GREEN BAY — Every Green Bay Packers fan on the planet — or maybe it just seems that way — has an opinion on how the team’s offense would best function. 

Make Tucker Kraft the centerpiece of the passing game! one faction will say.

You finally draft a wide receiver in the first round and you barely get him the ball? Get Matthew Golden more involved! another crowd will crow.

Romeo Doubs has the best connection with quarterback Jordan Love of anyone. Keep feeding him! yet another demographic says.

Christian Watson is back! He’s a unicorn! He’s got to be the focal point! others will insist.

No wonder Packers head coach — and offensive play-caller — Matt LaFleur feels like the football epitome of that old saying, If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

Of course, here’s what’s interesting about that: For as many folks as there are who think LaFleur is doing something wrong, he unfailingly believes in what he’s doing.

And that, of course, is doing all he can to get all of his would-be pass-catchers involved, and trusting his quarterback to throw the ball to the open guy — without fear or favor.

So if you’re among those who think LaFleur should change course, the midweek exchange he had during a Q&A session with reporters should tell you how adamant he is about trying to spread the wealth, and how passionately he believes in the approach.

This exchange between @CoachMLaFleur and @ByRyanWood was so interesting. Whether you agree with the #Packers head coach or not, he wants to feature Tucker Kraft AND keep all his pass catchers involved/engaged. Tough task, but I like it + respect how fervently he believes in it. pic.twitter.com/vLlkoK0Nsx

— Jason Wilde (@jasonjwilde) November 1, 2025

“What would you guys like it to be? That’s what I want to know. I want to know what is, what would be ideal in your guys’ world to allow us to, you know, not have to answer these questions every week?” LaFleur replied to a targets-related question.

He was just getting warmed up.

“When you have a lot of confidence in everybody, first of all, you’re always — at least the way we do it is — we’re always trying to attack the scheme, first and foremost. And then from there, when we decide what plays draw up well, or have answers for whatever it is that we feel like we potentially could face, then you start plugging in the players.

“I think it’s important when you have a lot of guys that you have a lot of confidence in, that you give [them opportunities]. You want all those guys to have opportunities, or feel like they have some opportunities within the game plan that they get excited about.

“Now it’s impossible to get all those plays called, so that’s where you just kind of go a little bit off feel —what are they playing [defensively], and what’s the best way to go attack that? And then you’ve got to hit some of these coverages for the ball to go where it’s intended to go.

“If you don’t, if they Rolodex, or if they do something a little bit different, then the quarterback needs to read out the play, and wherever the ball goes, it goes. I just want our quarterback to continue to do what he’s doing and being the facilitator out there and doing a great job of reading with his feet and getting through progressions. And then the expectation of the receivers and tight ends or running backs is to be in their spot when they’re supposed to be there.

“The more guys you have, the more you want to try to give everybody some touches. So I think we’re pretty fortunate. I think we’re one of the deepest teams, in my opinion, in the league, where we feel like we’ve got a lot of guys that we can get the ball to. And that they’re going to go make plays.”

In addition to how LaFleur and Love distribute the ball in the passing game, here are three other aspects to Sunday’s matchup between the Packers (5-1-1) and Panthers (4-4) at Lambeau Field to keep an eye on:

1. ‘SPINNER’ LOOKS ARE LOOKING GOOD

In his 21st NFL season, it takes quite a bit to rattle Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And maybe what happened with the ex-Packers superstar last Sunday night doesn’t qualify. 

But it sure looked like the four-time NFL MVP was hyper-aware of when Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons was not, in fact, lined up on the edge. Instead, Parsons lined up over the center on multiple occasions and Rodgers appeared more than slightly concerned with how his offensive line was going to handle that wrinkle.

“We call those ‘spinner’ looks,” LaFleur said. “Without telling you exactly what we do, I would say this: It’s a little bit more challenging [for the offense] because you’re expecting him to line up on the edge, and then he’s inside. So you have to have a plan for that.”

