How Have Green Bay Packers Addressed Biggest Weaknesses from 2014?

The Green Bay Packers thrived behind the league's No. 1 scoring offense in 2014, but weaknesses in the run defense (23rd) and special teams (32nd, per the Dallas Morning News) contributed to their late-season collapse. 

While the offense looks to be even better in 2015, if the Packers don't address these two areas sufficiently before September, they may endure another late-season exit from Super Bowl contention. 

How have the Packers attempted to improve in their areas of weakness, and have they done enough?

The short answer is that Green Bay still has some obvious questions (including on run defense and special teams) heading into next season, but we need to witness a full training camp to get an accurate idea of how strong the team is overall.

The first, and biggest, move the Packers made this offseason to address issues from 2014 was for head coach Mike McCarthy to give play-calling duties to former offensive coordinator and now associate head coach Tom Clements. 

In addition to Clements now calling the offensive plays, quarterback Aaron Rodgers will have more say in both the game plan and the calls at the line of scrimmage. 

"This is the time to do it," McCarthy said back in February, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. "I think our staff's ready. I think it's an opportunity for guys to grow. And it's an opportunity for them to make an impact."

In the past, McCarthy had said he wouldn't give up play-calling duties unless he felt the team would be better off if he did so. In this case, the offense might not take an obvious step forward because it's already so solid, but defense and special teams could.

Sure, Green Bay's offense suffered from some overly conservative play-calling by McCarthy toward the end of 2014, including on two drives against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game in which he called for field goals rather than attempt touchdowns with the ball on Seattle's 1-yard line. 

However, defense and special teams stand to benefit even more from the change. A play-caller is so keyed into the minutiae of each play that he often misses the big-picture elements of the game. 

As ESPN NFL scout Matt Williamson said, there are many aspects of game management that fall through the cracks when the head coach is the one calling plays. 

"I think it is awfully tough to pull off," Willliamson said, via Demovsky. "You always have to be thinking a play ahead of time instead of 'living in the moment,' which can interfere with when to take timeouts, time management, etc."

Now, McCarthy will have more oversight on defense and special teams, the latter being a particularly important area of focus for him this offseason.

Special teams were the cause of multiple gaffes in 2014, the most memorable ones being the fake field goal for a score on which the Seahawks began their comeback in the NFC Championship Game and Brandon Bostick's bungled attempt at catching an onside kick

But the troubles went beyond the championship game. The special teams units were consistent in their poor performance. As the Dallas Morning News pointed out in its special teams rankings, the Packers had the most blocked kicks in the league, with seven. Tim Masthay was nearly last in the league, at 30th, in net yards per punt (37).

The Packers haven't had incredibly flashy special teams efforts in recent seasons—few trick plays, a middling return game—but the unit was stable enough not to gain recognition for the wrong reasons. That wasn't the case last season.

The rebuild began in January, when McCarthy fired special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum and promoted assistant Ron Zook. His focus on improving the unit has been obvious throughout OTAs. 

The live punting so far in OTAs, from both Masthay and his competitor Cody Mandell, could use some work.

"We’ve spent a lot more time on special teams in Phase II (of OTAs) than we have in the past, and we’ll spend more time on special teams in Phase III than we have in the past," McCarthy said after practice on May 28, per Vic Ketchman of Packers.com.

He's enjoying being able to shift his focus to be broader than the offense.

"I enjoy coaching," McCarthy said, per Ketchman. "Coaching is coaching regardless of the position you work with. Coaching is where I want to be. This has been a fun year for me personally, being able to be with the defense, be with the special teams."

Even if the special teams unit is improved, however, there's still that issue of the soft middle that allowed opponents to gain 119.9 rushing yards per game last season.

The Packers cut inside linebackers A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones this offseason and declined to re-sign Jamari Lattimore. It's no coincidence that the teams that had the best run defenses in 2014 had some of the best inside linebackers: Bobby Wagner, Seattle (No. 5); Daryl Smith, Baltimore (No. 7); Jamie Collins and Dont'a Hightower, New England (No. 9). 

If Green Bay didn't have Clay Matthews to move inside in 2014, things could have gotten really ugly for the run defense. His impact was obvious and immediate: After moving Matthews inside on rushing downs, the Packers run defense improved to sixth over the final eight games, allowing 86.4 rushing yards per game on average. In their first half of the season, the Packers were 32nd against the run, allowing 153.5 yards per game per the LA Times. 

But Matthews is also Green Bay's best pass-rusher in an outside linebacker group whose landscape is shifting quickly. 

Julius Peppers only has two years left on his contract and may be cut after this season, given his cap hit of $10.5 million in 2016. The Packers declined to pick up Nick Perry's fifth-year option. Mike Neal will become a free agent next March.

Thus, most expected that the Packers would look to draft a starting-caliber inside linebacker on Day 1 or Day 2 of the NFL draft, someone who could eventually start next to Sam Barrington and limit the amount of time Matthews has to spend inside. 

Instead, general manger Ted Thompson let players like Clemson's Stephone Anthony and TCU's Paul Dawson go and waited until Round 4, where he picked up Michigan's Jake Ryan.

Ryan is a talented athlete and has been earning the praise of McCarthy and his defensive coaches through the rookie minicamp and OTAs. However, Matthews and Barrington have been the starting inside linebackers in practices, and Ryan and 2014 rookie and outside linebacker convert Carl Bradford have been on the second team per Paul Imig of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. 

Right now, it's less that these players are competing for an open starting job and more that they'll be rotated in with Matthews. 

Ryan played middle linebacker during his senior year at Michigan, while Bradford played defensive end and outside linebacker at Arizona State. He's a three-down linebacker who does well in coverage, so perhaps moving him in on third downs in 2015 and moving Matthews to the edge could work well.

Nate Palmer, 2014 undrafted free agent Joe Thomas and 2015 offseason addition Josh Francis could also push for snaps, but the players to watch are Ryan and Bradford. 

Is the inside linebacker rotation going to be more successful than drafting a starter early in the draft would have been? Certainly one could argue that Matthews is one of Green Bay's most dangerous players, and using him as a chess piece wherever he benefits the team most is a good strategy. 

The stats from 2014 show that the run defense improves dramatically with Matthews in the middle on run downs, after all. Green Bay also gets nose tackle B.J. Raji back from a biceps injury this season and has Letroy Guion to use on the defensive line, as well, which should improve the run defense. 

Still, we can't say for sure that this unit will be better in 2015 until the Packers have some regular season games under their belt.