Joe Philbin’s return as OC: What it means for Green Bay’s offense
Green Bay’s offense has lacked the explosiveness it once had under Joe Philbin. During his first tenure as offensive coordinator (2007-’11), Green Bay’s offense ranked in the top ten in the NFL in points scored & total yards every year, including their Super Bowl winning season in 2010. Since then, however, they’ve descended. Since 2012, they’ve only ranked in the top ten in both yards & points three times (2013, 2014, & 2016), under OCs Tom Clements (2012-’14), & Edgar Bennett (2015-’18). Things obviously needed to change & the Packers as an organization knew that.
Since Rodgers has become the starter, Green Bay’s go-to formation has been three receivers & one running back, with Aaron Rodgers under center spreading the ball to multiple pass-catchers on the outside & in the slot. Even last season with Rodgers missing nine of sixteen games, Green Bay was primarily using three wide receiver sets. It’ll also be interesting to see how they’ll utilize the rookie receivers acquired via the draft.
January 6th, 2018: Green Bay brings back Joe Philbin as offensive coordinator. They also hired Mike Pettine as defensive coordinator. These changes brought about a hopeful feeling within the organization & from fans. Hopefulness to bring Green Bay back to prominence again & to once again make it “Titletown, USA”. It’s crazy to think that it’s been 8 years since they’ve last been to the big dance.
Green Bay brought in some new weapons on offense in the offseason with rookie WRs Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Equanimous St. Brown, & J’Mon Moore. They also acquired tight ends Jimmy Graham & Marcedes Lewis in free agency. I along with plenty of other Packer fans are salivating over the fact that these guys will be used with Philbin as OC. Davante Adams will also be a huge threat to try & contend with on the outside as well as Randall Cobb in the slot. It leaves plenty of different offensive sets to ponder as a defensive coordinator. Single TE, three WR, multiple TE, even sending TEs out wide & in the slot. Basically, it’s going to be pick your poison when it comes to trying to defend this Packers offense.
Joe Philbin & Aaron Rodgers also shared an important & impressive relationship as it relates to player & coach. During his MVP season in 2011, Aaron Rodgers threw for 45 total touchdowns & just 6 interceptions, a ratio of 7.5/1. He also had the highest regular season QB rating at 122.5 while under the tutelage of Philbin. Overall with Philbin as OC, Rodgers has thrived, completing 65% of his passes while throwing for a total of 17,037 yards, 131 touchdowns, & just 37 interceptions while posting a QB rating of 105.1. Philbin is an important piece to have back for the Packers as an organization if they hope to make it far in the postseason.
The combination of Philbin at OC & Pettine at DC should have Packer fans hopeful. They both have had top ten rankings as coordinators in their respective careers. That should be anything but negative news for Packer fans the world over. Green Bay as an organization knows they have a window of opportunity to try & capitalize on with Rodgers at QB. It’s not completely closed yet which is a good thing in Green Bay.
Step one is complete. An organizational overhaul from a personnel standpoint. Step two is putting all of the player acquisitions to use on the field. I have a feeling that’s not going to be a problem at all this season. It will be intriguing to see if the offense will try & become more multi-dimensional & use more complex sets or if they’ll stick with what’s been working. Like the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
#ParkerMoes @ParkerMoes #DHPF @DieHardPackrFan
