Packers almost dropped the ball with A.J. Dillon
Coaching in the NFL is hard. That's why there's such a high turnover rate. And even the best coaches make big mistakes. Just take a look at Bill Belichick's draft resumé and you'll see what I mean. Fortunately, the Green Bay Packers coaching staff avoided making a big mistake when it came to developing A.J. […]
Coaching in the NFL is hard. That's why there's such a high turnover rate.
And even the best coaches make big mistakes. Just take a look at Bill Belichick's draft resumé and you'll see what I mean.
Fortunately, the Green Bay Packers coaching staff avoided making a big mistake when it came to developing A.J. Dillon over the last two seasons.
According to head coach Matt LaFleur, the Packers were close to "accidentally" discovering Dillon's abilities as a pass-catcher.
"It almost happened by accident," LaFleur told reporters Wednesday. "There was a couple of times where we'd have A.J. in there and I surely thought Aaron Jones was going to be in there. He made the most of his opportunities and gotta give [running backs coach] Ben [Sirmans] a lot of credit for giving him those opps and A.J. for taking advantage of those.
"He's a really good route runner and that's not the first thing you think of when you see a guy that size. It's a great luxury to have a guy like that … He understands the intricacies of the pass game and he's done a great job for us."
It's easy to see why the Packers didn't think much of Dillon as a receiver, initially. For starters, the guy straight-up just looks like a battering ram, as LaFleur mentioned, but, he also caught just 21 passes over the course of his three-year career at Boston College.
And then, Dillon caught just two passes on two targets as a Packers rookie in 2020.
Everything changed in 2021, however. Dillon caught 34 passes on 37 targets for 313-yards and two touchdowns. The yardage ranked 20th out of all running backs and the two receiving touchdowns were tied for 12th-most. He managed these totals despite playing just 43% of offensive snaps last year.
It's Dillon's advanced stats that really stand out. Dillon finished second in catch rate (91.5%) and second in yards per target (8.5) among backs with at least 37 targets. Per Pro Football Focus, Dillon finished eighth in both yards per route run (1.57) and drop rate (2.9%) among 37 qualifying backs. His mark of 1.57 yards per route run was better than running backs named Austin Ekeler, Jonathan Taylor, Dalvin Cook, and his own teammate in Jones.
Dillon uses his size to his advantage when he's a receiver, as well. He averaged 9.2 yards after contact per reception, which was eighth-best. And what makes that even more impressive is the fact his average depth of target was a mere 0.2 air yards, which tied for 24th out of 37 players.
"There's just not too many backs that size that have those type of hands that are true halfbacks," said LaFleur. "You see some fullbacks that do that, but not halfbacks."
LaFleur is absolutely right when he says it's a luxury to have the two running backs the Packers have. And it's wild to think that the Packers were close to never realizing that.
But, unfortunately for the rest of the NFL, they found out. And they're going to use the advantage to its fullest extent.
You can check out LaFleur's presser below:
Featured image via Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
