How Mike McCarthy and Packers’ 2014 offense could influence Raiders’ 2024 offense

Raiders coaching staff has strong connection to McCarthy’s staff in Green Bay

The Las Vegas Raiders have been piecing together their coaching staff over the last month and have made a few hires who are connected to current Dallas Cowboys and former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.

New offensive coordinator Luke Getsy worked for McCarthy in Green Bay as an offensive quality control coach from 2014 to 2015 and was in charge of the wide receivers the two following years. More recently, the Raiders brought on Joe Philbin to serve in a senior offensive assistant capacity, and Philbin has been connected to McCarthy for nearly two decades.

When McCarthy became the Packers’ head coach in 2006, he named Philbin as the team’s offensive line coach before making Philbin the offensive coordinator the next year. The latter served in that role for five seasons before becoming the Miami Dolphins’ head coach, and returning to Green Bay in 2018 to reclaim his post as Green Bay’s play-caller. Additionally, the two coaches worked together in Dallas from 2020 to 2022.

Also, Edgar Bennett, the Raiders’ wide receivers coach since 2018, was on McCarthy’s staff in Green Bay from 2006 to 2017, including spending some time as the Packers’ offensive coordinator.

Long story short, the 2024 version of the Silver and Black’s offense could look very similar to what the Packers were running with McCarthy. So, let’s take a look at one of the coach’s most successful units with the Cheeseheads; 2014 when the team ranked first in the NFL for points scored. While Philbin wasn’t on that staff specifically, the system was similar to his tenure, and Getsy and Bennett were part of the crew.

Running Game

Ever since Antonio Pierce took over as Las Vegas’ head coach, he’s talked about wanting an offense that’s predicated on running the ball. Well, if the Raiders follow the 2014 Packers’ model, Pierce will get the type of play calling he’s looking for.

That season, Green Bay ranked 14th in rushing attempts and was just 20th in passing attempts, according to Pro Football Reference. The offense was also impressively efficient on the ground, finishing 11th in rushing yards and 10th in yards per rush. A big reason for that is the Packers had a big bruising back in Eddie Lacy.

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Lacy rushed for 1,140 yards during the regular season (seventh-most) and was tied for eighth with 4.7 ypc among running backs with at least 78 attempts. Per Pro Football Focus, he had the eight-most zone runs with 161 carries which accounted for 65.7 percent of his total attempts. That rate was consistent with Green Bay’s other backs, so the Raiders could shift to a more zone-based rushing attack next season.

Something that helped make Lacy effective that year was picking up yards after contact. That’s how he gained over 60 percent of his rushing yards, finishing fifth in the league in total yards after first contact (690) and tied for fifth in efficiency at 2.82 YCO per rush.

For comparison’s sake, roughly 74 percent of Zamir White’s rushing yards last season came after contact and he averaged 3.21 YCO per attempt. Albeit, White had a much smaller sample size — 104 carries to 245 for Lacy — and those numbers would likely come down with more touches. Also, White had nearly a 50/50 split between zone and gap runs and is considered a better fit in the latter, so that could lead to regression from his 2023 numbers.

Passing Attack

Previously, I dove into a few numbers for Getsy’s offense, with an eye toward Aidan O’Connell’s fit in it, and the trend with play-action is fairly consistent when looking into the 2014 Packers’ offense.

That season, 24.1 percent of Aaron Rodgers’ dropbacks included a run fake which was the 11th-highest rate among quarterbacks with at least 140 dropbacks, according to PFF. Rodgers’ ranking here is more significant than the percentage to adjust for the different eras since there has been a push for more play-action across the league recently, and he jumps up to the eighth-highest rate if the threshold increases to 300 dropbacks.

Also, expect the Raiders to attack the middle of the field in 2024 as that’s another consistent theme between in Getsy’s offenses and the 2014 Packers squad. Of Rodgers’ 388 passing attempts past the line of scrimmage, 62.1 percent were between the numbers.

However, Getsy’s play-calling does differ from Green Bay’s offense from 10 years ago in one area; deep attempts.

In 2014, Rodgers threw 20 or more yards past the line of scrimmage 56 times which was tied for 16th among quarterbacks. When factoring in all of his throws, Rodgers only threw deep on 10.8 percent of his attempts, tied for 31st. He never dipped below 13.0 percent with Getsy serving as the Packers’ passing game coordinator.

So, this could be one way that Las Vegas’ differs from Green Bay.