The play-action game had all but disappeared from the Green Bay offense by the end of Mike McCarthy’s tenure. A new offense, designed specifically around play action, should change that. In 2011, a swaggering Aaron Rodgers  set the NFL ablaze, putting together one of the all-time best seasons under center en route to a new single-season passer rating record. Last year alone, three players surpassed his 122.5 mark. Not for the season, however, but in a very specific situation: on play-action.

Think about that for a second: Drew Brees , Philip Rivers , and Russell Wilson  were so good last year off run fakes, they were “Aaron Rodgers  in 2011” killers. And 2018 isn’t an outlier in that regard. Using Pro Football Focus’ numbers, at least one quarterback every year going back through 2012 posted a play-action passer rating better than Rodgers’ record-setting mark.

Nearly every quarterback in football is better with a run fake to set up the routes, keep the pass rush at bay, and make the linebackers second guess what they’re seeing. But this part of the Packers  offense stagnated more drastically than perhaps any other facet of the offense under Mike McCarthy.


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