GREEN BAY – As the Packers continue to make changes to their coaching staff, Head Coach Matt LaFleur has promoted wide receivers coach Jason Vrable, adding passing game coordinator to his title and duties.
Here are five things to know about Vrable:
1. This is his second promotion from LaFleur in the last three years.
Vrable, who just turned 37 last week, joined LaFleur's initial 2019 staff as an offensive assistant, working with the wide receivers. He then took over the position in 2020 when Alvis Whitted was not retained. He now takes on the additional work of passing game coordinator, which had been handled by former Packers QB coach Luke Getsy, now the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.
2. Both of WR Davante Adams' first-team All-Pro selections came on Vrable's watch.
At the wide receiver position, Vrable has overseen the development of players across the spectrum – an undrafted find in Allen Lazard, a promising draft pick in Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and one of the league's best in Adams.
Adams was hitting his prime when Vrable came on the scene and his game has only continued to rise, with back-to-back All-Pro selections and now a streak of five straight Pro Bowl selections, to go with numerous team records.
3. As a college player, he was a quarterback.
Vrable played QB at Marietta College in Ohio, finishing his career in 2006 ranked first in school history in passing yards, completions and TD passes. He was a two-time team captain and team MVP as well as the school's male scholar-athlete of the year. He was inducted into the Marietta College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
4. He's coached the QB position at various stops throughout his career, too, along with other offensive spots.
Vrable's coaching career began at his alma mater in 2007, working with the QBs. He also coached quarterbacks, or assisted with the position, at Robert Morris, Syracuse, University of Charleston, and with the Buffalo Bills.
Vrable also coached receivers and running backs along the way, including a stint as the interim running backs coach for the Bills. In his two years as an offensive assistant for the N.Y. Jets before coming to Green Bay, he worked with receivers.
5. Joining the Packers became the third different time and place he'd worked with former offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
Hackett, now the head coach of the Denver Broncos, was on the Syracuse offensive staff in 2010 and on the Buffalo Bills' offensive staff in 2013-14 with Vrable. Then the two reconnected in Green Bay in 2019.
