The unthinkable happened in the Packers Universe last Thursday—the Green Bay Packers Organization actually announced their full coaching staff for the upcoming season in the month of March. After years of being accustomed to pairing this announcement with April showers, they have thrown the fans a bone to chew on before the tulips and daffodils start blooming (at least in my area). Two themes are evident when you look at the composition of this season's staff and we'll talk about both in the words that follow.
With Jeff Hafley stolen away by Jon-Eric Sullivan and taken to the Sunshine State, we've been gifted Jonathan Gannon as the new Packers Defensive Coordinator. I say gifted because at least Gannon is a known quantity. He has a very good record as a coordinator and supposedly brings a defense with multiplicity, something we were promised with Jeff Hafley that never really materialized to any great extent. And I use the word "supposedly" because we have heard not a peep from Gannon since his hire. As is their want, the Packers allow coordinators to speak to the media only when and if they are required to do so (Coordinators should be seen and not heard?). However, as many have speculated on, the addition of an "outside linebackers coach" title being handed out is a big hint of a shift to a 3-4 base defense, but knowing Gannon's past, that's only a starting point. When we actually get some words from Gannon, maybe there will be some more clues to decipher.
One theme with the Packers coaching staff in general is the greedy accumulation of assistant coaches with prior experience as coordinators, either in the NFL or at the collegiate level. In addition to the Packers' current offense/defense coordinators, we have Damarcus Covington(Patriots), Luke Getsy(Bears), Cam Achord(Patriots), Bobby Babich(Bills), Noah Pauley (Iowa State), Sam Siefkes(Virgina Tech), Jeff Koonz(West Virginia), John Dunn(UCONN). That's 10 coaches on staff in either current or past coordinator positions. This has to be the most among NFL teams, wouldn't you think? But what does it mean?
The first thing that comes to mind is leadership. You don't get to coordinator level if you haven't shown leadership qualities. With the Packers' propensity for fielding the youngest team in the league (although maybe not this year), having coaches with experience leading multiple groups within a team structure should be a huge benefit to said yung players. The other side of it is, will this create a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation where they all have strong views that could frequently clash amongst themselves? Perhaps this is an issue on any staff, regardless of coordinator experience or not, but I'd expect it to be more pronounced when so many have had experience being in charge at that level. Of course, handling the strong personalities and remediating any conflicts is ultimately the job of the head coach - the person who decided to hire these people in the first place. LaFleur should know what the positives and negatives of what he's done are and be prepared to manage it all. For sure, he'll have no shortage of people to lean on for opinions if needed.
Next, a prevailing theme among the main new hires is something I've called for over the years. The Packers have been prone to "promoting from within" when coaches leave. While not necessarily a problem or a bad thing, when they move coaches into position groups they don't have a lot of past experience with, that means they are learning on the job. I realize "cross-training" is good for a coach's resume, but I'm not a fan of the practice with regards to short term results. The Packers are almost always in "win now" mode (whether some of you believe that or not!), and in my book, that doesn't mesh well with learning on the job mode. That won't be a problem with these new hires—each has a minimum of a decade experience with the specific position group they will be coaching in Green Bay.
Bob Babich, the new secondary/pass game coordinator, has been involved with coaching defensive backs in some manner going back to 2007 at Eastern Illinois.
Daniel Bullocks, the new cornerbacks coach, has been involved with coaching defensive backs in some manner going back to 2012 at Northern Iowa.
Noah Pauley, the new wide receivers coach, has been involved with coaching wide receivers in some manner going back to 2016 at his alma mater, Minnesots-Duluth.
Sam Siefkes, the new linebackers coach, has been involved with coaching linebackers in some manner going back to 2016 at Univ. of Wisconsin - Platteville.
I'm so glad the Packers have finally started listening to me!
Go Pack Go!