The proven run-blocking ability of new Green Bay Packers tight end Marcedes Lewis helps make him a deadly weapon on play-action passes, a fact the Jacksonville Jaguars often used to their advantage and one the Packers should exploit in 2018.

Many of his biggest plays came off run fakes. In fact, the Jaguars employed several different play-action concepts that worked to great effect with Lewis, who graded out as the best run-blocking tight end in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus.

The Jaguars favored one concept above all others, and they used it in subtly different ways to help get Lewis easy chances.

The basic idea is simple. Fake some kind of run action in the backfield, with Lewis feigning a block attempt, often on the backside of the play, before slipping out and getting downfield.

Here, we see it work off a zone-read fake for an easy touchdown in the AFC Championship Game:

Here, the Jaguars fake an end-around action off the same concept:

Different run fake, but same concept, same result:

Seriously, the Jaguars loved this play. Here it is out of a two-back formation:

But the Jaguars had other wrinkles in the play-action passing game that worked with Lewis.

Here’s a play every team has in the playbook. Watch how all the Colts linebackers react to the run action, allowing Lewis to slide across the formation and easily win his one-on-one matchup:

When linebackers have to respect the run every play, easy completions like this are possible:

Play-action is also an effective way to get a player in space with room to run. Lewis can still be a slippery player after the catch, as the Packers found out here on a designed play-action screen in Week 1 of 2016:

Lewis timed it all perfectly, from the slip block on Nick Perry to the cutbacks around blockers. He nearly scored a 48-yard touchdown.

Here’s a concept the Packers could easily steal:

The Bengals’ zone coverage is shredded, not only by the play-action fake, but by the route concepts overloading the layers of the zone. Lewis is left wide open at the intermediate level for an easy pitch and catch. It all begins with the run action right away.

Lewis is such a great weapon on play-action passes because defenses understand his ability in the run game. That respect creates problems before and after the snap.

The Jaguars also proved highly capable of running the football last season, so defenses were often expecting run and often loading up to stop it. The Packers won’t be nearly as run-heavy with Aaron Rodgers under center, but the offense showed – even with Brett Hundley at quarterback and two rookies carrying much of the load – an ability to get people blocked and move the football with efficiency on the ground last season. Green Bay was third in the NFL in rushing DVOA in 2017.

Returning Rodgers and adding Lewis should only make the Packers more efficient on the ground. And if that’s the case, Rodgers could be deadly off run fakes. Think back to the game in Dallas last season. Aaron Jones and the Packers ran it down the Cowboys’ throats and Rodgers was unstoppable off play-action. It wouldn’t be surprising if the offense produced several more games like that in 2018.