unlikely to find deadweight coaches trudging alongside the innovators. Andy Reid doesn’t employ stragglers. Matt Nagy packed his staff with young offensive minds. Doug Pederson might just have had the best offensive staff in football when the Eagles won the Super Bowl last season. And Sean McVay just had one former coach hired for a head job. Zac Taylor may be next. Hiring Joe Philbin to a major offensive position like coordinator doesn’t represent the way the modern NFL works. For whatever benefit there may have been to having a respected coach already in the room Bart Starr Jersey , he’s not the guy to push the offensive forward in a way it so desperately requires. The Green Bay Packers theoretically didn’t hire LaFleur for continuity’s sake. They did it to blow things up on a certain level. That leaves Green Bay in search of an offensive coordinator, someone who the team reportedly would like to have ties to the Shanahan-McVay offense. Remember, for all the plaudits McVay rightly receives for his offense, the bones of it are Shanahan the elder’s, while the younger Shanahan and McVay have developed their own modern wrinkles. Any job coaching Aaron Rodgers will be desirable, but not having the chance to call plays could limit the field of candidates for LaFleur and the Packers. The most obvious choice is a name many fans considered before LaFleur got the job: Rams quarterback coach Zac Taylor. Some suggested a Vic Fangio head coach with Taylor running the offense represented the best option for the Packers offense. But while McVay let LaFleur go to Tennessee because he was going to get to call plays, it appears unlikely he’ll do the same for Taylor — precisely because he won’t. That signals LaFleur will, indeed, call plays for the Packers which may potentially complicate the search. Green Bay could run into the same issue with Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron, who has garnered some head coaching buzz, including reported interest from the Bengals. McVay appears to be a coach who, like McCarthy in Green Bay, wants to see his coaches go off and succeed, but only in the right situations. The playcalling problem once again crops up. But there are two Rams coaches who make sense and could view the Packers OC as a step up for them, assuming McVay agrees to let them leave. The first is Aaron Kromer, a veteran offensive line coach who coached on Sean Payton’s Saints staff as part of their Super Bowl run. He also served as Bears OC and line coach for two seasons. His teams consistently maximize their talent along the offensive line and he would be an excellent coach to make sure the franchise quarterback stays clean. The other possible option is the peripatetic Jedd Fisch who, because he’s moved around so much, has worked for coaches like Steve Spurrier, Brian Billick, Mike Shanahan, Pete Carroll, and Jim Harbaugh. Still, Fisch is just 42, comes with that diverse background in multiple offenses with college connections, and could be the kind of coach who offers unique suggestions to a coach like LaFleur, who has really only ever coached one type of offense. Another intuitive choice would be Matt’s brother Mike Ray Nitschke Color Rush Jersey , the 49ers’ receivers coach and passing game coordinator. He checks the requisite boxes in terms of experience and relationship, but according to NBC Sports in the Bay Area, would prefer to remain in San Francisco. Working with your brother is certainly different than working for him, plus it’s not hard to see why a young candidate like the 35-year-old LaFleur the young would view an OC job without playcalling as a lateral move. This speaks to the difficulty the Packers might have filling this void. LaFleur, at 39, has been around myriad quality coaches, but many of them have also graduated to bigger roles. Even though a coach like Gary Kubiak expressed interest in returning to coaching as a coordinator, that kind of move doesn’t fit with Green Bay’s vision moving forward. LaFleur may lack the kind of longstanding relationships with coaches to come in just to be an offensive consigliere. When Mike McCarthy wanted to revamp his offense, he had coaches he could call, including Philbin. While ultimately that turned out to be insufficient, at least he had a cell phone with legitimate names on it. Looking at the Titans staff LaFleur put together, there’s no name that jumps out from the usual places. The quarterbacks coach, Pat O’Hara, spent most of his career coaching in the arena league and before Tennessee was in Houston as an offensive assistant. Receivers coach Rob Moore has only ever filled that role, going back to 2013 with the Bills and Raiders.The most intriguing name on the list of potential candidates is Mike McDaniel, a name to watch in the coming days. A former receiver at Yale, McDaniel has climbed all over the Shanahan tree along with LaFleur. The two coached together for a season on Gary Kubiak’s staff in Houston. Then, while LaFleur coached the QBs in Washington, McDaniel served as an offensive assistant and receivers coach. The two once again reunited in Atlanta for the Matt Ryan renaissance, before LaFleur went to LA and McDaniel to San Francisco with —wait for it — Kyle Shanahan.Experience in the Shanahan offense? Check. Previous coaching connection and relationship with LaFleur? Check. Sharp, up-and-coming coach who won’t be afraid to adjust on the fly? Check. One outside-the-box choice would be Shane Steichen, the Chargers quarterbacks coach. He’s said to be well-respected inside the Packers organization and although he’s not a Shanahan disciple, he worked under Frank Reich and Mike McCoy in San Diego (before the LA move) and survived McCoy’s firing. His experience with Philip Rivers could dovetail nicely with an offense built around Aaron Rodgers as his physical tools inevitably decline as he ages. He was set to be the OC for Josh McDaniels in Indianapolis before the infamous pull-out, which confirms he’s seen as a future OC by at least one smart offensive coach. Ultimately, the Packers must find a coach they see as able to both challenge LaFleur to keep the offense fresh, while working with him to revamp it from the ground up. There likely won’t be the sexy https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Reggie-White-Jersey , splash hire like Zac Taylor, but there are quality options available to the Packers. Getting the OC hire right won’t be nearly as important as the DC hire, and the entire organization seems sure that’s been taken care of by keeping Mike Pettine. Still, a first-time head coach has to find someone who can keep the ship steady even if he’s not calling plays, while balancing the desire to innovate and create anew. That mantra is the story of the Packers 2019 offseason, so why should such an important hire be any different? And Matt LaFleur looks like just the guy to do it." