After a handful of weeks of digging into some situational football – red zone, explosive plays, etc. – we’re back to digging into some individual concepts. Today, we’re looking at how the Packers did with the Stick concept in 2021.
As with a lot of these concepts, the origin of Stick can be tough to pin down. It grew to prominence with Bill Walsh and the West Coast system, but, as is the case with so many West Coast concepts, instances of Stick can be found in Sid Gillman’s offense 20 years earlier.
1981 Philadelphia Eagles (Sid Gillman)
1985 San Francisco 49ers (Bill Walsh)
2012 Green Bay Packers (Mike McCarthy)
At its core, Stick revolves around a single route: the Stick route. It is typically a 4-7 yard route, at which point it will break as an out route to the sideline or a hitch, depending on the leverage of the defender. If the defender is on the inside shoulder, run an out route away from him. If the defender is on the outside shoulder, run a hitch (or a slant) to the inside. As with all West Coast concepts, it’s a quick-hitting ball-control play, designed for the purpose of getting the ball out quickly for some quick, easy yards. Nothing fancy; just keep the chains moving.
This also includes one of the other hallmarks of a West Coast concept: there is a vertical option attached to it. The main purpose of the vertical route is to act as a clear-out for the Stick route, while also acting as an Alert. Basically, if the quarterback likes the match-up on the outside, that vertical route becomes Read #1. If he doesn’t, he moves off of it and comes back to the concept. The decision on the vertical route has to be quick, because Stick is a three-step concept, so the ball has to be out to Stick when the third step hits or you’re late.
I always love watching the footwork. Ready to throw immediately to Jones, but only if he wins immediately. He doesn’t, so the feet move to the right & are set to throw at the top of the drop. He hovers on that for one of those receivers to pop open, but it doesn’t happen. pic.twitter.com/BwuKX6DNcp
— Dusty (@DustyEvely) May 13, 2022
The Packers – like pretty much every team in the league – run Stick as a base concept a couple different ways: One-Man and Two-Man. We’re going to look at their usage of each one, then assess the concept as a whole at the end.
For this look, we’ll only be looking at plays in which Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback. The reason for that is because I wanted to see how this looked when they were able to operate as they wanted. I didn’t want a Jordan Love start on a short week or snaps in a meaningless week 18 match-up to skew the results.
One-Man Stick (27 dropbacks, 6.3 YPA)
It will not shock you to learn that Davante Adams was the runaway leader in most targeted receiver on this concept. Of the 27 calls, 13 of the attempts (or 48.1%) went the way of Adams. Which makes sense. This is a concept that calls for the Stick receiver to win quickly by reading the leverage of the defender and making a quick, clean cut to create space. That’s a skill that is firmly in Davante Adams’ wheelhouse.
When targeting Adams, Rodgers was 11/13 (84.6%) and averaged 7.2 YPA. Of those completions, 8 of them featured Adams winning on the quick out route.
The remaining 3 completions took the form of two slants and a hitch. A bit of “secondary read” magic is needed for the first two completions (although I believe the first clip is more Rodgers waiting for Adams to get to the secondary window to throw), while the third completion is a nice, clean win on a slant for the TD.
The two incompletions to Adams came on an overthrown ball on the vertical tag, and a double-clutched throw to the boundary against trap coverage that he’s lucky wasn’t taken back for 6.
Of the…
Read More: Quality Control: Stick in 2021