David Bakhtiari has ‘bought in on’ Matt LaFleur’s new Packers offense

David Bakhtiari spent the past seven seasons playing offensive tackle for Mike McCarthy, who had been his only coach on the Green Bay Packers.

He sees a dramatic change with the team — and especially the offense — under McCarthy’s replacement, Matt LaFleur. How different have things been?

‘Offensively, you’re talking an entire new offensive system’

“They’ve been really different,” Bakhtiari recently told John Clayton and Kirk Morrison on Movin’ The Chains. “I mean, you guys are talking about a whole entire culture change he’s bringing in. Offensively, you’re talking an entire new offensive system. It’s been different from anything from the terminology, to the plays, to even just our daily schedule.

“(Former Packers linebacker) Clay (Matthews) had even told me it’s tough to really play defense against this offense, because you’re worrying about six different things out of the same formation, from a jet sweep to an outside zone to reverse to an inside zone to a play action to just a straight up pass.”

“Sometimes change is needed, sometimes change is good. I’ve been a fan thus far and I’ve got to say, the system works. I’ve seen it just even in practice … just as recently just OTAs. I’ve bought in on it. I mean it, it clearly works.”

‘You’re worrying about six different things out of the same formation’

McCarthy employed a West Coast scheme. LaFleur’s approach, with its extensive variety of plays that are run from the same or similar looks, represents a dramatic shift.

“I think it’s more of like the the philosophy of it, as a whole, of kind of grouping everything together … this stems from (Los Angeles Rams coach Sean) McVay and (San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle) Shanahan,” Bakhtiari said. “It’s an offense, obviously, we played against the Rams last year. (Former Packers linebacker) Clay (Matthews) had even told me it’s tough to really play defense against this offense, because you’re worrying about six different things out of the same formation, from a jet sweep to an outside zone to reverse to an inside zone to a play action to just a straight up pass. There’s so many different variables, it’s hard. You’re thinking more than you can actually play. And to hear that from a defender and then actually now me having to execute it, I can definitely see how that can cause a lot of problems.”