Acme Packing Company
Here’s a way to get Jayden Reed the football.
Every offseason, I end up spending time looking around the league (and in college) for plays the Green Bay Packers could steal for the upcoming season. It’s a way for me to keep up with football outside of Green Bay, and a chance to find some really fun plays in the process.
As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my focus has been on plays that support more of a Power Spread approach to offense. I looked to the Eagles for a QB run a couple weeks ago, but today we’re dipping into the college ranks to find a play that would work well off the split-gun spinner run game the Packers dipped into last year. I know I’ve talked about the Packers going more Spread in 2025, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to totally abandon the condensed, 12 personnel approach, so we’re exploring options in that world as well.
I wish I could say I found this play myself, but I did not. If you know the great Dan Casey, you know he digs deep to find the coolest plays in football every day. Recently, he posted a play from the Montana Grizzlies' final game of the 2024 season: a 35-18 loss to the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. (Side note: if you haven’t signed up for Casey’s One Play A Day email list, I can’t recommend it highly enough. You get to start off every day with a fun play, and there’s not much better than that.)
To bring this play to the forefront of my mind, a friend of mine texted me about how cool this was. That got me thinking about it all day and realizing how perfectly this could fit into the Packers' attack. So thanks, Matt.
Dan Casey refers to this as the Tornado Reverse. Let’s watch the play.
Wooooooooooo buddy that’s slick. What are we looking at here?
They’re in 12 (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR) personnel in a tight, YY Wing formation (two TEs in-line on the same side of the formation). The QB is in shotgun, flanked by the RB, and the two WRs are in a condensed split on either side of the formation.
Before the snap, the WR on the right motions in front of the QB, then orbits behind as the QB snaps the ball. The QB fakes to the WR orbiting behind him, then spins to fake to the RB crossing his face, before eventually pitching to the WR from the left who takes the ball around the edge.
The blocking is set up really nicely. The RT and C release to block down the field, joined by the motion receiver, who released off the fake and is now acting at the lead blocker.
It’s a lovely bit of misdirection and it works like a dream here.
As I mentioned already, this is something that would fit in nicely with the spinner run series the Packers...
