McCarthy's quarterback school identifies areas for improvement
The guy throws for 4,000-plus yards, has more than twice as many touchdowns as interceptions and plays through a painful injury to his throwing shoulder all in his first year as the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback.
Save for the 6-10 record, it was everything a team could have asked of a first-year starting quarterback, especially one charged with replacing and living through the drama of legendary quarterback Brett Favre.
So all his position coach had for Aaron Rodgers to work on this offseason was a little list of, oh, about 10 things. A quarterbacks work is never done.
The first day we met, I said heres a list of about 10 things, Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said. Some more important than others, some just very technical things, and then we continued to work on those as the offseason progressed.
Perhaps most important was footwork, which is one of the staples of coach Mike McCarthys renowned quarterback school. Rodgers said he participated in 97 percent of the quarterback school, which preceded the organized team activities and this weeks mandatory minicamp the last official function before training camp.
Between the end of minicamp Wednesday and the start of training camp on Aug. 1, Rodgers plans to spend about 3 weeks working out in San Diego with the likes of NFL veterans Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Kellen Winslow Jr., Charles Tillman, Kyle Boller and others.
Its pretty intense training, Rodgers said. Its a full-time job, so youve got to keep yourself in shape.
Rodgers shared some of what he spent the offseason working on during an interview between minicamp practices Tuesday. He said most of it came down to fundamentals designed to make his footwork and his delivery more consistent.
I just want to be more consistent, Rodgers said. I put together some very good games that I was happy with and some games I was too inconsistent. I think the mark of a very good quarterback is the difference between their great games and their poor games is a lot smaller than I was last year.
Clements came up with his list after watching every snap Rodgers took last season. He wouldnt say how high footwork was on that list, but Rodgers indicated it was a significant part of their offseason work.
It was on the list, Clements said. He had a tendency on a certain type of pass he threw to not use the proper footwork, so we worked on that. As I said, there was a list of about eight to 10 things, some individually related to him, and some as a team where he was driving what was happening.
McCarthy believes footwork is critical in the West Coast passing game because so much of the system is predicated on timing.
One of the main keys to playing quarterback is timing with your drop and the receivers route, Rodgers said. So its just being consistent with, depending on what the route is the receiver is running, timing up your drop to coincide with the break on the route so you can throw the ball on time. Our offense is all about timing and rhythm, so thats the big thing, continuing to work on timing with the receivers. Once the fundamentals start going a little bit, thats when mistakes happen during games, so we just paid close attention to those fundamentals.
If there was a knock on Rodgers first season, it was the Packers inability to close out close games. They lost all seven games in which they got the ball with 5 minutes or less to play with the opportunity to drive for the go-ahead score.
Yet just as big a focus this offseason has been the way Rodgers and the offense as a whole started games last season. They scored a total of 13 points one touchdown and two field goals on game-opening drives. The start of their second halves were worse, scoring only three field goals on second-half opening drives, numbers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin on Tuesday called God awful.
It wasnt all (Rodgers), Clements said. We might have a dropped ball, a penalty, but hes going to take it upon himself to make sure that we start better. At some point, were going to be in 2-minute situations, and were going to have to get a field goal or a touchdown to win the game. We had those opportunities last year, and we were close. Some times we did it and gave the other team the ball, and they scored, so it all wasnt related to Aaron.
The season-review sessions also prompted McCarthy to make some significant offensive adjustments. He has taken out chunks of the offense things that didnt work or never were called and is considering giving Rodgers more leeway at the line of scrimmage to audible, although Rodgers said he knows if that he makes too many incorrect reads, McCarthy quickly will reign him in.
I just think weve gotten smarter, Rodgers said. Weve taken out the things that we dont run as much or maybe we (practiced) a ton of times but never called during the season, and weve put in stuff that maybe we didnt put in until Week 5 or 6 last year. We put in our four- and five-wide (receivers) stuff a lot earlier on.