The Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay modern outside zone system is the most quarterback-friendly system in the NFL. Play action off of the outside zone can be indistinguishable from an actual run for defenses and it makes reads for quarterbacks much simpler than in a standard dropback passing game. It has helped quarterbacks with limited skill sets like Jared Goff and Jimmy Garoppolo look like top-10 quarterbacks for stretches. Baker Mayfield is in the midst of a resurgence after head coach Kevin Stefanski brought it to Cleveland. Even Mitchell Trubisky recently enjoyed a strong five-game stretch when the Bears began including elements of it in their offense.
However, when defenses shut down the run and defend play action soundly, some of these quarterbacks can quickly revert to pumpkins. In the last Super Bowl, Garoppolo failed to deliver when he was forced to drop back in the fourth quarter. In the Super Bowl before that, Goff could barely move the ball against the Patriots’ tilt front, a defense specifically designed to shut down the outside zone and boot — Goff and the Rams still have some trouble against teams that copy the Patriots’ blueprint from time-to-time.
What happens if you put a blue-chip quarterback into the system?
That was the idea when the Green Bay Packers hired Matt LaFleur as their head coach in 2019. In the few seasons before LaFleur, Aaron Rodgers was still putting up good numbers but it was becoming more clear that he just wasn’t producing as efficiently as when he was in his prime. He lost trust in Mike McCarthy’s offense and was trying to make too many off-script plays and held the ball far too long.
When LaFleur was hired, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. It usually takes a season for quarterbacks to learn the system and LaFleur and Rodgers had to adapt to each other. For example, the system usually doesn’t give a ton of room for quarterbacks to audible at the line of scrimmage. There are “kill” calls and set audibles that quarterbacks have to make against certain defensive looks but they weren’t typically given license to change the call to whatever they wanted like Peyton Manning was famous for doing. Rodgers’ ability to adjust and change plays at the line of scrimmage is one of his greatest strengths so LaFleur smartly adjusted and gave Rodgers a lot of freedom pre-snap. There were some growing pains in Rodgers’ first season in the system. Even so, he still performed well enough to get the Packers in the NFC Championship.
https://theathletic.com/2302965/2021/01/06/aaron-rodgers-packers-matt-lafleur