Packers approaching rarified air with Keisean Nixon
It's not uncommon to see football players playing on both sides of the ball during the relaxed moments of practice and whatnot. And sometimes, we even see them taking reps on both sides during training camp and during regular season practices. But, more often than not, the situation doesn't evolve from there. A lot of […]
It's not uncommon to see football players playing on both sides of the ball during the relaxed moments of practice and whatnot. And sometimes, we even see them taking reps on both sides during training camp and during regular season practices.
But, more often than not, the situation doesn't evolve from there. A lot of times, the ideas are left on the drawing board.
The Green Bay Packers have been publicly toying with idea of giving All-Pro returner Keisean Nixon snaps on offense since the spring and we finally saw that come to life on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. The end result was a successful, 11-yard run that gave the Packers a first down and moved them into Saints territory.
"I mean, any time you can get over 10 yards on a run, I think that's, obviously a very efficient play and effective play," Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said earlier in the week.
Nixon doesn't just play both sides of the ball, however. As mentioned above, he's an All-Pro returner: The dude plays special teams, as well, and it's important roles all across the unit.
That's something you rarely see in the NFL and it's obviously because there are hardly any players capable of doing it. And the Packers aren't afraid of taking this as far as it can go.
"He's a guy that any time you get him the ball, he's got the chance to take it the distance," said LaFleur. "So we'll see if we have to amp up his usage a little bit, on offense. It was pretty remarkable, I think, what he did yesterday in terms of how many snaps [he played] on defense, he played the one snap on offense, and then played on five phases of special teams. There's not too many guys in the league that do that."
Per Pro Football Focus, Nixon played 45 snaps on defense, one on offense, and nine on special teams. And as LaFleur stated, those nine ST snaps were distributed across all five special teams phases. He also added three solo tackles, a pass break-up and two returns to the 11-yard run. At the end of the game, Nixon was presented with a game ball for his efforts.
"I mean, he versatile as hell, you know. It's kind of lit," Nixon jokingly said Tuesday. "It just comes back to my preparation and how I take on the day and stuff like that. I'm excited. I felt good. Hopefully they keep it going."
"I think he loves playing on offense," Packers quarterback Jordan Love said Tuesday. "… I think the more we can get him out there, you know, the more tricks we can do with him. He's the explosive playmaker as well and it'd help to have him out there. But yeah, I think he's eager to get some more plays."
The Packers definitely need to keep coming up with ways to use Nixon. He's more than proven that he's a dynamic player and a threat to score from long distance. As a wild card, that is a very scary situation for opposing defenses.
That's also part of the challenge of keeping Nixon effective, though: toeing the line between a wild card and tipping your hat. The Packers don't want to create a situation where opposing defenses know the ball is going to Nixon once he steps on the field. That would easily pigeonhole the offense and is certainly counterintuitive to the whole scheme.
"I think it's week-to-week, right, in terms of what we're asking him to do," LaFleur said when asked about toeing that line. "And that's a play that we've had up for a couple of weeks, we just haven't gotten it dialed up. I didn't want to give them another false promise. I feel like it was two weeks in a row; I told him that, 'Hey, we're gonna get this called.' So [we] finally got it done and he went out there and made a good play."
It's funny how far the Packers and Nixon have come. Last year, LaFleur was apologizing for waiting too long to get Nixon the field as a returner. Now, he's trying to get him on the field in any way he can.
And, while it's a small sample size, one can see the potential – and it's potential that can lead to some big performances down the road.
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