.