Green Bay Packers: Aaron Rodgers Needs to be Better Off Play-Action

Aaron Rodgers off play-action in 2019 was a bit underwhelming. But in 2020, this is an area that the Green Bay Packers need him to improve upon.

After the Green Bay Packers’ second and third-round selections of A.J. Dillon and Josiah Deguara, it was reported by Jim Owczarski of Packers News that Green Bay was looking to become more “run-oriented” this season. And that’s likely the case.

If we look at the additions they made early on in the draft or Matt LaFleur’s coaching philosophy which stems from the Mike Shanahan offenses of years past, the run game plays an important role. In fact, it’s going to play a much more important role with the 2020 Packers’ offense than it has in years.

Yet with that said, Aaron Rodgers is still the quarterback and the run game is going to set things up for the passing game. And that means play-action is going to be a big part of this Green Bay Packers’ offense once again.

However, unlike in year’s past, this is an area of Rodgers’ game that has to improve in 2020.

According to Pro Football Focus’ (subscription required) 2019 stats, out of the 37 qualified quarterbacks – or quarterbacks with a minimum of 43 play-action dropbacks which is 20 percent of the league-high of 217 – Rodgers was in the bottom third of the league in several key play-action categories.

Although one area that Rodgers was near the top was in dropbacks with 165 which was the eighth-most in the NFL last season. And as we look ahead to the upcoming season, I don’t expect that number to be decreasing.

But as far as Rodgers’ stats go, his completion percentage of 65.8 percent ranked 21st, his 7.3 yards per attempt, ranked 32nd, he only threw three touchdowns off play-action, and his 91.3 passer rating was 30th out of 37 qualified candidates.

On top of that, his yards per attempt only increased by 0.4 on play-action compared to his overall average and that was ranked 29th. Typically play-action is when we see quarterbacks throw downfield more, but that wasn’t the case with Rodgers.

On the bright side, his completion percentage on play-action dropbacks did increase by over five percent compared to non-play action throws – which is to be expected – but he still ranked 15th in that category. Not overly impressive by any means.

Now one contributor to these underwhelming numbers on play-action for Rodgers could have been the overall lack of playmaking ability at the receiver position. Or maybe another contributing factor was that it was the first year in a new offense.

Either way these contributors are just that, contributors. By and large, this falls on Rodgers’ shoulders and simply must improve.

In Year 2 of the LaFleur offense, play-action certainly isn’t going away. In fact, we could very well see more of it. But that shouldn’t be a bad thing. Play-action is meant to make life easier on the quarterback and everyone around him, which should lead to more explosive plays, something that LaFleur is emphasizing this offseason.

So for an offense that was fairly inconsistent last season, taking better advantage of their play-action opportunities will help alleviate some of those issues. However, it all starts with QB1.