Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements is the only person who has been on the team's coaching staff with Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love as the starting quarterback. When he speaks, Packers quarterbacks listen.
A year ago, Clements spelled out that footwork was the most critical component of a quarterback's on-field success, in terms of their mechanics, which is why Love's movement is once again a key area of focus in the 2024 offseason following throwing 32 touchdown passes in 2023, the second most in the NFL behind Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's 36.
"That's really a big aspect of playing quarterback," Clements said in 2023. "If you can try to watch a quarterback's feet and not watch anything else, you might have a good idea if it's going to be a good throw. If you can have your feet in position to make a throw -- assuming everyone in the NFL has a certain degree of talent -- you're going to have a chance to have a successful play. … He [Love] bought into it because he saw the drills we did with Aaron, saw the success Aaron had, so he worked hard at it and had some improvement."
This year, after Love has had a year of experience in the league as being the guy at quarterback, the coaching staff is continuing to drill down on the finer points in that department entering Love's second year under center.
"It's just more fundamental things," Clements said this month, via ESPN. "Footwork and how he moves in the pocket, and we're working on the drills, working on throwing a lot of routes on air because you can't have defenders out there at this point. It's just presence in the pocket, when to move, when not to move, things like that."
LaFleur says the team is focusing more on proper footwork all around.
"But what we're making a big emphasis on is [having] perfect feet," LaFleur said, via ESPN, at Packers minicamp. "Making sure the guys go through their progressions, having perfect feet. And when they're not, they hear about it. I just think, again, offseason, where we're at, new defense, it's important for them to understand the drops that we want them to take, so we implemented it."
While Love's passer rating when pressured (80.3) last season ranked eighth best among 32 qualified quarterbacks last season and his 6.8 yards per pass attempt ranked fifth best, the Packers would probably like to see him improve that 9-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio in those situations, which ranked 12th in the NFL.
"You might anticipate a defense maybe bringing a little more pressure, disguising a little bit more, making it more difficult to see where to go," Clements said. "So that's from a quarterback standpoint. If that happens, you have to have a lot of film study and be able to react. I mean that was one of Aaron [Rodgers'] best attributes, is he could process information very quickly and usually make the right decision and get the ball where it had to go. That's something that we'll have to see how defenses approach it, but that's something you've got to be ready for."
Love identified pocket movement as one of his big goals for improvement throughout the offseason.
"Pocket movement, making smaller movements in the pocket," Love said on June 12 at Packers minicamp. "Not being so quick to try and get out of there, but to stay in the pocket and try and find those receivers downfield is something I've been working on. Also throwing on the move, going right. Just being able to get my shoulders, my body downhill and not be drifting away from the throw."
"Early in the season, when Jordan scrambled, I'd say 95 percent of the time he ran the ball," Clements said. "Second half of the year, that maybe flipped -- maybe not 95 percent but a larger percentage he was moving around, looking to throw the ball downfield, which is what you want to do. Because you can get a lot of big plays in the scramble phase of the game. So rather than just taking off and running, he's looking and trying to make a play, and that's where good things can happen. So that's one illustration."
Love and the entire Packers roster participated fully in the team's offseason program, an indication Green Bay knows it isn't all too far from Super Bowl contention after its narrow 24-21 NFC divisional round postseason defeat at the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers last January.
"It's just excitement," Love said on June 12 at minicamp when asked about the attention surrounding his Packers entering 2024. "I think from the way the season ended last year, the way it ended for us, I think everyone was hungry and ready to just get back to it, get back to training camp and get the new season rolling. It's been a good amount of time since that game, so I think everyone is still hungry and just excited to get rolling."
