An easy choice: 70-year-old quarterbacks coach Clements back for another ride with Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) — Longtime Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements is back for another ride with the green and gold.

Clements will turn 71-years-old next month; he said Wednesday he is taking his career "year to year," but said it was an easy decision to come back in 2024 to help coach an ascending team.

• Clements is entering his 14th season with the Packers. This will be the third season of his second stint; he returned to Green Bay in 2022 after two seasons with the Cardinals in 2019-20 and one year of retirement in 2021.
• He first served as the quarterbacks coach from 2006-2011, helping fuel Brett Favre's late-career resurgence before playing a key role in Aaron Rodgers' development.
• Clements was also the team's offensive coordinator from 2012-14 and assistant head coach in 2015 and '16.
• Prior to his coaching career, Clements played college football at Notre Dame before going on to a Hall of Fame career in the Canadian Football League, where he won two Grey Cups and earned seven CFL All-Star selections.

"The way we ended (last season) it really wasn't that tough of a process to decide to come back," Clements said. "I think we're poised to be a good team."

Clements hinted that he considered retirement prior to last season, but ultimately decided to return.

Now, he said he is excited to return to help continue the development of Green Bay's ascending offense.

"It's a lot easier compared to last year because we had a lot of guys who had no experience whatsoever in the NFL. A lot of rookies," Clements said. "Jordan (Love) it was his first year as a starter so he was seeing things for the first time."

"But obviously as the year went on we started to develop and were pretty good at the end of the year," Clements said. "We know we can be pretty good. Now you just have to work to get to that same spot."

Clements said Love has spent the offseason honing in on his fundamentals, such as footwork and pocket presence.

The longtime coach said he was pleased with Love's development toward the end of last season, specifically pointing out that Love made more plays throwing on the run late in the year.

"Early in the season when Jordan scrambled I'd say 95 percent of the time he ran the ball," Clements said. "(In the) second half of the year... a larger percentage he was moving around and looking to throw the ball down the field which is what you want to do because you can get a lot of big plays in the scramble phase of the game."

A few examples of that include Love's touchdown pass to Jayden Reed on December 17 against the Buccaneers and his touchdown pass to Tay Wicks the following week against the Panthers.

Clements said Love has been "the same guy" off the field this offseason, although perhaps "a little more vocal" entering his season year as the starting quarterback.

The Packers begin their next stage of the offseason on May 20 when they hit the field for Organized Team Activities (OTAs).