Aaron Rodgers may have come to the New York Jets stuck in his ways.
Let it never be said that he can’t adapt.
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In 2022, Rodgers told the “Pardon My Take” podcast that he often got on Packers head coach Matt LaFleur for calling too much motion. “When you have so much motion, it’s hard to get tempo going. You always have to make sure you’re set, and you have a motion, or a double motion, or a jet off of it,” he explained.
However, the quarterback seemed to have changed his stance on the use of pre-snap motion. Asked about it on Wednesday, he quickly replied, “That was a long time ago. You’ve got to give us space to grow there.”
Rodgers admitted that he had a “love affair” with Peyton Manning’s approach. Manning used to line up in a 2×2 or 3×1 and do everything at the line of scrimmage. However, he indicated the league has changed since then. No longer can a quarterback stand at the line of scrimmage and easily figure out what’s coming.
“As we’ve seen, there’s a lot of value in the pre-snap motion stuff because it creates a lot of consternation for the defense and it tests their gap control stuff, it tests their rules, it can move multiple guys in the same play, whether it’s the nickel or [line]backers or safeties,” Rodgers continued. “It gives them a lot to think about and I think it’s an important part of the offense.”
He noted that his original complaint about motion was pass protection. It was the first thing he was taught to look for in the West Coast system. But now, “as we’ve seen now with all these motions, teams become less aggressive to bring pressure because you can get gashed, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game by voiding a zone.”
Per NFL Next Stats, the Jets used pre-snap motion on 29 of 48 plays (60.4%) in Week 1. While that tied for 19th in the NFL, it was a stark increase from their 2023 motion usage, which at 41.1% ranked 30th.
About this increase, Rodgers said, “There was a meeting of the chefs. Everyone was in the kitchen throwing in their ingredients. A lot of sous-chefs figuring it out. Ultimately… it’s not different than what we were doing in practice.”
Interestingly, the Jets were more successful without motion than with it. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, they averaged 7.1 yards per non-motion play (6th) and 4.6 per motion play (T-19th). They tied for 15th in motion success rate (44.8%) and 12th in non-motion success rate (47.4%).
However, that was likely because they ran the ball far more with motion (48.3%) than without it (21.1%), and passing is nearly always more efficient than running. Perhaps Rodgers’ concern about protection with motion persists.
Although 2022 is not “a long time ago,” the Jets likely realized the lack of motion made their offense stale. The results were not ideal in Week 1, but that was partially due to a lack of opportunity. Time will tell if the Jets’ increased use of motion will help their offense.
