Packers Film Breakdown: Green Bay’s quick game concepts

How the Packers read their quick game concepts to help the offense get into rhythm

The quick game gets the Green Bay offense into rhythm. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quick game throwers in the league with his fast release and decisiveness. He can fit the ball into any window and has impeccable timing.

While the concepts themselves aren’t all that complicated, they are effective. Here are two concepts that the Packers love to run when they get to their quick game packages.

Stick

First, is the Stick concept. On Stick, there’s a receiver in the flats, a receiver going vertical, and a stick route from the innermost receiver. The Stick route itself is run at five yards. The receiver then has the option of sticking and staying in the vacated zone or running away if it’s man coverage and a defender is on their hip. This route must be quarterback friendly with the angle of the route always working back towards the line of scrimmage.

The Packers run the concept out of trips with the Stick from #3, a speed out at five yards by #2, and a fade by #1. The primary read on Stick is the flat defender followed by the leverage of the defenders over #3 and #2.

Against the Rams, the Packers are running their Stick concept with wide receiver Davante Adams running the stick route. By design, the flat defender should be occupied by receiver Randall Cobb who is lined up as the #2. He is running the speed out. If that defender vacates to the out, that isolates Adams on a linebacker inside. As soon Rodgers confirms the outside defender is taking the out, he throws inside where Davante has won leverage.

When the defender over #2 plays more passively and can threaten to jump the Stick inside, that’s when the ball will go to the speed out.

Snag

The Packers will also run the Snag concept as part of their quick game. Snag is typically run out of condensed formations and creates a triangle read for the quarterback. It contains a corner route, a snag or pivot route, and an arrow. Snag, much like Stick, wants to isolate the flat defender. If that defender chases the arrow, the snag is open. If they stay on the snag, there’s nobody in the flats with the corner route clearing things out.

The Packers use the Snag concept to get the ball to fullback Dominique Dafney who is running the arrow. Receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling runs the snag route and walls off the linebacker from chasing to the flats. Davante clears things out with the corner route, and that leaves Dafney all alone for a first down.

Snag is a pretty versatile concept when it comes to attacking coverages. Against the Bears, Green Bay motions receiver Allen Lazard across the field to the arrow route. That motion helps identify man coverage from Chicago. However, the Bears pass off the arrow and snag routes on the snap of the ball with the player following the motion picking up the snag and the corner outside protecting against the arrow. However, that leaves Marquez Valdes-Scantling one-on-one with his corner route. With the Bears passing off routes, that gives MVS leverage outside on #4. Rodgers identifies this, and takes the shot to the back corner.

Final thoughts

The Packers’ quick game gets the ball into the hands of their receivers, helps protect their beat-up offensive line, and helps quarterback Aaron Rodgers get into rhythm. While the offense has sputtered early in games this season, the quick game usually gets them back on track and gets them back into rhythm.