Green Bay Packers: 3 Areas the Offense Can Improve in 2020

The Green Bay Packers’ offense had plenty of ups and downs last season. Here are three ways that they can improve in 2020.

This is a Green Bay Packers team coming off of an excellent 2019 season where they would finish 13-3, winners of the NFC North, and end up just one game shy of the Super Bowl. However, like any team, there is always room for improvement and that rings especially true for the offense. Which is quite weird to say given who the quarterback is.

Led by Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, and Davante Adams, this offensive unit certainly had their moments in 2019. But they were also very inconsistent when it came to moving the ball and putting points on the board.

So as we begin to look ahead to the 2020 season, these are three areas, in particular, that the Green Bay Packers’ offense needs to improve upon if they hope to make another Super Bowl push.

More Efficient on 3rd Downs

It’s pretty obvious, the more third downs that a team converts, means the longer that the offense is on the field, which gives them a greater chance of scoring points on the drive. But for the Green Bay Packers, this was an issue in 2019.

On the season they would convert just 36 percent of their third-down attempts which ranked 23rd in the NFL. And every team below them in the rankings didn’t even reach the playoffs.

One way that the Packers can improve this stat is by giving themselves more third and short opportunities. This means finding more success on first and second downs and that is something that they didn’t do consistently in 2019.

The Packers are already prime regression candidates in 2020, and odds are that if they rank 23rd on third down efficiency once again, they just aren’t going to be as successful this time around.

An Improved Passing Game

It’s no secret that this was a major issue for the Green Bay Packers last season. Outside of Davante Adams and the emergence of Allen Lazard over the second half of the season, the wide receiver corps was pretty underwhelming, to say the least.

Geronimo Allison had a case of the drops and didn’t make plays with the ball in his hands. Meanwhile, Marquez Valdes-Scantling saw his playing time decrease drastically, and even with all of the issues, Jake Kumerow still didn’t see much playing time.

The result of this was an offense that ranked 19th in passing yards per game and running back Aaron Jones was the team’s third-leading receiver.  Not to mention that at times moving the ball through the air seemed impossible.

Looking ahead to this season, it appears that Green Bay is going to be more run-oriented than they were in 2019 but this should also help the passing game as well. Success on the ground means more loaded boxes and one-on-one coverage outside, along with more play-action opportunities for Rodgers to exploit the defense.

On top of that, we hopefully see Devin Funchess make some noise, the return of Equanimeous St. Brown provides a boost, and Jace Sternberger ends up being a more reliable tight end option.

Play More Up-tempo

Back in the day when this offense under Aaron Rodgers was humming along, we’d oftentimes see them play with a quick pace as they hurried to the line of scrimmage, caught defenses off guard, and took advantage with a big play. But that was not the case last season.

According to Football Outsiders, Green Bay ran a play every 28.86 seconds, which ranked as the 5th slowest pace in the NFL. Now, some of this can be attributed to learning a new offense, but this Packers’ offense must move quicker in 2020.

The good news is that when meeting with reporters at the NFL Combine, Matt LaFleur mentioned that a goal of theirs this offseason was to simplify the terminology which will make life a bit easier on the players and therefore help increase the overall tempo.

This is something that may seem small but it is something that can make a world of difference. Especially with a quarterback as skilled as Rodgers.