Expect a lot of hand motions and body gestures from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers Thursday night against the Seattle Seahawks. Rodgers will heavily rely on hand signals to communicate with the offense in an effort to overcome Seattle's deafening fans, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Seattle's CenturyLink Field is the loudest stadium in the NFL. The noise from the crowd has so negatively affected opponents that the fans earned the moniker "Seattle's 12th Man." Expecting Thursday night to be no different, Green Bay's offense extensively practiced communicating with hand signals throughout the week in preparation for their season-opener at Seattle.
"For obvious reasons, players and coaches were reluctant to talk about the hand signals Rodgers uses when the crowd noise is too loud for his receivers to hear his calls," Silverstein wrote Wednesday. "His receivers will work off them a great deal inside CenturyLink. If McCarthy and his staff have done their job, it shouldn't be an issue.
"The more the Packers have fun the no-huddle the better they've got at speeding up the signal process and maintaining the fast tempo they feel is critical to success."
Keeping the signals unique and constantly changing is important for the offense, especially against the same Seahawks defense that claimed they cracked the hand signals of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl.
"It's always fluid, always changing," Packers quarterback coach Alex Van Pelt told the Journal Sentinel. "It could change in the middle of a game, which is vital to teams that think they have a lock on you. But it's practiced before."
Signals could range from hand motions - pointing, a clinched fist, a thumbs down, a pat on the thigh - to head gestures and other body movements. Although Seattle will certainly be watching Rodgers and hoping to crack his code, it'll be difficult to do: Rodgers makes up all the hand signals for the plays and the adjustments.
Kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Find live stream information HERE.
