Paul Bretl | 8/12/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Through the first three weeks of training camp practices prior to the Packers’ preseason opener in Cleveland, we’ve routinely seen Jordan Love and one of his receivers connect on a deep ball. Then on the third play of the game against the Browns, we saw Love connect with Dontayvion Wicks for a 65-yard score.
“We had a great play dialed up for that situation,” said Jordan Love after the game. “1-on-1 with Wicks in the slot, faking the handoff and he ran a great route, kind of lulled him to sleep at the top and then was able to go past him and (I) just put the ball out there for him and he made the rest happen. Great play by him.”
While I’m sure what many remember from this Packers’ offense late last season was the ability of this group to generate chunk plays through the air. And that certainly was the case. However, rewinding to last summer’s training camp and even well into the season, when it came to connecting on the deep ball, the consistency wasn’t there at all.
From Weeks 1-10 of the 2023 season, Love was very willing to push the ball downfield, ranking fifth among all quarterbacks during that span in passes of 20-plus yards. But those opportunities weren’t turning into big plays–or at least not at a high enough rate. Out of 36 eligible quarterbacks, Love ranked 31st in completion rate (28.9%), completing only 11 of those 38 throws with four interceptions to only one touchdown.
Of course, the accuracy of those passes matters, with Love needing to put the ball in the right place where his receiver is the one able to make the play. However, in addition to that, knowing when to push the ball downfield is a crucial element as well, and if you ask quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, that was where Love needed to improve.
“Well, he’s always had the arm talent to make the throws downfield,” said Clements when meeting with reporters on Monday. “I think just at the beginning of the year, you can call deep passes and, if you get the right coverage, then you have a shot to take it downfield. If you don’t get the right coverage, you can’t force it downfield. I think maybe at times we were trying to go downfield when the defense didn’t allow it.”
Then around the midway point in the season–when the tide really began to turn for Love and the offense as a whole–Love and the Packers really began to connect on these deep passes. From Week 11 through the NFL Divisional playoff round, Love led the NFL in pass attempts of 20-plus yards with 44, and his completion rate of 50 percent ranked as the seventh-best. Love would also finish first in downfield passing yards during that span with nine touchdowns to two interceptions.
“From midyear on,” added Clements, “you guys might’ve noticed, we hit a lot of checkdowns to the backs for big yards and that was when the defense dropped in zone, we didn’t have the downfield route. And then if we got an indication they were going to be in man and we had a deep pass available, we took a shot. When you get one-on-one, it’s easier to throw those deep balls. He always had the ability. It was just a matter of doing it at the right time.”
The improvement that Love and the Packers’ offense experienced in this phase of the passing game was not only attributed to his decision-making and knowing when to push the ball downfield versus when to just take what the defense gave him, but as his young group of receivers gained more experienced and built that rapport with Love, they were regularly putting themselves in better positions to make plays on those deep balls.
“Trust and timing and also us winning on the route cleaner,” said passing game coordinator Jason Vrable. “As you watched his route, when he set the guy up and he was going to the red line, I felt early in the year last year we were kinda getting re-routed at that point and pushed out a little bit wider than we want.
“On deep balls, you have to stack the defender. If you’re not, then it’s just a 50-50 ball. We don’t really want those. He did a really job with the set at the top and the shoulders down, the dig in and then Jordan threw a great ball and the protection was great. Just the timing and the us getting a little bit better with our vertical express and being a little bit tighter to the DB as opposed to just running around contact.”
Having that deep ball element is crucial to the overall success of the offense. Of course, there is the obvious in that being able to hit on those big play attempts generates explosive plays and quick scores. However, there is a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the offense as well.
When defenses have to be mindful of an offense’s ability to air it out, that creates better spacing and more opportunities underneath for other pass-catchers or in the run game, which is now dealing with lighter boxes. On the flip side, and as we saw early on last season, when defenses don’t respect that element, moving the ball in general becomes much more challenging because the defenders are playing closer to the line of scrimmage, meaning there is less space for the offense to operate in.
We’ve heard on a few occasions this offseason some iteration of the offense being night and day ahead of where they were at this time last year. And one noticeable area where that is true is in the deep passing game, where experience was the ultimate educator for both Love and his receivers, and helped this offense go from one that was struggling to move the chains, to one of the more high-powered units down the stretch last season.
“I think a lot of it with him early last year, he was kind of forcing balls down the field,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich. “Once he just understood, ‘OK, it might not be there. Bang, hit your checkdown.’ So he was hitting a lot more checkdowns. And then, when the open balls were there, he was hitting them, you know what I mean? He wasn’t forcing it. So I think it was just basically taking what the defense gives you and having that understanding of being patient. I think that was big for him.”