It's not exactly a secret that the Green Bay Packers seem to have a communications issue. While the team has preached that it needs to tighten up, recent comments from the coaches show it's still a bit of an issue.
On Tuesday, the Packers' position coaches spoke following the team's season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich briefly touched on several topics, some of which seemed to directly contradict things that Matt LaFleur said on Monday.
First, Stenavich was asked about the decision to play Donovan Jennings in place of the injured Aaron Banks. While Banks sat out much of training camp and the preseason, rookie Jager Burton regularly stepped into the first-team offense and impressed throughout the summer.
While LaFleur said he chose to start Jennings over Burton because of "time on task" (Jennings had played just six career snaps before Week 1), Stenavich seemed to suggest otherwise.
"Going through practice and evaluating the last few weeks, we felt that Donovan was doing a better job," Stenavich said. "They both played pretty well in the preseason, and I think just the accumulation of what happened over the last few weeks in practice...we just felt at this time more comfortable with Donovan Jennings."
Stenavich was also asked about Jordan Love's notable failed quarterback sneak attempt on 4th-and-1. The play carried added risk, as LaFleur elected to take the three points from Trey Smack's field goal off the board to attempt the fourth down. The Vikings stopped Love short.
Why did Love take the sneak and not Tucker Kraft, who was perfect on attempts before his injury last season? Was it because Kraft was in his first game back from an ACL injury? On Monday, LaFleur said it wasn't because of that.
But, again, Stenavich seemed to suggest the opposite.
"Yes. The short answer, yes," said Stenavich. "With the rep counts that he was having and everything...it's one of those things you don't know how much he was going to be available at those situations. But yeah, I'll just leave it at that."
Communication issues seem to be something that plague the Packers at every level
In the grand scheme of things, it'd be a bit silly to extrapolate too much from their differing comments. However, they aren't nothing, either.
The fact that both coaches gave seemingly different reasons for what happened in the game is something that, while it might sound like nothing in a press conference after the fact, can very much affect legitimate in-game decisions.
On the Jennings comments, it seems LaFleur was just being as coy as possible about the offensive line. Mostly everyone who watched the team in preseason and at practice raved about how Burton had been playing above guys like Jennings, so for Jennings to be tabbed as the starter due to recent practices seems like the coaches are more so coming up with a reason to lean on the veteran than anything else.
Kraft's lack of usage on the 4th-and-1 makes sense if he was held back due to his ACL. However, it's a bit odd to hear both coaches not be on the same page there. It's another case where, like the Jennings issue, they could just be choosing to play coy. Regardless, it only shines a light on the issue.
Several times during his presser, Stenavich stressed the importance of getting the communication down pat with everyone. The lack of communication was glaring at times on Sunday, especially on the offensive line, but also on defense, which allowed Carson Wentz to deliver some big-time passes.
If communication is an issue on and off the field, it points to a potentially larger problem for the Packers than we think, and one that needs to get fixed as quickly as possible.
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