Although Parsons’ sack on Rodgers came on a play where Parsons lined up over the left tackle, the Packers recorded two other sacks when Parsons was lined up behind the defensive line and in the middle of the field.

The Packers aren’t the first team to use him this way; Parsons did it during his time with the Dallas Cowboys, who called that position the “Joker” when Parsons lined up there.

But it is an expansion of the repertoire defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has for Parsons, and it’s likely to be part of every game plan going forward.

“It’s fun,” Parsons said. “There’s not too many rushers that understand systems. I’ve been extremely blessed because I’ve been around some really great coaches … When you understand how teams are going to protect and how they’re going to come out, one thing that we have to our advantage is they have to communicate.

“In their game plan, they’re like, ‘Where’s No. 1 aligning?’ When I go inside, it’s like, ‘Now, which way can we go? Is he going right? Is he going left?’ And I can dictate that because I know where it’s going, how they’re going to try to approach me. They want two people on me. If they’re going to do that, guess what? Other guys are going to come free, other guys are going to be one-on-one. And if they don’t, that means I’m going to be one-on-one.”

2. THERE’S BEEN A CHANGE OF PLANS

Speaking of Rodgers, LaFleur learned very early on in his head-coaching tenure that opposing defenses weren’t particularly interested in sticking with the status quo of their defense. Especially during Rodgers’ back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021, defenses would intentionally play a different scheme in hopes of throwing Rodgers off.

Well, guess who’s getting the same treatment all of a sudden? That’s right, Love.

“Oh yeah, it happens quite often. Quite often,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said at midweek. “I think people sometimes change up what we’re doing just because they know they have to play a certain style in order to just contain all the different weapons that we have — whether it’s in the pass game or the run game. So we definitely have to make a lot of adjustments as the game goes just because of that.”

Asked if he’s sure of what the Panthers will do in this game, Stenavich laughed and replied, “Ah, no, I’m not sure about anything. You kind of go in, see what they do. You have your plan, and then you just have to make adjustments as the game goes.”

As Love explains it, the Packers have plenty of plays in their playbook that are “universal” plays that can work against any coverage, and they also have “beaters” that they have tailored to various coverages. They’d obviously prefer to use, say, a “man beater” against man coverages, and “zone beaters” against — you guessed it — zone coverages.

“We have specific beaters for the certain coverage we think we’re going to get,” Love said. “If they switch that up, those are all the in-game adjustments where you’ve got to go to the sideline, figure out what their flavor of the day is — what they’re trying to do stop us or what’s different than we thought — and adjust and find plays that are going to beat that.”

3. TOUCHDOWNS? LOTS OF ‘EM. YARDS? WELL …

Entering Sunday’s games, only one running back has more rushing touchdowns than the Packers’ Josh Jacobs, with nine. That would be Indianapolis Colts running back (and former University of Wisconsin star) Jonathan Taylor, who has 12.

But Jacobs’ 447 yards rank 17th among qualified leaders, and his 3.6-yard average is tied for 38th.

Suffice it to say, the Packers aren’t exactly thrilled with their overall production in the run game, and it starts up front.

“Yeah, there’s been some guys that we haven’t blocked at times,” Stenavich confessed. “When you’re running plays, you’ve just got to make sure you get hats on hats.

“I think that’s the biggest thing for us getting the run game to be going is making sure we’re allowing Josh to get through the first and second levels more consistently. “

Added center Elgton Jenkins: “With the run game, [it’s] being on the same page, and just moving guys off the ball. We’ve just got to sustain the blocks and give our running backs holes to run through.”

For his part, Jacobs admits he’s frustrated but that he believes the issues will get straightened out.

“It’s really just everybody being on the same page,” Jacobs said. “If you’re supposed to get a certain guy, go get that guy; [me] running hard; a combination of things.

“It’s definitely frustrating but at the end of the day, I can only control what I can control and I can only bring what I do. I can only trust the guys that they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do. Eventually, things are going to hit. We still feel it.”

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