Green Bay's Inside Zone Weak - Slice Variations
When I finished up my last Manual on Matt LaFleur’s offense, their split zone variations stood out to me as one of their calling cards.
LaFleur and his staff utilize the “Slice” tag on both Inside and Outside Zone brilliantly. I go into extreme detail on these in The 2023 Green Bay Packers complete Offensive Manual.
Today we will look at their 2025 inventory of Inside Zone Weak - Slice calls. These are versions of split flow inside zone with a tight end on the back side.
The slicing action (U tight end in the diagram) forces a response from the defense. The offense is moving a gap from one side of the ball to the other. Do the linebackers fall back a gap? Do the safeties rotate to the slicer? Does a man defender chase?
From condensed splits, the Packers will have their receivers block the most dangerous secondary defender to their side. This allows them to block all defenders in the run fit, even against loaded boxes. It also eliminates the need to RPO the concept (although they will occasionally still RPO it).
Like any run scheme, the offense needs a plan to account for an extra secondary player in run support. A creative way to do this is to force safety rotation to the side of the formation with an extra wide receiver. The diagram below shows how to accomplish this. With the defense lined up in a 6-down front, safety rotation to account for the fast motion is the most likely outcome.
This leaves the back side cornerback unblocked. This defender might not be a great tackler, and will be coming from depth with the rotation to cover 3.
In the Wildcard round, the Packers called a Full House variation. The BSTE, coming from the backfield, will Arrow and bluff the EMOL for the eventual slicer. The BSWR is assigned to crack block the first off-ball linebacker, with the Arrow accounting for the secondary force player.
This is the type of window dressing that the Packers have showcased with this family of runs over the years. Sound tags that account for the box while adding a layer for the defense to recognize and communicate.
A variation from Week 16 utilizes Escort motion for the Slice block. With 12 personnel in the game, Green Bay starts off in an 11 personnel formation. The Escort Slice turns the final picture into the 12 personnel look required to get to this version of Inside Zone.
It appears that Green Bay pushes the point of the run out to the strong safety, who is initially lined up outside of the box. This allows the offensive line to stay on a true zone path instead of having to redirect for a fall back from the linebackers. In these “push” schemes, all front side box defenders are blocked. Against single high looks, the BSLB will be left unblocked, however.
(The BSTE could have busted, and might have the BSLB instead of the nickel as shown in the diagram/clip, not sure on the exact assignment)
The ball cuts front side, so the unblocked linebacker is not an issue.
The rest of this article covers:
A well-designed red zone variation
A proper red zone RPO tag
12-clip cutup
If you like this breakdown, please consider becoming a paid subscriber with the link below. For only $5/month (or $50 annually), your support allows me to spend more time and resources to scour the X & O landscape.