Versatility and the illusion of complexity, which go hand-in-hand, are the hallmarks of what the Matt LaFleur offense wants to accomplish on each Sunday. Against the Kansas City Chiefs, those elements were on full display, which hadn’t always been the case through the first half of the season.
“I think our guys are coming together,” said Matt LaFleur postgame. “They are working. They are getting better. They are playing faster. Playing more confident. That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens by coming in each and every day and try to learn from your failures and learn from your successes, but putting in the work, because this stuff doesn’t happen unless you put in the work, and that’s what these guys are doing. They continue to come in and put in the work and I think that’s why we’re getting better.”
Facing an aggressive and fast paced Steve Spagnuolo defense, LaFleur and the Packers threw just about everything at them that they could pre-snap. Green Bay utilized a variety of formations and personnel groupings. The Packers also continued to use more designed touches for Jayden Reed and Christian Watson behind the line of scrimmage, along with cutback runs, and a ton of motion coupled with misdirection.
When the Packers are able to throw that many looks at a defense, and more importantly, have concepts from quarters one and two build off each other as the game progresses, you get the “illusion of complexity,” that we have often heard LaFleur speak about, especially early on in his tenure.
In short, the illusion of complexity is meant to cause chaos and confusion for the defense by accomplishing two things. One is running a variety of plays from similar personnel groupings, which can result in mismatches for the offense to take advantage of. The second is to run plays from different formations that beginning similarly, but end up quite different, helping to keep the defense off-balanced.
In order to play this style of offense, versatility is a must. Players have to be able to fill a variety of roles and responsibilities if they are going to be constantly moved around the formation and take on different duties throughout the game.
From the running backs to the tight ends to the receivers, versatility is well embedded within the skill sets of the Packers skill-position players. This was evident all the way back in training camp, where it felt like there were endless combinations in regards to formations and personnel groupings that LaFleur had at his disposal.
However, as we saw, it took some time for the Packers offense to get to this point. With so much inexperience on the offensive side of the ball, this was a mistake-prone unit up until the last month or so. When players aren’t executing on their basic, fundamental responsibilities, the coaching staff can’t take that next step in an effort to dive deeper into the playbook by putting more on their plates. Step one is becoming consistent within a specific role, and once the execution and trust is there in all 11 players, the offense can expand.
“Certainly, there’s a trust that our quarterback is going to make the right decisions,” said LaFleur following the Chiefs’ game. “It really takes every room to make some of those plays being a little bit more aggressive, I think that’s what you are trying to get at, being a little bit more aggressive on some of the calls, but just making sure that we get the protection that’s needed.
“Guys in the receiver room, tight end room, are making plays in the passing game. The protection, like I mentioned, has been pretty solid, and then ultimately it comes down to the quarterback making the right decisions, and then also trusting that if it’s not clean, if the pocket’s not clean and is starting to collapse around him that he’s going to get the ball out of his hands and not take a negative play and I think we’ve really seen that, especially the last four games or so of him doing that. That makes it a lot easier as a play caller to want to be more aggressive and take our shots.”
Further complicating things for opposing defenses is that, in addition to the number of looks and pre-snap eye candy that the Packers can give an opponents, on any given play, the ball can be thrown to any number of players.
There have been key moments where Reed, Watson, or others have shouldered the workload in the passing game, but Green Bay still is yet to have that consistent go-to target from week-to-week—and right now, that is one of the strengths of this offense. Against Kansas City, 10 different players had at least one target. Instead of the defense being able to key in on a player or two, on just about any play, the ball could go in really any direction, forcing them to cover the entire field.
“It’s hard for a team to have just one player that is doing extremely well and only rely on that one person,” said Watson. “So the more that everyone else can make plays the more plays we can make plays in the run game, the more it sets up everybody else in the other phases.”
In the last month we’ve seen a wild amount of growth from this Packers offense. That starts with the players executing on the field, but it’s also allowed LaFleur and the offensive coaching staff to dive deeper into the playbook, giving opponents a whole lot more that they have to contend with.
