GREEN BAY, Wis. — Play five to eight yards off Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers will pick a defense apart with stop routes, slants and by just hurling the ball to the perimeter on aborted running plays.
Good luck trying to tackle the Green Bay Packers’ exceptional wide receiver, too.
If an upcoming opponent doesn’t have talent at cornerback, it still might be preferable staying away from Nelson and at least preventing the deep ball.
However, as every team on the Packers’ schedule would have duly noted in the offseason, defenses with a shutdown cornerback did have a degree of success containing Nelson down the stretch last season with tight, physical coverage in the bump zone.
After Nelson helped destroy the Philadelphia Eagles, 53-20, on Nov. 16, he had 60 receptions for 998 yards and nine touchdowns in 10 games.
The next week in Minnesota, cornerback Xavier Rhodes limited Nelson to a long gain of 14 yards in 12 targeted passes.
Three weeks after that, Buffalo’s Stephon Gilmore tried the same tactics and Nelson’s long was 20 yards in 12 targets.
In the playoffs, Brandon Carr of Dallas limited Nelson to a long of 11 yards in five targets, and Seattle’s Byron Maxwell held him to a long of 23 yards in eight targets.
Nelson’s numbers in Games 11-18 were 45 for 614 and four touchdowns. Compared to his 10-game averages of six receptions for 99.8 yards, his final eight-game norms of 5.6 for 76.8 were semi-reasonable for opponents.
“Teams tried to beat him up in press-man,” an executive in personnel for an NFC team said. “Maybe some teams figured him out.”
That’s easier said than done, of course. But if there can be a blueprint for competing respectably against Nelson, maybe the Vikings and Bills provided it.
“The Buffalo and Minnesota games were comparable just because of the way they play,” Nelson said. “They’re very similar defenses. They’re going to want to be physical, and a lot of times they get help over the top. It’s to the DB’s advantage there.
“To me, releasing has always been my, I guess, weak area, or something that I’ve always worked on year in and year out.”
Gilmore, 6 foot and 190 pounds, was the 10th player drafted in 2012 after running 40 yards in 4.40 seconds. Rhodes (6-11/2, 210, 4.43) was the 25th pick in 2013.
In each case, the cornerback confronted Nelson with press coverage trying to take away those takeoff-stop routes and praying the rush would get home to protect him on double moves.
“We watched all the plays this off-season,” Nelson said. “There are plays in the Buffalo game that weren’t good and there are plays we were there but we weren’t in rhythm.
“The Minnesota game didn’t bother me. The Buffalo game, hey, I’ve moved on from there.”
Nelson torched the Bills’ other cornerback, Corey Graham, on a slant-and-go when the veteran crouched once too often. When Nelson dropped a probable 94-yard touchdown pass, he apologized to his teammates for letting them down.
Nevertheless, that was the circumstances of one play. What matters in the new season will be if opponents try to emulate the general philosophy of the Bills and others by attempting to disrupt Nelson in the bump zone.
“To me, press-man has never been the issue,” Nelson said. “I’ve got plenty of games, the Philly game for one, that if they consistently play one-high press-man, we’re winning consistently.
“It’s when they’re able to only rush four guys and allow their DBs (cornerbacks) to be aggressive and have safeties (deep). When a DB (cornerback) can play half a man outside of you knowing they got a corner or a safety sitting inside.
“When it does get difficult is when the corner (lines) up half a man outside me, it’s hard to get outside. But sometimes in our playbook we don’t have a choice. We have to go outside based on what’s going on inside.”
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy went ballistic a few times in the games at Minnesota and Buffalo when officials didn’t flag defenders for roughing up Nelson.
“That’s some guys’ game plan,” Nelson said. “One week it’ll get called, one week it doesn’t.
“Obviously, I could have performed better in the Buffalo game. It comes down to one really bad play. Catch that, and no one talks about the Buffalo game.”
The Packers began and ended their 2014 season with defeats in Seattle. Operating against a Cover-3 zone scheme with cornerbacks in close coverage underneath, Rodgers’ longest completion in each game was just 23 yards.
“It’s kind of the way the corner position’s playing now,” quarterback Scott Tolzien said. “The way Seattle plays.”
Alex Van Pelt, the team’s first-year coach of wide receivers, said Nelson has no problem escaping the jam. When average to subpar cornerbacks try pressing, think of the times Nelson has released cleanly outside before snagging a 25-yard fade on the sideline.
“I know Buffalo was tough,” Van Pelt said. “There was a lot of tuggin’ and grabbin’ down the field that normally gets called and wasn’t that day.
“But it’s no excuse. As receivers we’ve got to fight the contact, be able to get off the line of scrimmage, be violent at the top of our routes.”
Nelson couldn’t participate in offseason workouts after undergoing surgery to clean out an impingement in his hip following the NFC Championship Game. He has practiced since camp opened July 30.
“I was on crutches for how long so I watched what I ate,” he said. “I made it a point not to get fat.”
So far he has maintained his reporting weight of 210, which is less than his customary playing weight of 215.
“I kind of like it,” he said. “You take five pounds off a person, you’re going to feel better.”
Nelson has taken the same number of reps as Randall Cobb and is his same old dynamic self, according to Van Pelt.
“He looks like the same Jordy to me,” Tolzien said.
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