Aaron Rodgers’ Most Important Year by Peter King

King does a good job here.

For myself, I'm glad (but not really surprised) to see Rodgers reacting to last season the way he is. Yes, he got sloppy with his mechanics and (for him) pressed too much. Tom Brady is a great example of a quarterback who is constantly working on the basics and it shows. With Aaron, who is immensely more talented physically, it could be easy to let that slide and try to get by on pure arm talent. We saw a lot of that last year and it wasn't pretty by his standards.  

This type of rededication should enable him to play for many more years at a high level. 

I'm really getting great vibes about this year's team.

Rodgers is going to have to adjust his game a great deal as his body gets older.  The way he likes to hold the ball and slip the defenders is essential to his game and that's going to get progressively more difficult every season he gets deeper into his 30's.  Those are tight margins.

Rodgers will be  35 in just 28 months.  It's more than likely those are the last three prime athletic seasons of his life.  Kudos to him for doing everything he can to keep his body ready for them.

It's going to be interesting to see how MM and 12 adjust the offense as his athletic abilities start to slip.  12 is brilliant, but headstrong.   MM is pretty much the same way and has a propensity to tinker with everything even when it's wildly successful.  I hope they're proactive about managing the structure of the offense and evolve 12's style before the hits start piling up.     

I also think when MM talks about getting back to basics that a great deal of it has to do with himself.  He got way too cute with the positions on his coaching staff and organizing the meetings and he knows it.   I'd love to know the structure of their position group meetings now.  I suspect they're not as big as last year.  They went for more communication, landed on disarray, and wasted an awful lot of time learning how not to do things last year. 

MM won't be doing a little of this and a little of that while the inmates try to run the asylum this year.  I have to think it will be a stronger vision from the top down with clear assignments and coaches dialed in on their position groups.  That alone should cut down on the infighting that spread through the team last year.         

titmfatied, I think it will be interesting to see how things evolve with the offense in the next few years.  I think that perhaps he might be headstrong but I also think that he has said in the past he LIKES being coached up.  And as long as MM is around I think that he will do the right thing to make sure they protect AR and focus the offense around his talents.  To me the most important thing is the work that TT does with the offensive line going forward.  They are going to have to have an exception group up front to protect AR if his mobility starts to slack off and they may need to hold the pocket longer.

anyhow, with all that being said I have this hunch that if the offense stays healthy they are in for a very special year.

The other "new" concept that was talked about in TC last year was to "teach to the highest level", not go slow for young guys, but to teach at a higher level & rely on the veterans to help the less experienced. Did not like it when I read it. Totally opposite of Lombardi's "teach to the weakest student" philosophy. 

F**k Peter King. 

I'm going to be 76 in just 360 months.  

The guy I'm really curious about is Luke Getsy.  

FLPACKER posted:

The other "new" concept that was talked about in TC last year was to "teach to the highest level", not go slow for young guys, but to teach at a higher level & rely on the veterans to help the less experienced. Did not like it when I read it. Totally opposite of Lombardi's "teach to the weakest student" philosophy. 

Particularly when even the best player on the squad should always be working on fundamentals, ie Rodgers quote.

For me the biggest addition to the offense is new TE coach Brian Angelichio.  The guy took a team with nothing offensively and made their TE one of the best in the AFC.  All offensive positions in GB last year were affected by injuries.  After Quarless went out for the year, the TE of record was RR.  So they went out and got someone who can coach production - then got him some help with Cook.  Making that position more dangerous might be the key.  Hopefully it works out.  Yet we won the SB without a dangerous TE after game five in 2010 - so what do I know?  But I am glad GB did something to address the issue. 

Henry posted:

I'm going to be 76 in just 360 months.  

The guy I'm really curious about is Luke Getsy.  

So your "just" 46?  You are young.  But Getsy is younger - and it isn't close. 

http://www.packers.com/team/co...ad-b394-64e7b4a826ba

"Whatever Luke wantsy. Luke Getsy" - Jeff Janis

Stealing Fedya's material now?

#Ultimatediss

Ouch....

