Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers uses hand signals when the crowd noise is too loud for his receivers to hear his calls. Some signals might be dummy calls. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Seattle — If you get a chance Thursday night, take a minute and watch quarterback Aaron Rodgers between plays as he runs the Green Bay Packers' no-huddle offense.

Watch his hands, watch his feet, watch his eyes.

Someone from the Seattle Seahawks will be watching with you because it is during that time when Rodgers is silently relaying to his teammates run or pass, the routes his receivers are to run and any adjustments that need to be made after the defense lines up.

The Seahawks will try to break the code, but unless they know Rodgers personally they'll have a hard time doing it. Almost all the signals emanate from his thoughts and his personality.

"It has to be," coach Mike McCarthy said this week during a break in preparations for the season opener against the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. "He's the director. Let's not forget, Aaron has the toughest job of anybody.

"It has to be very, very comfortable and part of his thinking and his thought process and his personality."

Most of his signals mean something; some of them mean nothing.

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. 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 run 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. The longer the offense stays together the more they're able to expand it. It would be a lot different if Rodgers were playing with three rookie receivers instead of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Jarrett Boykin.

"In the old days, 2-minute was a little easier because you had standard things," McCarthy said of the limited use of no-huddle back then. "You only had so many signals, but 2-minute is a lot more extensive (now) and 2-minute in the old days is really what no-huddle is.

"You're just doing it without the demands of the clock. That part of it is new."

If you want an idea of what McCarthy is talking about, watch the St. Louis exhibition game when Rodgers and the offense played on the road and in a dome (albeit not a very loud one). They ran almost exclusively no-huddle and Rodgers called plays verbally for his interior players and used hand signals for his receivers.

Often, you'd see Rodgers with his fist in the air as he regrouped following the previous play. The personnel stays the same during no-huddle and the receivers mostly stay in the same place. That way they can keep an eye on Rodgers as they return to the line of scrimmage after a play.

Before one play, Rodgers signals a quick thumbs down to Boykin and then points to Nelson and Cobb on the left side. On another play, he subtly touches his left knee. On another he grabs his wrist and pumps his arm down.

At least once, he put his fist up and made a subtle first down gesture, put his finger up to his facemask and pointed to the back of his hand.

Sometimes you'll see the receivers raise their arms as though they missed the call. As far as anyone knows, they could be asking for the call to be made again or sending a signal back to Rodgers. Or it might not mean anything at all, similar to a dummy call a batter might receive from a third base coach.

"It's always fluid, always changing," quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said. "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.

"It's not like something we're going to roll out on the field on Thursday night and we haven't done it."

As McCarthy said, the signals emanate almost exclusively from Rodgers because the first association he makes between play and signal is probably the one he'll remember best. The other quarterbacks are in on the process and, according to Van Pelt, some of the proposed signals "may not be for national TV."

"It's goofy," Van Pelt said. "It's a bunch of 20-something guys out there. You can get some creative signals. It is fun. Some of them happen at the spur of the moment where you go, 'Hey, let's do this. Or it was that, let's change it and do this.'"

Backup Matt Flynn said that he and Scott Tolzien have come up with ideas for signals, but Rodgers has final say.

"If he's already thought of one, we don't have a chance," Flynn said.

For the first time in his tenure, McCarthy said the Packers will have a completely new set of signals for the regular season than they did in training camp. It's possible he's doing it because he can, because the Packers have been running the no-huddle so long now it's not difficult to do.

It also could be because Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman claimed Seattle decoded some signals Denver quarterback Peyton Manning made while running the Broncos' no-huddle offense in Super Bowl XLVIII. Sherman said some of the route audibles Manning made at the line of scrimmage were detected.

Whether that's true isn't known. It's hard to tell from the tape even though the Seahawks thoroughly frustrated Manning in their 43-8 beat-down of the Broncos.

"That's tough to call," Van Pelt said. "There are times where you think they might have a clue. Maybe not the concept of run or concept of pass, but run or pass. That could be a light-handed guard in a stance, it could be many things.

"Coaches spend a lot of time in their offices studying tape trying to get those little tips. At the same time, we do a lot of self-scouting to make sure we're not tipping our hand. It could be possible."

McCarthy said in order to run the no-huddle you have to commit the time to teaching hand signals to the offense. Receivers coach Edgar Bennett equated it with learning how to beat press coverage or bend a route correctly. It's an everyday part of the teaching process.

"You have to simplify it, that's a constant huge thought process for me on everything," McCarthy said. "If it's not simple, if it's not clean, they're not going to perform. It has to be crystal clear for these guys. That's our job."

The average person might have trouble remembering all the signals the Packers use, but McCarthy said football players have been trained to remember football-related things. Plus, he said, the ones who make it to the NFL are there not just because of their athletic talent but because they can grasp complicated offensive and defensive systems.

"You can't really play this game if you don't have a steel trap," McCarthy said. "Now, certain players have a different level of responsibility. But whatever your level of responsibility, if you don't have that steel trap memory, that instinct, then it's our job to train and rep them so it's not even a thought, it's a reaction, it's an impulse.

"It's another one of their skill sets they have to master."

According to offensive coordinator Tom Clements it's mostly about repetition. He said the No. 1 offense did well handling communication all through training camp and the exhibition games.

Van Pelt said he couldn't remember the No. 1 offense having a single miscommunication.

That's how the Packers need it to go Thursday night.

"We work on it daily, even through walk-throughs we work on it," Nelson said. "It's something that especially the veteran guys (know). Some of the younger guys are still learning little bits of it, how subtle we are with some of the things that we do.

"You just have to be able to pick up on it. I think communication is where it needs to be. I think we did a great job."