Through three games, we’re starting to get an idea of what the Green Bay Packers offense looks like in a post-Davante Adams world.
At its best, it relies heavily on the run game; the more Aaron Jones is involved, the better. Aaron Rodgers is spreading the ball around, and despite the trust narrative, Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson are seeing targets, with Doubs leading the pack. The offense looks efficient when Rodgers trusts in the offense and Matt LaFleur sticks to the plan.
But it’s guilty of going flat for long periods of time. Your average gameplan looks like a steady first quarter, a dominant second quarter, and then a turnover kills all offensive momentum as the team scrambles towards a sloppy finish.
These things should improve as the offense tightens up, and Doubs emerging as a WR1 certainly helps. But there are small personnel changes that could make a difference too. Despite Jones and A.J. Dillon being an excellent running tandem, two-running-back sets haven’t been as effective as they’d like. One way to spice things up would be to throw in more multiple tight end sets, which means better utilizing Josiah Deguara. The third-year tight end has earned more chances in this offense, and LaFleur should be finding more ways to get him involved.
On paper, Deguara is TE3 right now behind Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis. Despite losing most of his rookie season, Deguara has been in the offense for three years and has shown flashes of potential.
Yet he’s losing ground to Tyler Davis, whom the powers-that-be in Green Bay vouched for despite an awful preseason. Davis has 55 offensive snaps to Deguara’s 39 while also seeing significantly more special teams play. Davis’ special teams ability is likely what kept him in the coaching staff’s good graces and on the 53-man roster after his rocky preseason.
But Davis hasn’t shown enough offensively to justify so much playing time over Deguara. Both have similar receiving stats so far despite Davis’ higher snap count. Davis’ four targets turned into three receptions for 29 yards (long of 23) compared to Deguara’s two targets for two catches and 28 yards (all in Week 1).
Degaura isn’t getting the chances Davis is, but he looks much more natural in the passing game. While he was one of PFF’s lowest-graded Packers on offense against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, thanks to his blocking score, Degaura has mostly been a better blocker than Davis as well.
Perhaps Deguara’s biggest issue has been gaining Rodgers’ trust. No. 12 was visibly angry with Deguara’s drops more than a few times last season. It’s not unrealistic to think Rodgers still has Deguara in the metaphorical doghouse; Deguara’s targets in Week 1 came from Jordan Love.
But the Packers need to get their best players involved, and it would be sad for Deguara to be another third-round bust. Tight end isn’t the deepest position in Green Bay, and getting more creative with their personnel is crucial.
Tonyan’s return is significant for a team in need of reliable playmakers. He’s been one of Rodgers’ most targeted players in this young season, with 84 yards on 11 catches. But after recovering from a torn ACL, Tonyan doesn’t quite look to be 100% yet. He doesn’t have the same speed as before. Hopefully, this changes as the season continues.
Marcedes Lewis has played 76 offensive snaps but hasn’t been targeted in the passing game once. With the offensive line putting itself together as Elgton Jenkins and David Bakhtiari recover from their injuries, Lewis has had to play his patented sixth offensive lineman role. There aren’t many tight ends who can block like Lewis, but it would be nice if LaFleur could script up some catches for Big Dog.
Putting multiple tight ends on the field more often is a great way to get better usage from the group and have Deguara more involved. Even if Rodgers doesn’t love slinging the ball to him, Deguara can throw some vital blocks to help his favorite targets get more involved. He can be used together to get Lewis some targets — defenses often forget Lewis is reliable in the passing game.
Many fans wanted to see more two-running-back sets this season. We got our wish, but it hasn’t been a particularly effective personnel grouping. LaFleur needs to deploy more multiple tight end sets and see what that group can do with Aaron Jones. Let’s get wild.
Deguara has been good in spots and has done well on special teams. There must be more ways to get an athletically gifted third-round pick involved in the offense. The Packers chose not to reinforce the position during the off-season, believing they had a strong group already. If that’s true, get Deguara involved, even if it isn’t purely in a pass-catching role.
