A play for the Packers to steal from the Seahawks

Last week, I mentioned that I like to go through offenses around the league during the week, find fun things, then work them into the Green Bay Packers playbook. With only two games last weekend – and one of them short on offense – there wasn’t a lot of film to go through.

Last week, we found two plays from the Buffalo Bills. This week, I want to steal one play for the Packers: the TD to Jaxon Smith-Njigba [11].

The Seattle Seahawks are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), starting in a 2×2 set. Before the snap, Smith-Njigba shifts from his position on the right to the backfield, aligning to Sam Darnold’s [14] left. It’s not a normal split for Smith-Njigba; he’s set outside the left tackle.

They’re running a Scissors concept on the left, with Smith-Njigba and Rashid Shaheed [22] crossing their routes down the field. Cooper Kupp [10] is the other receiver on that side, and he’s running a little pivot route, starting outside and cutting back in. Scissors is a popular concept in this area of the field, but I love the way the Seahawks get to it here, releasing the deep Sail/Corner route from the backfield.

The Seahawks catch the Rams in zone coverage, and they bust it. Nate Landman [53] drops with Smith-Njigba through the intermediate portion of the field, then drops back down in the middle, passing him off to Cobie Durant [14]. However, Durant is following Shaheed to the middle of the field, leaving the corner wide open.

Darnold knows he has Smith-Njigba, but the pocket gets messy around his feet so he fades to the left and throws to the corner as Jared Verse [8] crashes into his face.

Nice design and a great playcall in a big moment. There were 25 seconds left in the 1st half with the Seahawks down 13-10 when this ball was snapped.

Now, let’s steal it.

Just like the Seahawks did, we’re going to run it out of 11 personnel. Per SumerSports, the Packers were the 7th-best team at red zone passing out of 11 personnel this season, so we can likely find some success with this approach. We’re going to show a 3-play package, but we’ll start with this Scissors look (even though it would likely be the payoff play).

Our personnel:

• RB: Josh Jacobs [8]. A healthy Marshawn Lloyd makes a little more sense here, because his explosiveness would allow for a little more versatility in how you can run this. However, for now, we’ll stick with Jacobs. He’s still a threat with the ball in his hands. The other option would be Chris Brooks, who works as the FB in some of the Spinner run stuff the Packers do.
• TE: Tucker Kraft [85]. We’re assuming health here, but, with only 1 TE on the field, Kraft is the obvious choice. Since we’re running a vertical route out of a Nub look, we could pretty easily sub Luke Musgrave into this role. As the season went on, he looked more and more comfortable in that role.
• WR1: Christian Watson [9]. We want to threaten vertically from the outside and threaten the safety to that side, which makes Watson the obvious pick.
• WR2: Matthew Golden [0]. He should be a bigger part of this offense in 2026, and the quickness/footwork on that pivot route should play right into his strengths.
• WR3: Jayden Reed [11]. If we’re aligning a WR in the backfield, Reed is the obvious choice. He’s had a lot of experience in that role and the Packers run enough plays with him back there (both pass and run) that having him in the backfield isn’t a giveaway for what’s next.

So there’s our personnel group. The Scissors concept is straightforward.

But, again, that’s likely the payoff play. A variation of this that could work well is an old West Coast Staple, originally designed to attack Tampa 2. That’s right, baby, we’re running Texas.

Everything else looks exactly the same, but it gives us Reed out of the backfield on a LB (or perhaps a safety). We still have Watson threatening over the top, and Reed on the Angle route gives us a nice high-low. Golden works nicely as a follow on the Angle, allowing Reed to clear a little space for Golden to work back into. If that doesn’t work, you still have a kind of Smash look on the right with Kraft and Jacobs.

Lastly, we’ll throw in another shot. Show Golden on that pivot a couple of times, get the inside jumping, then release that route vertically instead of pivoting back inside.

There are certainly more variations you can run off of this, but that’s about all the time I have today. This was a really fun concept and seems like something that could fit in perfectly with the Packers personnel. Here’s to hoping we see it pop up next year.

Albums listened to: Jenny On Holiday – Quicksand Heart; Poppy – Empty Hands