A specific moment in training camp – a throw, to be exact – might just represent the turning point for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers as they entered Year 2 in Matt LaFleur’s offense.
Asked for reasons behind his MVP-quality play this season, Rodgers pinpointed an on-time throw he made to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling in August as the moment everything he worked on to prepare for the 2020 season snapped into place.
The end result? A quarterback playing in perfect harmony within an offense, creating a passing game able to thrive on in-rhythm, on-time throws.
“If you look at my play overall, obviously the line has been protecting well, but there have been so many more on-time throws, and a lot of that is due, not just to the schematics we’ve been doing, but to an emphasis on the rhythm in my drop, and finding a place to go with the ball on the first hitch. I think that’s been a big part of my success, our success, the protection’s success,” Rodgers said Wednesday.
The Packers rank first in the NFL in points per game, point per drive, passing touchdowns and passer rating, and Rodgers has only been sacked 13 times.
Pro Football Focus tracks how often a quarterback throws the ball from snap to attempt, splitting the data into two categories: attempts before 2.5 seconds after the snap, and attempts after.
Rodgers has hovered around an average of 2.5 seconds to throw all season, well below his average the last 10 seasons. For comparison’s sake, Rodgers averaged 2.74 seconds in 2019 and 2.75 seconds in 2018.
When Rodgers attempts passes between zero and 2.5 seconds after the snap, he’s completing nearly 80 percent of his passes with 20 touchdown passes and a passer rating of 124.8. No quarterback has a higher passer rating on throws at or under 2.5 seconds this season.
To be fair, Rodgers hasn’t been poor when holding the ball longer this season. His passer rating is 114.0 and he’s thrown 19 touchdown passes on attempts at or over 2.5 seconds, but he’s completing fewer than 60 percent of his passes, so the efficiency drops markedly.
The on-time passing game within LaFleur’s scheme has turned the 37-year-old Rodgers into the NFL’s ultimate point guard, a true distributor who doesn’t need to create on his own or extend broken plays. He can mix those creative plays in here and there, but it’s no longer the engine that runs the offense.
Instead, LaFleur and Rodgers have worked together to both protect the quarterback and make the future Hall of Famer as efficient as he’s been in his entire career.
Rodgers said he studied old film and worked extensively during the offseason on his legs, both to strengthen his base and establish the rhythm and timing between his drops and the flow of the offense.
“The work I’ve done on my legs, especially, has helped. I’ve talked about going back and looking at some old film, picking up a few things I tried to implement in camp,” Rodgers said. “I remember the throw that turned everything for me in camp. It was a read stop, about a 20-yard route, and I came up off the fake on one hitch and threw a laser to Marquez on the left side. That, to me, gave me a lot of confidence that the things I was thinking about and working on and visually could come to fruition. That was an important day for me, and a lot of things changed for me as far as my balance and my rhythm and my timing going forward.”
Rodgers is charting an MVP path for a Super Bowl contender. One throw, providing the proof of concept for a future Hall of Fame quarterback during an important moment of preparation, might have made all the difference. The Packers are playing on time, driving the consistent success of both Rodgers and the NFL’s No. 1 offense.