With Aaron Rodgers, there's much more to the hard count than meets the ear
GREEN BAY – Two plays before bending the All-Pro linebacker to his will, displaying his latest masterful hard count, Aaron Rodgers’ cadence is routine.
“Green Nineteeeen,” Rodgers projects at the line of scrimmage, elongating the final syllable of 19. “Green 19. Hut.”
It is how the Green Bay Packers begin most of their plays. Green 19 is an homage to the team’s origin. Rodgers recites the Packers’ color and year of establishment (1919), just as Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre did before him. It is also the foundation on which Rodgers built maybe the most elaborate cadence in NFL history, a hard count that gives opposing defensive coordinators chills, and makes even the league’s best defenders helpless.
Like Demario Davis, the New Orleans Saints' savvy linebacker. One play before he jumps, Davis digs in. On second-and-5 from the Saints’ 17-yard line late in the fourth quarter, the Packers break their huddle and arrive at the line of scrimmage with 15 seconds on the play clock. Fifteen seconds is forever for Rodgers, a playground for the league’s most valuable voice to be unleashed.
“Green Nineteeeen,” Rodgers shouts, elongating that last syllable again. “Green 19. Hut-hut.” The Saints are still. There are 10 seconds remaining on the play clock. Rodgers tries again. “Blue Fifty-eeeeight. Blue 58. HUT-GO.” Davis flinches, taking a two-step hop toward the line of scrimmage, giving away his position. Busted. “Watch crash right here,” left tackle David Bakhtiari says, signaling the linebacker is coming on a run blitz. But Davis gathers himself. The Saints remain onside. Five seconds. Time to snap.
“Green Nineteeeen. Green 19. Hut.”
Rodgers hands off to Aaron Jones. The tailback runs right, opposite Davis. He gets 2 yards. It’s third down.
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This is where Rodgers’ hard count is most lethal. Of the 39 times Rodgers has tried to get an opponent to jump offside through three games, 18 have come on third down. Rodgers has used a hard count on more than half the Packers’ 34 third downs this season.
If it’s third down, and you’re defending Rodgers, hold onto your pants.
“Green Nineteeeen,” Rodgers starts. “Green 19. Hut-hut. Can, can, can. Green Nineteeeen. Green 19. HUT-HUT. Blue Fifty-eeeeight. Blue 58. HUT. GO.”
Finally, Damario Davis goes. The Packers' offense does not. Center Corey Linsley keeps the football in his hand.
A yellow flag follows Davis.
***
There is much more to the hard count than meets the ear. There is rhythm and staccato, a deep vocabulary, situational feel. It is an art, pulling defenders’ strings like puppets, and Rodgers has been the NFL’s best for years.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” second-year offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett says.
Rodgers made his career on his right arm. He’s one of the most talented passers in NFL history. His legs set him apart from most of the rest. Out of the pocket, on an extended play, few quarterbacks have been more feared. Rodgers’ mind routinely puts the Packers' offense into the right play. He dissects a defense in roughly the time it takes you to blink.
That would be enough for many quarterbacks, but Rodgers’ voice is a skill unto itself. Favre was his muse, the quarterback who popularized that elongated Green Nineteeeen. “It must be something up in the water by you guys,” Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn says. “Because there has been a good hard count coming out of Green Bay for a long time.” Rodgers is the next iteration. He utters the same cadence, but he’s made that cadence his own.
The hard count is an innate ability, like arm strength. Coaches don’t devote practice time harnessing their quarterback’s voice. Quarterbacks either have it, or they don’t.
“To me,” coach Matt LaFleur says, “it’d be like almost training somebody how to sing. Some people are not very good at singing, like myself. But it’s something that I think you have to take pride in as a quarterback.”
Rodgers’ inflection is what cuts through before each snap, but the hard count requires a symphony to pull off. Receivers are taught to hit an invisible “mute button,” fixing their eyes on the football. “It’s not easy,” Davante Adams says, “to hold your water on offense.” Linemen sit in their stance, resisting temptation.
