Pretty good article, and it's correct that the Lewis signing certainly gives the Packers more options and we could be seeing a lot more 2 WRs, 2 TEs sets, which can give a lot more options and Graham can certainly work as a possession WR.

Packers have a lot of options if they can get everyone to stay healthy.

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Is Cobb supposed to be #2?

Not sure he can do that.

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This monster receiving corps opens up so many intriguing possibilities. We might see the emergence of a old-fashioned deep-ball style of offense. Assuming his arm strength returns intact, he isn't running for his life on every other play, and his receivers don't suddenly develop a mysterious case of the dropsies, I could see Aaron Rodgers possibly breaking 10 yards per attempt this year, a feat he has never managed to accomplish. The closest he's ever gotten was 2011, when he averaged 9.2 ypa to lead the league. Can you imagine how much fun this would be to watch, even if it meant his interception numbers ticked up a bit?

To give you an idea of just how earthshaking this would be, only three quarterbacks have ever managed to break 10 yards per attempt for an entire season, and no one has accomplished that feat since 1954, when Norm Van Brocklin finished with 10.1 ypa. Otto Graham achieved these lofty heights not once, but twice in his career—in 1947 (10.2 ypa) and 1953 (10.6 ypa).* Sid Luckman, the all-time single-season leader, achieved an almost unfathomable 10.9 ypa in 1943.

The closest anyone has come to this kind of performance in the past 20 years was Kurt Warner in 2000, who averaged an exceptional 9.9 ypa. Matt Ryan (2016) is tied with Otto Graham (1953) and Johnny Unitas (1964) for 13th best all time at 9.3 ypa, while Aaron Rodgers is ranked 16th for his 2011 season.

It's worth pointing out that there are only 13 quarterbacks represented in the top 16, since Otto Graham dominated the league for years in a fashion no quarterback before or since has ever been able to dream of doing.

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* In fact, he also averaged 9.8 ypa in 1947 and 9.3 ypa in 1953. Of the twenty best season averages in NFL history, Otto Graham singlehandedly holds an astounding four of them!

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I also have concerns with the OL, though the TE Lewis signing does potentially help those as well, and as Nerd pointed out ... it's be interesting who (if anyone) steps up for the #2 spot.

But while the Packers might miss out on the top end guys, it might be their depth where their 3rd/4th guys can beat the other teams 3rd/4th guys that make it all work.

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Agreed. This offense has all the tools it could possibly need this season, if only the offensive line can pull its weight.

In case anyone is wondering why I'm putting so much emphasis on yards per passing attempt, it's because that statistic is extremely well correlated with wins. It's been a few years since I ran the analysis, but other than possibly passer rating differential, there aren't many statistics more closely correlated with win percentage.

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Interestingly, Brett Favre only had one season in the 268 all-time best performances, averaging 7.9 ypa in 2009. Considering how often he threw the deep bomb, I would have expected him to have a few seasons averaging higher than 8 ypa. Apparently all the interceptions he threw drastically brought down his average.

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Aaron needs to hit the open guy.

We’ve got some big, fast guys in the pipeline if he wants to get some YAC. But he’s not gettig any younger. Sitting in the pocket for 8+ is not conducive to a long NFL career.

That’s Brady’s REAL secret.

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I can't resist pointing out that Otto Graham played in a pro football championship in 10 consecutive seasons, winning seven of them (four with the AAFC). No team since has managed to equal the Browns' feat of appearing in six consecutive NFL championship games, of which they won three. Graham's career passer rating (86.6) was the highest of what has been called the "pre-Live Ball Era"; no one has ever come close to touching his 9.0 ypa (!!!) career average, and even his 8.63 ypa NFL career average remains a league record. Only Sid Luckman (8.4 ypa) really comes close.

Now, of course, Bart Starr did accomplish the awesome feat of winning three NFL championships in a row, a record that stands to this day, not to mention five NFL championships overall, a string of success only Tom Brady has equaled. He lead the league in passer rating five times, an achievement only exceeded by Steve Young (six), and notched a season passing average over 8.2 ypa six times, a mark no quarterback in the league today has ever approached. And if I'm not mistaken, he still holds the NFL record for highest postseason passer rating at 104.8, with an unearthly low interception rate of just 1.41 percent.

I get that the degree of physicality in the league today is orders of magnitude beyond what it was back then, but still, these men were gods.

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If there is an open guy, then you're right sometimes he needs to hit them earlier against some of the top defenses, but at the same point, he's done a great job in his career of holding it longer and making an even bigger play.

I don't think Brady's real secret is that simply... I think a lot of it has to do with the system and how the Patriots demand their timing to be perfect, as well as teach their cuts, so they could then leave in multiple directions, so a defender doesn't know where they're going after that point.

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So Jimmy Graham is a wr?

The only problem with that is The Packers ask their Wr's to block for each other.

Something Graham has no idea how to do.

I think I'll quit trying to figure things out in May and enjoy The Summer before all the over analysis begins.

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