Early Signs are Encouraging for the Packers' Defense

I’m wary of praising change as it happens. It’s too easy to get excited by what’s new and let the fact that something is happening distract you from the question of whether or not what is happening is a good idea.

But even with that caveat, I can’t help but be encouraged by the process that’s unfolding on the defensive side of the ball in Green Bay. After years of complacency, content with a “good enough” hire in Joe Barry, the Packers are making real, actual changes to their defensive staff.

Barry is gone, and gone for good. Early reports that he could stick around on staff were, thankfully, not borne out. He’s now off to new and different things in Miami.

In his place we have Jeff Hafley, a long-time assistant who has spent nearly two decades working with some of the most highly regarded defensive schemers there are. Say what you will about Mike Pettine’s defenses in Green Bay, he’s still one of the most well-respected practitioners of the Rex Ryan defensive philosophy, and Hafley was at his elbow on a talented staff in Cleveland. No qualifiers are needed for his time in San Francisco; Robert Saleh’s work speaks for itself. And Greg Schiano, for all his perhaps misguided tough guy machismo, is still a fairly well-regarded defensive mind. Hafley, if nothing else, should be an interesting confluence of defensive philosophies. Barry, to be sure, was not dissimilar in that regard, but he’d gotten two previous opportunities to do what Hafley hopes to do now, and Barry failed. Hafley, if nothing else, is a roll of the dice on someone who hopefully has bright things ahead of him and few dismal things behind.

But that’s not all! The Packers have reorganized their defensive staff around Hafley, opening the door for their previous assistant coaches to leave — and some have. Jerry Montgomery, who has survived two previous defensive coordinator transitions despite having a consistent role in underwhelming run defenses, has moved on, making a lateral jump to another defensive line gig in New England. Kirk Olivadotti, whose linebackers have been fine to good in Green Bay, is also gone, as is pass game coordinator Greg Williams. I don’t have specific problems with either of their work in Green Bay, but I can’t help but be encouraged by the fact that there’s change happening.

Those departures have been offset with some noteworthy hires. Anthony Campanile, in a near one-for-one trade for Barry, will take over as the Packers’ linebackers coach after interviewing for the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator position this offseason. He was also approached about a job on Vic Fangio’s staff in Philadelphia. With him comes Derrick Ansley, recently the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers and previously their defensive backs coach. Ansley, like Campanile, also interviewed for the Giants’ defensive coordinator job this offseason. Like the departed coaches, I don’t have specific takes on their job performance or suitability for their roles with the Packers, but I think it’s noteworthy that they got attention for significant jobs before landing in Green Bay.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Packers are changing their base defense from a 3-4 to a 4-3. I am on record many times as what you might call a base defense skeptic. I don’t think the differences between the two schemes are all that meaningful, and many of the changes some football knowers out there suggest (like those outlined in this piece) are not really scheme dependent at all. (For instance, moving away from De’Vondre Campbell was going to happen regardless of what scheme the Packers ran. He’s old and doesn’t seem to want to be in Green Bay. That’s not a scheme problem!) But the fact that they’re making the change is again encouraging. There’s no “eh, it was good enough before” here. The Packers want to do what Hafley wants to do, and they’re implementing it as well as they can in February.

None of this, of course, means the Packers are going to be any good at all on defense. Shoot, it doesn’t mean any of these decisions are even correct. Maybe it all blows up! But compared to how they handled their last defensive coordinator change, it feels wildly different in all the right ways.