Behind them, Rodgers has an almost endless reservoir of cadences. He is Picasso with words, scattering them all about in seemingly random patterns, but everyone on the Packers' offense understands the composition. “It’s very, very complex,” Linsley says. “It’s not like we’re sending rockets up into space. It’s not that, but it’s complex.”
Green Nineteeeen is the baseline, but sometimes Rodgers will follow with a Blue Fifty-eeeeight. He can deliver a “hut-hut” or “HUT-HUT” or “HUT, hut” or even the less frequent “set-hut.” Occasionally, Rodgers will shout an additional “GO!” The cadences can blend into “HUT-HUT, go” or “HUT-HUT, hut-hut” like compound sentences.
“Our guys not jumping offside is the most important thing,” Rodgers says. “The ability to do the hard count is predicated on us being able to not false start.”
At the snap, a penalty flag secured, the offense shifts into “attack mode.” Receivers take the same release off the line of scrimmage, but they aren’t breaking their routes. It’s a race to the end zone, a downhill sprint. Rodgers has incited three neutral-zone infractions this season, each on third down. A fourth, the penalty Sunday night on Davis, was overruled because of defensive pass interference. That’s 20 free yards on four plays, but penalty yardage is hardly the biggest benefit.
The Packers have converted 65 percent of their third downs when Rodgers uses a hard count, helping the offense rank fifth in the league converting 50 percent overall through three games. Twice, they’ve converted third down without a snap because a defender jumped on the hard count.
“I always heard these rumors about Aaron and the snap count,” Hackett says, “and his ability to get free plays. I think until you’re there and you see it consistently, it’s the darnedest thing you’ll ever see, the way that it’s choreographed, how the guys react. Both the offensive line, running backs and wide receivers, and the intricacies in how those guys disperse, it’s unbelievable.
“It’s one of those things as a coordinator, you’re just like, hey, do that again.”
***
Almost 40 hard counts in three games might seem like a lot. It’s really not, considering the Packers have already had 201 offensive plays. Rodgers has opened 80 percent of plays with a regular cadence.
The genius is how to disperse the other 20 percent.
“He knows how to do it with the right play,” New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton says, “where he’s got a vertical route.”
Rodgers, knowing his hard count is irresistible, waits for maximum effect. On a hard count, he has completed four passes of at least 38 yards this season. His 72-yard completion to Allen Lazard on Sunday night came after mixing both Green Nineteeeen and Blue Fifty-eeeeight, as well as HUT-HUT and HUT-GO.
On a hard count, Rodgers has completed 12 of 17 passes this season for 261 yards, one touchdown and a 132.6 passer rating, according to stats PackersNews compiled.
“When he turns it on,” Packers linebacker Christian Kirksey says, “he’s a bad man.”
The big plays are only a fraction of the hard count’s benefit. Its ability to hold defenses honest during the other 80 percent when Rodgers uses a regular cadence might be more important. Rodgers has been virtually untouched this season, and a quality offensive line is only part of the reason. Yes, Rodgers has quickened his release, the ball delivered on time more frequently now than recent years, but his cadence also gives him more protection from the snap.
“It forces the defensive linemen to play just a tick bit slower, a tick more hesitant,” Linsley says, “knowing that they can't just tee off, and there's always the possibility of the hard count.”
There’s also the hidden benefit, a knowing fear that follows opponents throughout game week. When defenses prepare for opposing quarterbacks, they dissect everything on film. They study the arm strength, the accuracy, the routes. They note how a quarterback reads his progressions, how he handles the pocket. When defenses prepare for Rodgers, they also must prepare for that voice.
Two days before the Saints hosted Rodgers, Payton predicted what would happen. “We’re going to get five, six, seven of those classic hard counts,” he said. Rodgers’ cadence wasn’t a surprise. The Saints knew it was coming. They heard it on the broadcast of past games, something Rodgers must also watch and listen as he self-scouts.
They just couldn’t stop themselves.
“Teams are worried about it,” Rodgers says, “because they talk about it. Now you can hear everything, they’re yelling it out. They’re yelling out ‘watch the ball,’ and makes it a little more fun when they jump offside when you know they’ve been drilling it all week too.”