Imagine that!
If you forgot that Robert Saleh was still kinda a Green Bay Packers coach right now, I wouldn’t blame you.
Outside of the occasional appearance in grainy phone photos from beat reporters, he’s not a particularly visible presence with the team – he apparently spends the week there, but isn’t with them on game days.
But just because he’s not visible, doesn’t mean he’s not making an impact. In fact, one of the biggest plays from the Packers’ Week 11 win over the Chicago Bears came from the mind of Saleh. And it was a deep shot
According to Matt LaFleur, Christian Watson’s third-quarter catch – the one that not only embarrassed Bears linebacker Jack Sanborn, but set up a touchdown that retook the lead – was schemed up by none other than Saleh himself.
Robert Saleh’s already contributing to some of the Packers’ best offensive plays
“He’s been helpful,” LaFleur said. “He’s doing a great job too. He always gives us a nugget. There’s plays that’s come up within discussion that we’ve been running in games that have been pretty successful, so he’s been a great asset.”
“There was a play that we ran last week where – we had it in our system – the one we hit Christian Watson on the left sideline. He [pretended] like he was stalking the linebacker, then slipped down the sideline. That was one play that he wanted the general idea of that, so we implemented that pretty successfully.”
At the risk of being a little too giddy/speculative, watching even half of that press conference proves just how much influence Saleh already has within the Packers’ coaching staff. LaFleur refuses to get into what Saleh does until he’s pressed about it, like, three separate times. His smirk says it all. It’s also not the first time that we’ve heard LaFleur mention that some of Green Bay’s most effective offensive plays have come from discussions with Saleh.
What a week it’s been for the Rodgers-Packers dynamic. The coach he got extremely fired immediately went to his old team and is now drawing up a bunch of very successful deep shots?
While Rodgers continues to waste away dealing with Woody Johnson and the unavoidable stench of the New York Jets? On top of that, all of this coming after one of the more comically enjoyable wins over the Bears in recent memory? What a week it’s been. The Packers might be back. Just don’t tell Aaron Rodgers.