GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – Coach Matt LaFleur said he’s “thinking a lot” about whether he’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs in Thursday’s preseason finale.
“It depends on the day you catch me,” LaFleur said of his determination.
The play or not play dilemma is one of the biggest dilemmas for any coach. Common sense suggests that playing with front-line players in the preseason will set them up for the start of the regular season. Common sense tells us that front-line players can’t get hurt if they’re not playing in a game that “doesn’t count in your record”.
In their last training camp, the Packers didn’t play a preseason starter and lost to the Saints in Week 1. It was an embarrassing loss that caused many questions about LaFleur’s preseason approach. Ultimately, however, one game may not mean much. The Packers shrugged off embarrassment and won 13 of his next 15 games to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is an outspoken critic of playing in preseason games, saying he’s far better off facing his own defense on the practice pitch than against an opponent’s vanilla defense in an exhibition game. Asked a few weeks ago, Rodgers is open to playing against the Chiefs, at least in part, as long as he’s there long enough to break a good sweat and build a rhythm. It seemed to be
“I don’t see any merit in playing one series,” he said on Aug. 9. For me, wearing only four plays is a waste.
It would be a waste to get seriously injured in the sixth snap. That’s when Jordy Nelson suffered a torn ACL in Pittsburgh in the 2015 preseason. It’s his meaningless 8-yard gain in a meaningless game.
“I don’t like to use the term ‘meaningless match’ because every opportunity can be improved and improved,” Raffler said. what is the reward? There is really no right answer. The correct answer is what works. Unfortunately we don’t know that.
“Looking back a year ago, I was like, ‘Well, if I played everyone in preseason, would I have been whipped like I was against the Saints in week 1?’ I don’t know the answer. Maybe not. No. But I think it ended up being a pretty successful year, and we had a lot of success throughout the regular season, and for me a lot of it was about what we needed to put out, what we wanted to see, and what we wanted to see. It comes down to your gut feeling about where you are as a football team. They will have slightly different opinions, and I don’t think anyone knows what the right answer is.”
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