GREEN BAY, Wis. — You might see Aaron Rodgers do something he has never done before in an NFL game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings: wear a playcalling cheat sheet on his wrist.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback experimented with one during Friday’s practice as a way to help get first-year coach Matt LaFleur’s playcalls relayed more quickly. The Packers have talked all week about trying to increase their offensive tempo after a sluggish start in their 10-3 win over the Chicago Bears in Week 1.
LaFleur wouldn’t say for sure whether Rodgers will use it against the Vikings, but he thinks it could help.
“It gets [the play] out of my mouth a lot faster, I’ll tell you that much,” LaFleur said Friday. “So yeah, maybe it helps me get him the play a little bit quicker.”
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Rodgers said earlier this week that the Packers need to get out of the huddle and to the line of scrimmage more quickly, but that’s tough sometimes because of how long LaFleur’s plays are.
“We do have some long calls in the plan — that’s just the way the offense is,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “There’s a number of checks for different plays. It’s getting that call in and repeating it and going out there and trying to execute as quickly as possible. The great thing about this offense and the communication is we had a great debrief Monday and Tuesday about everything. We made some subtle changes to hopefully help with some of that tempo.”
This is Rodgers’ first time in a new offense since he became the starter in 2008. He had one head coach during that time, Mike McCarthy, until last December, when McCarthy was fired with four games left in the season. Rodgers had three years as a backup — two under McCarthy — to learn the offense before he became a starter.
Rodgers said this offseason that learning LaFleur’s offense was like learning a foreign language. The wristband could help the translation process.
“I don’t know, we’re just trying something new,” LaFleur said. “We’ll figure out where we are going with that.”
One other issue that’s up in the air is the availability of All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, who returned to practice after missing Thursday because of a back injury. The Packers listed him as questionable.
Bakhtiari said he expects to spend much of the next day and a half with the medical staff “to do whatever I need to do that’s necessary to open up my back, keep it from regressing to where it was. If we do that, I think I can have a good chance to play.”
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