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“He can throw the ball 70 yards without any forward momentum. “He has one of the best cannons in the NFL,” Staubach says. It starts with Rodgers’s arm and how far-and high-he can throw. There’s an art involved in setting up a Hail Mary, let alone completing one. “He’ll just launch them,” the tight end Rodgers says, guessing the quarterback’s range is around 77 yards.Ĭhoice Route: An unexpected journey down Ron Parker's unlikely playoffs path More frequently, Rodgers slings 50-yard bombs down field at practice for the same reasons baseball pitchers long toss-to build arm strength.
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Most Saturdays, the Packers run through the Hail Mary scenario only once. Other times, Green Bay only simulates the play, and there’s no actual pass. Rodgers has not actually thrown a Hail Mary in those Saturday practices since, he estimates, “Week 4 or Week 5.” Sometimes, his backup, Brett Hundley, will throw for him, and to prevent injuries the receivers don’t even try to catch the football, leaving defenders to bat it down. There’s also an element of spacing involved-some teams do it horizontally, some vertically, to force defenses to spread-and the Packers like to place one player behind the Jumper and one in front, in case the pass gets batted one way or the other, sails long or falls short.
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What they practice is alignment, how to set up the “Jumper,” or the player who is supposed to leap for the ball while his teammates box out, basketball-style, the defenders crowded in the Jumper’s vicinity. The heading is “situational football,” and as described in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel piece from 2015, that tab “can feel like a choose-your-own-adventure book.” The Hail Mary designs reside next to plans for onside kicks after safeties, fair-catch kicks and last-minute lateral bonanzas-rare plays, in every instance, and more evidence there is no situation the Packers fail to prepare for.Īs has been noted since Green Bay’s third successful Hail Mary, the Packers practice desperation heaves each Saturday, same as most, if not all, NFL teams. The Packers’ ‘Hail Mary’ package falls under a specific section of their playbook. Balls that high up usually don’t come straight down.” “It acts more like a punt and can tail in different directions depending on how it comes out of a QB’s hand.
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“When a football is that high, it travels different,” says Ruvell Martin, a Green Bay wideout from 2005–08. Packers receivers describe the way the ball drops as somewhere between a pass and a punt. The oversized, umbrella-like arc, Rodgers the quarterback says, is “by design.” Not only does the loftier path give pass-catchers more time to run down field, jostle for position or box out defenders, it also adds to defensive anxiety and changes the course of the ball as it descends. “I’ve never seen a quarterback throw the ball that high,” Rodgers the tight end says. What’s true, though, is that what differentiates a Hail Rodgers from a typical Hail Mary is not the length of the throw but the height. Kelly continues: “Timing is everything and fortunately it is so cold in Green Bay there isn’t significant re-entry heating.” He’s referring to the extreme heat spaceships encounter as they plummet toward earth, but adds, “I’m kidding, of course.”