Even before the 2023 NFL season began, Green Bay Packers coaches preached patience to the media and fans regarding their team. While they hold the expectation to win a lot of games, they also realize that they have a plethora of young players with little-to-no NFL experience. This is especially true on offense where the entire wide receiver room is made up of first and second year players.
The lack of experience has been painfully obvious over the last three games. Rookie tight ends Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft, and Ben Sims failed to block Las Vegas Raiders Pro Bowl pass rusher Maxx Crosby numerous times in their Week Five loss. Musgrave also ran a wrong route, drawing the ire of head coach Matt LaFleur.
The young wide receivers, most of whom have not played an entire NFL season’s worth of games, have also made several mistakes week in and week out. And, of course, starting quarterback Jordan Love is still learning in his first year under center.
Throughout all the downs, LaFleur and the coaches have continued to preach patience, but star cornerback Rasul Douglas is tired of being patient. He says it is time to grow up.
Green Bay Packers Cornerback Rasul Douglas Wants the Offense to Grow Up Quickly
Several Packers players addressed the media after practice on Thursday. During that session, two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander told reporters that he believes that the defense needs to make up for the offense because of how young they are.
Douglas disagreed. According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, Douglas said:
“No. Because they’re not young. And if they are, they gotta grow up. It ain’t no such thing as being young. You had, what, five games? That’s enough.”
Later, Douglas said:
“I really don’t care what they doing on offense. I don’t even get into it … We chasing to be the best defense, so for me, I focus just on that particular part and not the offense and I know when they do they thing and how they do it, we’ll be fine.”
Part of Douglas’ frustration is that it has been nearly a month since the Packers last won a game. Their Week Three win over the New Orleans Saints occurred on September 24.
The Green Bay Packers Offense May Need to Grow Up, But so Does Matt LaFleur
Listen: there is no way that head coach Matt LaFleur is going to be on the hot seat this season. He also will likely get a pass if the Packers struggle next season as well. That is what happens when one wins 39 games in three years.
But the fact of the matter is that a great deal of the struggles on offense have come as a result of LaFleur failing to put his young players in a position to succeed. To put it plainly, there is something wrong with his game planning.
Jordan Love and the offense have the NFL’s best second half stats. While box score watchers may say that is because they are constantly playing from behind, those who actually watch the game see that the plays LaFleur calls are more intentional and more conductive to attacked the opposing defenses’ weaknesses.
The question is why does he need to spot the opposing team a lead before he figures out how to best attack them? Isn’t that what film study is for?
He also needs to start taking more advantage of his players’ strengths. It is painfully obvious that Love does not have the ability to throw a consistent accurate deep ball. So why call so many of those?
Love and the offense flow so well when they are running short passes and runs and sending Love out of the pocket to make plays on the run.
Hopefully the Bye Week has given LaFleur a chance to reevaluate his game planning, because if he remains stuck in his ways, it could be a very long year.
For More Great Wisconsin Sports Content
Follow me on Twitter at @theotherRobin19 and follow us @WiSportsHeroics for more great content. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in Wisconsin sports, click here!
1 Comment
MLF has called a lot of deep balls, but I’m not convinced it has been too many.
Watson himself admitted that 2 of the 3 he failed on in a game were his fault for not tracking well.
It’s not on Love. The receivers also have to get WAY better and soon. No QB, not even Rodgers, can be perfectly accurate all the time, and Rodgers was certainly saved on a lot of long balls by Jordy, and on a lot of the medium balls because Davante could adjust and win the jump balls.
The receivers are at least half, if not more, of the problem on the deep balls.
They’d all get grades of F on tracking right now (except for one deep ball for Watson, that should also lead to a rule change about the horse collar).