I get how Aaron's stats looked in 2015, but I really think people are forgetting how we started the season last year.  We were dominant.  There was a point last season that people were comparing Aaron to Micheal Jordan when we went 6-0.  Nobody seems to remember that.

I think the problem with 2015 is that Denver exposed the Packers.  They set the blueprint on how to beat us, and we never adapted to it.  Teams just kept copying what Denver did and we never changed our approach to compensate.  Part of that is on the players for lack of execution but I'd put a lot of it on the coaching staff for just trying to brute force it and not change the scheme to fix the weaknesses that were being exploited.

That said if all this means Aaron's got a chip on his shoulder this year because of it, that's a good thing.

It was clearly evident (to me, at least) that Aaron was just a tick off last year. No matter the variable (receiver, play, protection, execution) he had quite a few passes that were just out of reach of the receiver.
That's the improvement I want to see this year.

Goalline posted:

Stealing Fedya's material now?

 

#Ultimatediss

You're just jealous you didn't come up with that joke.

The ****in blueprint again, every ****in year it is the blueprint.

Goalline posted:

Stealing Fedya's material now?

 

#Ultimatediss

When I 1st saw this I thought it said #ultimatedumbass.  Still fits.

Ah the return of the posters who show up just to complain that I've posted.  Don't ever change, guys; we love you. 

The blueprint to me is the D has to force turnovers.  It's less about stopping the run or even allowing yardage.  When this team has been at their best the D has been contributing. 

So that gets back to pressuring the QB.  If this team can get even moderate and consistent pressure our secondary will have a field day. Those young guys are that good. 

12 is 12.  Even when he's off he's still better than 75% of the QBs out there.   Our failures in the playoffs the last two years were specific to the defense crumbling at key moments.   Again, make the plays, get the ball back in the hands of your offense and the Packers are Golden State of the gridiron.  It should be fun to watch. 

Create turnovers & limit big plays. 

Favre hated blueprints too.

vitaflo posted:

I get how Aaron's stats looked in 2015, but I really think people are forgetting how we started the season last year.  We were dominant.  There was a point last season that people were comparing Aaron to Micheal Jordan when we went 6-0.  Nobody seems to remember that.

 

I think you're discounting how bad they looked for 10 games plus.  They beat some cupcakes teams and stumbled into the post season all on the record of those first 6 games.  We all know the talent is there but knock out a few key pieces along with GOD AWFUL, ****ED UP, SCREW YOU CLEMENTS/VAN PELT style coaching and you have the most woeful "playoff" team ever.  Last season is a close second to the ass reaming of the Seattle loss.

The defense has about 10 real INTs in their hands, and didn't convert. Change that, and you change the outcomes of several games. The difference between wins and losses in this league are a couple/few plays. For the defense, that means you give the league's best qb more chances to win the game.  

good point.  ouch.  NFLN won't let me forget Shields'  "almost pick" in the Cardinal playoff loss.

Woeful is shanking a sub-30-yd FG attempt to win a home playoff game. 

Probably belongs in the camp thread, but since we're talking about the defense dropping picks, this post from Silverstein yesterday isn't great news:

Thumbs down

The defense would have had a much better day if it could hold onto the ball. Throughout most of camp balls have been sailing through the hands and the arms of Packers defenders. Sam Shields had a legitimate pick of Rodgers, but the two other interceptions this camp weren’t much to speak of. Morgan Burnett jumped in front of fourth-string quarterback Marquise Williams’ stare down of a receiver and cornerback Randall Jette cradled a tipped pass. On Saturday, cornerback Quinten Rollins made a beautiful break on a Rodgers (Aaron) to Rodgers (Richard) shot down the middle and got both hands on the ball. However, Richard Rodgers got his hands on the ball a second later and ripped it out of Rollins’ hands for a catch. Later Abbrederis took another pass out Thomas’ hands in the back of the end zone. There have to be a half dozen plays in camp where DBs are pounding the turf with their fists because they let interception opportunities slip through their fingers. There’s a reason corners and safeties are on defense, so it’s not unusual for there to be some drops, but if this defense wants to be good, it’s going to have to hang onto the ball a little better.

And from what I have read, "the blueprint".