Packers offense kicks off OTA practices in a ‘night and day’ different place than a year ago (2024)

GREEN BAY — The process had begun in March.

Matt LaFleur and Adam Stenavich cordoned themselves off inside a Lambeau Field meeting room and began talking about what the Green Bay Packers’ offense could look like in 2024.

LaFleur, the team’s sixth-year coach, and Stenavich, entering his third season as offensive coordinator after three years as the line coach, knew they would have plenty more to work with after last season.

A lot more. As in, the what-a-difference-a-year-makes cliché, come to life.

They’d seen their first-year starter at quarterback, Jordan Love, realize his vast potential during the second half of the season. They ended the year with seven young but legitimate NFL-quality wideouts (Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Christian Watson, Bo Melton, Malik Heath and Samori Touré) and a dynamic duo at tight end (Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft).

And because all those would-be pass catchers were headed into their second or third NFL seasons, both LaFleur and Stenavich were convinced they could expand the offensive playbook and get creative after entering the 2023 season barely knowing what their young group was capable of.

“Before the draft last year, we didn’t even know who was going to be on our team. So it’s hard to plan and really put together an offense when you have no idea who your tight ends are necessarily going to be. You didn’t really know who your other wideouts were going to be,” LaFleur had said at the annual NFL Meetings in Orlando, Florida. “To have a lot less (uncertainty) and have everything kind of in place, it allows you to plan a little bit better and be very intentional with your offseason.”

When LaFleur said that, though, everything was still theoretical. He had met new starting running back Josh Jacobs only in passing. The 2024 NFL Draft hadn’t taken place yet. And none of those offensive players had set foot in Green Bay for the offseason program, which kicked off April 15.

‘Night and day’ difference

Monday, though, the Packers are about to kick off the organized team activity portion of the offseason program, when they’ll be able to hold actual practices, complete with 11-on-11 periods. Although the practices won’t be in pads, the difference should be evident even in helmets and shorts.

“Oh, it’s night and day. Night. And. Day,” Stenavich said. “Last year, going into the draft, we had maybe three receivers on the roster. We had two tight ends on the roster. So it was just one of those things where you didn’t really know what direction you could go yet because you didn’t really know who was going to be on your team and what skillset they had.

“Even going into camp and going into the season (last year), it was the same deal. Like, ‘How much can you put on these guys’ plates and allow them to go out and execute?’ Now, everyone has a year under their belt, so to speak. It’s been great to just know what these guys are good at, what they need to improve on and just allow them to just go ahead and be the best players that they can be.”

One example? For offensive passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable, who coached the wide receivers last year and still works with that group alongside new receivers coach Ryan Mahaffey, it was a process just to get the rookie and first-year receivers (Reed, Wicks, Heath, Melton and Grant DuBose) to do the most basic of things in the offense initially.

“The younger guys in Year 1, we had to help them get lined up,” Vrable recalled. “Now, they know where to be lined up, now they can take the next step.

“Yeah, we did a lot of good things last year, but we’re still starting over. (But) we just know where to get lined up, we know the call better, so now where you can take it to the next level.”

As the season progressed and the young receivers and tight ends gained experience, Vrable saw them improve their film study and apply it to in-game situations.

“Your thought process and your maturity starts to change,” Vrable continued. “I think that’s where our receiver room is right now. They understand coverages more, they understand angles better, how to be cleaner at the top of the route. It’s second nature now.

“We’ve taken a couple next steps. We can call plays and go execute them faster than we did last year at this point.”

‘Limitless’ creativity

As much anticipation as there may be with the wide receivers, the tight end group might be even more fascinating. Kraft came on strong after Musgrave suffered a lacerated kidney midway through the season, and Kraft’s emergence had Stenavich already imagining what the pair could do together when both were healthy.

While Musgrave returned shortly before the playoffs to give the coaches a glimpse of what they could do out of two-tight end sets, it was only a glimpse. Now, Musgrave and Kraft should hit the ground running, and the coaching staff also is intrigued by what Ben Sims, who was also a rookie last season but joined the team just before the start of the regular season after spending training camp with the Minnesota Vikings, can do with a full offseason in the system.

“Last year was obviously a great learning experience — develop confidence, develop standards, develop habits and all those things,” tight ends coach John Dunn said. “But I think, in terms of the creativity, it’s limitless.

“But we have to be able to execute those things (in practice) to earn the right to be able to do those things on the field on Sundays.”

And then, of course, there is Love. Even though the 2020 first-round draft pick had spent three seasons behind four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers on the quarterback depth chart — and made one less-than-stellar regular-season start in a 2021 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs — LaFleur, Stenavich and the offensive coaches weren’t sure heading into the season how good Love was or what route concepts and throws played to his strengths.

That’s why, despite seeing sufficient improvement from him to make the bold move of trading Rodgers to the Jets, even general manager Brian Gutekunst decided not to hand Love the $20.2 million fifth-year option and instead signed him to a half-measure, one-year extension.

Gutekunst’s words in advance of the fifth-year option decision — a confession that “It’s a lot of money for a guy who hasn’t played” — were a very clear sign that even he didn’t know for sure how good Love might be.

That uncertainty persisted after the Packers’ 2-5 start, as Gutekunst called the remaining 10 regular-season games “very important” in his evaluation of Love after Love had completed 135 of 234 passes (57.7%) for 1,492 yards and 11 touchdowns with eight interceptions and 14 sacks for a passer rating of 78.1.

‘It’s a new year’

We all know what happened down the stretch, of course.

Including a masterclass performance in an NFC wild card playoff victory at Dallas and a strong showing — until the closing moments, anyway — in the Packers’ divisional playoff loss to San Francisco, Love completed 69.8% of his passes for 2,616 yards with 23 touchdowns and three interceptions (112.1 rating) over the final eight regular-season games and his two postseason starts.

Love and veteran quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who is back at age 71 after re-joining the Packers’ staff in 2022 at Rodgers’ behest and opting to come back last season and again this season to help Love in his development, spent Phase I and II of the offseason program breaking down the cut-up video clips of all of Love’s 1,203 snaps and 717 pass attempts last season.

“From a personal standpoint he’s the same. He’s the same guy,” Clements said of Love. “(We) put together a little tape based on things he did well, and things we’d like to see him improve on. He’s worked on those. But as far as his interaction with the coaching staff or the players, he’s the same guy.

“He’s a little more vocal as the leader now that he has a year under his belt. But he wants to do as well as he can.”

And, Clements said, count Love among those who cannot wait to see how much more expansive the Packers’ offensive playbook can be with all the experience gained last season — including his own.

“It excites the players. It excites the coaching staff,” Clements said. “We were rolling at the end of the year, playing with a lot of confidence. Guys were doing what they had learned from our issues early in the year and they corrected them.

“Their confidence grew. They realized that they could do it against any competition in the NFL. I think going into this season, that’ll be their mindset. But it’s a new year, and you have to work, obviously, to get to that point where we were at at the end of the year.”