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteAcme Packing Companya Green Bay Packers communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsSectionsPackersOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections The APC PodcastPackers Film RoomFantasy Football AdviceCDTShareTweetShareShareThe Packers’ recent struggles on play action are fixableChristopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY SportsOne of the weirdest things about the Green Bay Packers’ Mike McCarthy era — especially in recent years — is the team’s lack of success using play action. For most of the league, play action passing is an easy way to generate big plays, but for the Aaron Rodgers-led Packer offense, it’s been an exercise in futility. In 2018 the Packers were one of the few teams to average more yards on conventional passing plays than on play-action passing plays, ranking 30th on yards per play action pass and 31st on the difference between play action and regular passing. This isn’t just a one-year anomaly, as the team has been consistently bad in this area. They were also 31st in 2016, Rodgers’ most recent healthy season before 2018. It’s frankly kind of weird, and the reason why this is the case isn’t readily apparent. It’s an important question because Matt LaFleur loves play action, and his Titans ran it 6th-most in the league last season. They were also pretty effective in doing so, averaging a full two yards per play more on play action than on conventional passing plays. If the problem with Packer play action was simply Mike McCarthy’s play calling, there is enormous potential improvement on offense. If, however, this issue is based more in personnel, the Packers may crash and burn.When Play Action FailsAs is often the case, there is not one primary reason the Packers struggled in this area. Instead, several unrelated issues combined to ruin their run fakes and render their passing game average. Lack of DeceptionThe first thing you notice about the Packers if you watch any tape at all, is just how predictable they are. They tend to use one personnel group and one basic set of routes, but it’s amazing how many different ways they manage to be boring. When the Packers pass, they almost always do so out of shotgun. In the rare instances when they pass from under center, it’s almost always out of play action. This makes any Packer play from under center extremely easy to read. Since there are almost no conventional drop backs, and because having the Packers run on you is itself a win Aaron Rodgers Jersey , opposing defenses simply default to pass defense.That may help Aaron Jones and company, but it’s murder on the passing game. Interior LineThe Packers’ line is quite good, especially when they’re pass blocking, but play action presents an interesting challenge, and does not play to their strengths. First, their guards were a weakness in 2018, and they were only passable because the rest of the line was so good at compensating. When blocking for play action, you can’t fire off the ball like you can for a running play because you can’t end up downfield. As a result, the interior of the line sometimes got pushed around, and interior pressure will blow up play action quicker than anything. Rodgers had more throwaways on play action than any team should simply because he turned around into immediate pressure fairly regularly. They were much more effective in shotgun, where Rodgers could survey the field and adjust to pressure. Aaron’s Conservative PlayAaron Rodgers is cautious to a fault, not risking any throw that could turn into an interception. He also has had issues in making quick decisions over the last four seasons. On a play action pass, the quarterback often has his back turned to the play, delaying his ability to make reads, and compounding some of Rodgers issues.On this play:Rodgers ended up checking down to Randall Cobb for a short gain, however he likely had a big play to Aaron Jones on the back side if he wanted, and Davante Adams was also going to be open in space coming across the formation on the second level. Rodgers missed a lot of big throws this year, and play action was no exception. Fixing this issue is one of Matt LaFleur’s biggest challenges.Lack of CreativityA good play action call shouldn’t just surprise the defense. It should pressure the defense by creating situations where the offense has easy passes with running personnel. While a tight end like Marcedes Lewis may not be your prototypical pass catcher, the defenders put on the field to deal with his run blocking are even worse pass defenders, and play action should exploit that fact. Play action should also exploit the space created by linebackers who bite on the run fake. Too often, Packer plays were simply base plays that just happened to follow play action, making them easy to diagnose and ineffective.LaFleur excels on running plays with “opposite” personnel, and loves play action specifically to generate big plays. The Packers suffered from an enormous structural disadvantage in this area, and even if Aaron Rodgers has experience some decline, embracing and succeeding on play action can fix any number of their problems.