The positives were few and far between coming out of Week 1, but Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was able to point at a few good things exiting Sunday’s 23-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
In fact, the MVP pointed to three things specifically: The return of tight end Robert Tonyan, the pairing of Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon on the field together and the play of veteran run-blocking tight end Marcedes Lewis.
Let Rodgers explain.
On Tonyan: “I was happy to get Bobby back out there, I think that’s something really good for us, and to get him involved and have a few catches was important.”
Tonyan caught three passes for 36 yards, including a 23-yarder, in his first game back after tearing his ACL in Week 8 last season. With uncertainty at receiver, Rodgers and the Packers probably need Tonyan to play a big role in the passing game moving forward.
On Jones and Dillon: “To get 28 and 33 in the game at the same time was good because we can expand that package even more.”
The Packers ran only a handful of plays with Jones and Dillon on the field together in Week 1, but the looks were effective. Rodgers believes it’s a smart way of featuring both players, and he thinks the package can expand as the Packers understand how defenses will respond.
On Lewis: “I think we learned that 89 can still play at a really high level and probably needs some more snaps. When he’s out there we can really run the football well. We gotta keep finding ways of getting him on the field.”
Lewis, the veteran tight end, was on the field for 23 of 61 snaps against the Vikings. He was a run-blocker on 13 of the team’s 18 called run plays. Pro Football Focus graded him as the fifth-best run blocker on the team in Week 1, but Rodgers clearly has a much higher opinion of his season-opening work.
The Packers quarterback believes running the ball when teams want to play two-deep safety shells and soft coverages will force the defense to adjust and help open up the deep shots, both in the dropback passing game and the run-action passing game.
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