Sack celebrations are back on in Green Bay

[Rusher]

Za'Darius Smith walked into the locker room Friday, shouting, “Sack celebrations are back on!” The Packers pass rusher later tweeted the same, adding, “Love ya coach.”

Smith indicated Thursday that Packers coach Matt LaFleur had banned sack celebrations because they were taking too long. LaFleur clarified what he meant in a conversation Friday.

“What I told him,” LaFleur said, via Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, “was that they better be done in a timely manner. So, I don’t want to see these guys celebrating when I see the punt team’s already out on the field, it’s a third down and we have to burn a timeout or we get called, we get flagged for too many men on the field.”

LaFleur showed the defense a video of Khalil Mack celebrating a sack in 2014 that nearly cost the Raiders a win against the Chiefs. With Mack and Sio Moore offsides, the Raiders were forced to call a timeout.

“They were not situationally aware,” Packers linebacker Preston Smith said.

NFL rules give players 40 seconds to celebrate, and LaFleur said he likes it when the Packers celebrate together as a team but just asks them to be quick about it.

Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith said they already have a celebration dance picked out for Sunday.

“A Halloween celebration,” Za’Darius said.

Smith has six sacks in six games. The Packers have 18 as a team to go with 11 takeaways.