Offensive Coordinator Breakdown – Green Bay Packers
Each off-season the NFL landscape changes dramatically with every coaching change across the league. This past season eight NFL head coaches were terminated, while an additional seven NFL teams made changes at offensive coordinator. How does that impact your Fantasy Football plays?
With 46 percent of the league changing offensive systems this off-season, I am going to breakdown each of these new play callers, their tendencies and how it will impact each team this coming season, and how it will impact your Fantasy Football plays.
Green Bay Packers Offensive Coordinator- Matt LaFleur
Average Offensive Coordinator Production- (1 Season)
Team Rankings Under Matt LaFleur- (1 Season)
Fantasy Football Play Caller Profile:
With only one year of play-calling, Matt LaFleur is one of the more difficult offensive coordinators to predict this season. While he was listed as the OC in Los Angeles, Sean McVay actually called the plays. With such little data, we really can’t form too much of an opinion on what this Packers offense will look like.
One thing that is very concerning, is how he did not adapt his scheme to his players in Tennessee. Last season LaFleur decided that his six-foot-four 240 pound running back should split carries with his pass-catching specialist. In the first seven games last season Dion Lewis averaged 10.4 carries while Henry averaged 12 carries. The Titans last season should have featured Henry as it did in the team’s final four games when he had 87 carries for 585 yards.
The good news for LaFleur is that going from Marcus Mariota to Aaron Rodgers is like going from Spam to a Wagyu Kobe Filet. The Packers are loaded on offense with Devante Adams on the outside and Aaron Jones as the team’s primary ball carrier this season.
One thing that stood out is how much LaFleur likes running play action. Last season the Titans ran play-action on 29% of passes while the Packers ran play-action 20% of the time according to football outsiders. One thing Rodgers has stated many times this off-season is his disdain for play-action and having to turn his back from the defense. You also have what seems to be clear differing opinions on checks at the line of scrimmage “It’s a conversation in progress,” Rodgers told Silver. “I don’t think you want to ask me to turn off 11 years [of recognizing defenses] according to Profootballtalk.com
It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops between Rodgers and LaFleur this season and is something that you should monitor closely.