Jeff Hafley’s defensive rotations changing by the week with Green Bay Packers rookies playing larger roles

GREEN BAY − Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley appears to have settled on his secondary for his nickel defense that’s a lot different than the start of the season, but he still has a decision on whether to make rookie Edgerrin Cooper a full-timer at linebacker.

Rookie safeties Javon Bullard and Evan Williams have played so well that against the Arizona Cardinals they were essentially full-time players in nickel personnel, with Bullard in the slot and Williams at safety. They played together on all but one of the Packers ’ 36 snaps in nickel in the 34-13 victory Sunday.

With Bullard in the slot, Keisean Nixon became a full-time player at outside cornerback Sunday — he played all 58 defensive snaps in this game, all but one at outside cornerback. That’s a big change from the first month of the season, when Nixon played exclusively in the slot.

Cooper, though, still rotated with Isaiah McDuffie at linebacker in the nickel − Cooper took 28 of the nickel snaps and McDuffie nine. Cooper also rotated with McDuffie and Eric Wilson among two of the three linebacker positions (Will and Sam) in the base defense. Cooper’s 38 snaps overall were highest of the three, though McDuffie had more in base (20 to Cooper’s eight).

All told, the Packers played their best defensive game of the season and bottom line held a dangerous quarterback, Kyler Murray, to 13 points.

There are advantages to rotating players − it can help with morale and camaraderie when more players feel like they’re contributing, and it keeps players sharp in case there’s an injury that requires one of them to play full time. It also lends to internal competition.

“We're not afraid to play a lot of different guys,” coach Matt LaFleur said Monday of the defensive rotations, “and I think ultimately that serves us well in the long run because there are some unforeseen things that happen in this league that are totally out of our control. So you’ve got to get as many guys playing as possible.

“You just never know − we have that next-man-up mentality, but you never know when that’s going to occur. So you can’t take it for granted. These guys have to get ready to play ball, and I do think kinda, if they feel they have a chance to continue and get into the lineup, you’re going to get better effort from them.”

Williams rewarded Hafley for the full-time nickel role by making a couple of big plays: he dropped Murray for a 2-yard loss on a read-option on third-and-1 in the second quarter and punched the ball out of receiver Greg Dortch’s hands for a fumble the Packers recovered late in the third quarter.

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The only question with Williams now is whether he’ll become the second safety in base, also, so Bullard can concentrate just on playing the slot in the nickel.

Similarly, there might come a point when Hafley decides to keep Cooper on the field for all nickel snaps, and maybe even all defensive snaps overall.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jeff Hafley’s defensive rotations changing by the week with Green Bay Packers rookies playing larger roles