Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
EXTRA POINT Packers have options in case of outbreak
Green Bay — In mid-March, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton said he had tested positive for the coronavirus, and it is believed Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn tested positive for COVID-19 sometime in June or July.
Philadelphia’s Doug Pederson became the first head coach to test positive after players and coaches had all returned to their facilities Aug. 2.
Pederson’s positive test shed light on how a team would react to such a result, as Pederson was quarantined at home and anyone who came into contact with him would continue to go through daily testing but not have to leave the facility. Pederson, remained out until Aug. 12.
Pederson said the virtual offseason helped him continue to be involved from home and he was able to watch practice through a live feed online, but Eagles assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley handled all of the head coach duties at the facility.
It’s a flow chart every team has had to create.
“Certainly if something happens to one of the coordinators or myself, yeah, then, you have to have those conversations and discussions in terms of who’s running what?” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. “But I’m confident that we’ve got a good, solid plan in place if need be.”
And while players and staff have done a good job staying free of the virus for the last month, the long days at the facilities are ending. Practice days will be shorter. There will be off days and travel to other cities.
Not only will coaches and players face the risk of exposure in the communities in which they live, but now there will be games with other teams and their players, coaches and personnel. The work week for coaches is more compressed, but LaFleur said the virtual offseason may help keep things rolling.
“With the technology, especially with what we endured during the offseason program, that if somebody isn’t present in the building it’s not, it doesn’t cripple you, because they still have access to all the tape,” LaFleur said. “We still have access to be able to teach in front of the meeting room, so that’s less of a concern of mine.”
As for what would happen should LaFleur, coordinators or position coaches miss time, the Packers have options for multiple positions.
Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine was a head coach in Cleveland from 2014-15. Secondary coach Jerry Gray has coordinated defenses in Buffalo (2001-05) and Tennessee (2012-13) and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett called plays in Jacksonville in 201618.
“We’ve sat with Matt and have gone through the coaching depth chart as far as who the next man up would be,” Pettine said. “Unfortunately that’s a sign of the times. Yeah, we have to be prepared for whatever scenario, and usually it’s applying to players, but a very unique situation that it’s applying to the coaching staff.”
Hackett got a refresher in play-calling duties during the Packers’ scrimmagelike scenario Aug. 30 up in the coaches’ box at Lambeau Field.
“It’s great because you get to kind of reset and going a whole year not calling plays, you forget how hard it is,” Hackett said. “A lot of people think you just go up there and read it off of a piece of paper, but I think that was one cool thing, to remember how much you have to stay focused and how much you have to stay on task and keep everybody on the same page and be able to just simply call the play out, get that to the quarterback, make sure he has it and then repeat it, so there are so many different things, just tracking the situations for second and third down, the different areas of the field.
“I think it’s always great practice for anybody because it’s not, it’s definitely a skill. I think that Matt did a great job last year. It was definitely great to be able to get it done this year a little bit and just almost remember, OK, as a play caller, what they go through. Although it was just kind of a scrimmage format, I think it was great to get that understanding again, to be able to be there for Matt during this season as we come up and obviously be prepared if something happens.”
The only room that is thin on coordinating experience is on special teams, with Shawn Mennenga entering his second year in the position. But he is backed by Maurice Drayton and Reyna Stewart, and Mennenga feels they’re on the path for coordinator positions.
“So we’ve talked about that and things, you know, what would happen, you know, we keep ourselves socially distant and where we meet at and things like that, stay as safe as we can,” Mennenga said. “We’ve talked about that and I’ve got complete faith and those guys do a great job. If something happened to me or something happened to one of us and the other one would be able to do it.”
The NFL has gotten through the first month of playing in a pandemic, but six months remain.
LaFleur has often talked about wanting players to have positional versatility, but his coaching staff has that experience as well. Passing game coordinator Luke Getsy is also the quarterbacks coach, but he handled receivers under Mike McCarthy from 2016-17. Tight ends coach Justin Outten spent time as an assistant on the offensive line in Atlanta in 2017-18 and senior analyst Butch Barry coached the offensive line with Tampa Bay from 2015-18. Outside linebackers coach Mike Smith worked on the defensive line in Kansas City from 2016-17.
“The biggest thing is there’s techniques for every defense that we do and we will do circuits as assistant coaches where we’re teaching techniques,” inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti said. “In that way you train people to be multipurpose.
“Those are some of the things that we can do and that’s why we’re a staff. We’re not just individual guys that are in their own little foxholes. We’re a staff that works together and that’s part of being a staff is it’s about coming together and making sure that we have the best 11 players out there and that everybody understands what to do.”