Both quarterback Aaron Rodgers and coach Matt LaFleur said in the aftermath of Sunday’s season-ending loss to the San Francisco 49ers that the Green Bay Packers would like to incorporate more tempo into the offense in 2020.
The Packers rarely went up-tempo in the first year in LaFleur’s offense. It just wasn’t something the offense got to while installing the scheme in 2019.
According to Pro Football Reference, Rodgers threw only 25 passes from the no-huddle during the regular season.
Expect that number to change in 2020.
“We really haven’t gotten into the tempo stuff at all. Very little of that. I think that’s a product of personnel and the way installation went. The scheme is there,” Rodgers said at Levi’s Stadium.
The quarterback and playcaller had bigger hurdles to deal with during the first year of crafting a new offense. It was a re-wiring process for Rodgers, who had spent the previous 11 years running Mike McCarthy’s offense. Now, Rodgers and LaFleur have an opportunity to go back into the tape, find the things that worked, disregard the rest and begin building the next stages of the offense.
If 2019 was an introductory class, 2020 will mark the start of advanced courses in the offense, and both Rodgers and LaFleur are signing up for more up-tempo.
“I know we want to implement some more up-tempo offense. We’d like to get that. We never really got that going this year,” LaFleur said Tuesday.
The benefit for LaFleur is getting to build on the offense in Year 2. Each of the last three years, LaFleur took a promotion and bolted for a new town. He went from quarterbacks coach in Atlanta in 2016 to offensive coordinator in Los Angeles in 2017 to playcaller in Tennessee in 2018 and to head coach in Green Bay in 2019.
There will be no starting over in 2020.
“It’ll be a busy offseason. What I’m excited for is this is going to be the first time I’ve been in Year 2 since after the 2015 season in Atlanta,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur said this offseason will be about self-scouting his own offense while also scouring the league for new ideas and concepts. He wouldn’t be able to do either without a second season in the same city with the same quarterback.
It’s possible more tempo could provide the Packers with an added edge, increasing efficiency while giving Rodgers another wrinkle to throw at defenses.
Of course, how often tempo is used will depend on who returns on offense and how comfortable the skill positions – running back, receiver and tight end – are with playing faster next year.
Tempo wasn’t necessarily possible for Rodgers and the Packers as they learned a new offense in 2019. It just wasn’t a priority in the first year developing a new scheme.
The same hurdles won’t be present in 2020. Expect a faster Packers offense next season.