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Packers Coverage
Green Bay Packers Earn Major Praise For This Offseason Move
By Kenneth Teape,
2024-07-13
Mark Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was aggressive this offseason addressing needs on the roster. After a surprisingly successful 2023, he wanted to make sure the positive momentum kept building.
In free agency, the Green Bay Packers made two major additions; running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney. Running back wasn’t a pressing need, but the team got younger swapping Aaron Jones out for Jacobs.
Safety has been a pressing issue for years. McKinney, along with Javon Bullard, Evan Williams and Kitan Oladapo, will help change that.
Either of those free agency splashes could have been picked as the best move of the offseason for the Green Bay Packers. Alas, Trevor Sikkema of PFF opted to go in a different direction.
Instead of picking a player, he picked a coach. Sikkema believes the best move that the Green Bay Packers made was hiring Jeff Hafley to take over as defensive coordinator.
“The addition of safety Xavier McKinney was a consideration here, but Green Bay switching things up at defensive coordinator with Jeff Hafley seems like their most significant move.
The Packers will be moving to a 4-3 base defense instead of the 3-4 they’ve run for the past decade. Hafley, a former defensive backs coach, likely needed a top-notch safety to make his scheme go, and Green Bay got one in McKinney. The Packers didn’t post a team run-defense grade above 62.5 in the Joe Barry era,” Sikkema wrote.
After four seasons of being the head coach at Boston College, Hafley is returning to the NFL. During his stops with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, he worked with defensive backs.
This is the first solo defensive coordinator job that Hafley has had in his coaching career. At Ohio State in 2019, he was the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.
As Sikkema noted, changing to a 4-3 base from a 3-4 base is a major change. But, it is one that the players on the roster are excited about, along with the philosophy change Hafley is bringing along with him.
In the last few seasons under Joe Barry, the team’s performance defensively has fallen short of expectations. Hafley has the pieces to push this unit into the top half of the NFL, he just has to have his plan executed.
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