This story was originally published in the 2025 Packers Yearbook. To get your copy, click here.
It's Week 6 at Lambeau Field against the Cardinals, and the Packers have first-and-10 across midfield after a 39-yard punt return by Keisean Nixon with five minutes left in the second quarter. Head Coach Matt LaFleur decides this is the time to dial it up.
Christian Watson is lined up in the right slot, just inside Romeo Doubs. Watson takes off straight up the seam, starts to angle slightly to the right as though he's running a deep corner route, with Doubs sliding left underneath him. Then Watson, keeping the route vertical, suddenly cuts it back toward the goalpost. QB Jordan Love lays it out there, and he's wide open for a 44-yard, stroll-in touchdown to give the Packers a 24-0 lead on their way to a drama-free 34-13 triumph.
It looked like such an easy pitch and catch, as though Love and Watson had been practicing that play for years.
But it was actually the first time they'd run it that way, and the play itself had just been put into a game plan initially a couple games prior.
It's an example of the constant communication between LaFleur and Love about the offense not just every week, but practically every day. They aren't the only two involved, but they're at the forefront of bringing a play like that to life and making it work.
"That was great collaboration in terms of him coming up with that design in a previous week, and us seeing a (defensive) look for it where it could be implemented," LaFleur said.
Love presented his idea a couple weeks earlier during the game-planning process. On Mondays and Tuesdays, while the coaches are grinding film and putting together the next week's plan, Love is doing his own homework.
He'll watch his share of film – not nearly as much as the coaches, but a fair amount – and take note of offensive concepts he likes against the defensive tendencies he sees from the upcoming opponent. Then he'll text those thoughts to LaFleur, usually play numbers that are easily referenced in the playbook.
LaFleur doesn't automatically include every suggestion, though. He takes the QB's thoughts under advisement, and when the game plan is presented on Wednesday to the team prior to the week's first practice, he'll talk to Love about what he put in, and left out.
"Matt's big thing, he likes to be able to see it on tape, see the same look that I saw," Love said. "That's the fun part for me. If you have an idea, he listens. He's not just like, 'Nah, that's not going to work.' He's going to listen, and obviously we'll talk about it and figure out if it's something that really might work."
If LaFleur doesn't think so, he'll explain.
"Sometimes we already have that play in the game plan," LaFleur said. "There's other times where I'm like, 'No, we're not going to do that and here's why.'
"I'm in almost every quarterback meeting. There's a lot of communication and collaboration that's going on throughout the course of the meetings. The thing I love about him is he will always be open-minded, he'll always go out there and work the plays."
In the case of the play introduced above, Love came up with the idea by tweaking a route concept within one of the offense's base plays, with Doubs as the primary read. LaFleur liked the change, and it was in the game plan for Week 4, two weeks before the Cardinals game.
That earned it reps in practice to get everyone – Love above all – comfortable with how to execute it. Conversations after practice constitute needed feedback, and any further thoughts, or reservations, are expressed. LaFleur is a big believer in "time on task" for the offense as a whole, so players aren't running plays in games they haven't practiced, and in the quarterback having confidence in a play against certain defenses.
"It's as important as anything," LaFleur said of staying in constant touch with his QB. "Outside of the center, he's the only other guy touching the ball on every play. Especially in the passing game, if he's not comfortable with something, I don't care what play it is, the odds of it working are not going to be as successful if he's not very confident in what he's doing. That's a critical part of our game-planning."
So much so that at the end of the week, after all the practices and walk-throughs and numerous discussions before and after, LaFleur will have Love "comb the call sheet," ranking the plays he likes best and marking the ones he's not so crazy about. The preferences often become the "openers," or the plays likely to be called earliest in each situation – the top picks for normal down-and-distance, third downs, red zone, short yardage, etc. The others could get scrapped entirely.
"After we run it in practice, that's when you're kind of like, alright, this isn't maybe looking the way we like it on paper, or we just don't have a great feel for it or have enough reps," Love said. "That's when we might talk about taking stuff straight out of the plan.
"The closer you get to game time, that's when he starts putting the openers in and finalizing that plan. If he has any hesitation on a play or doesn't like the way it looked in the week, he'll come up and ask me how I feel about it and if we're on the same page."
That connection has evolved through Love's first two seasons as a starter. The more experience he gets as an NFL signal caller, the more comfortable Love is making suggestions and sharing his thoughts. The more he does that, the better LaFleur gets in tune with how his quarterback thinks.
"Year 1 was a totally different deal," LaFleur said. "We were both trying to figure it out. We were kind of learning each other together at the same time. Now we have a much better idea of what we're trying to accomplish, why we're calling every play.
"There has to be a great reason in a game that if he's not comfortable … I'm not going to call it more than likely unless we absolutely see something. Like, 'Hey man, you've got to trust me on this one.'"
LaFleur resorted to that back in 2022 when Love took over in the fourth quarter for an injured Aaron Rodgers in a primetime game at Philadelphia, a successful relief outing that's commonly viewed as Love's arrival. LaFleur twice called a concept with a deep slant behind a pivot route he knew Love hadn't practiced much, but it was the best call against a particular Eagles coverage. Love completed both passes, starting their foundation of trust.
Now that trust flows both ways, and even though Love's play design for Week 4 last season didn't amount to anything initially, it was back in the plan two weeks later against the Cardinals. Again, nothing exciting with it had happened right away, until Love and LaFleur were sitting on the sidelines between drives, looking at the pictures on the tablets with the other coaches and QBs.
"We saw the leverage on the No. 2 receiver (Watson)," LaFleur said. "The defender was so far outside leverage, we were like, 'Holy cow, if we post him back, there's literally nobody out there. He's going to be running away from the guy.'"
So the relatively new play got an in-game adjustment, with Watson told to turn his corner route into a corner-post. Nixon's punt return put the offense in great position, and LaFleur called it. Boom, touchdown.
"We had the protection, which it always starts there," LaFleur said. "Jordan had the time and then he did a great job of throwing Christian even more open."
Added Love: "We put a double move on the route that Christian ran, and it was actually pretty cool."
So as the communication during the week rolls into the game, magic like that can happen.
Even when the in-game messaging is one-way, from LaFleur's headset to Love's helmet speaker, it has advanced to where during an on-field timeout or stoppage, the coach will rattle off two plays in a given situation – a crucial third down for example – and the QB will signal back which one he likes better.
Big picture, Love appreciates the input he's allowed to provide, and LaFleur values the honest give-and-take throughout the process. It's how they've gotten to know and trust one another, as the communication that carries from the meeting room to the hallway to the practice field and to game time builds upon itself.
It's all intended to set up Love and LaFleur for a successful, long-lasting partnership.
"The more as quarterback you understand the offense and why we're calling certain things, and what we love versus (defensive) looks, you get the feel of the game, what the flow of the defense is, what their situational calls might be," Love said. "That's when you start trying to predict what you might be calling. That's when that input on the field and throughout the week is so important.
"The more we're in it together, we'll keep having a better feel for each other and what we want to get to. I'm comfortable talking to Matt already, but that relationship could grow even more. I think we have a good thing going right now, and it'll continue to keep growing."
