Packers Hire New DC

Cheesedog said:
So now to the nitty gritty dirt, of X and O not the band…

Is there anyone in def roster that doesn’t fit with what the new DC wants to do? How does this change the approach to the draft in terms of what players will fit best?
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You know me, I think Gute has accidentally stumbled on a pretty good 4 man front anyway so up front i think they’re in pretty good shape. I think they may want another big dude inside like Slaton.

Otherwise the issues fall into two buckets: scheme fit issues, and lack of depth/talent issues.

S was and remains the overlap in the Venn diagram - overall lack of talent and lack of fit.

Corner, we have guys who fit and will likely do well but just lack of depth and reliability there. Stokes should be a good fit but what’s his health status? Jaire is a great fit but he has the perpetual shoulder.

To me ILB is the bigger scheme issue, I think they need to be more athletic there. Walker I think is OK there but Campbell’s legs might be shot and McDuffie - great depth guy, effort etc. - is too stiff to start.

So S was and remains a big need. ILB probably a bigger need now than it was. Corner remains a need.
 
packerbacker78 said:
Grain a salt again.... The DB coach and Hafley have a history, he'll stay on staff in some capacity. LB might be where he brings someone on staff but still hard to believe this to be fully true knowing GB history.
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One would think ML and GB would have learned their lesson. Holding over coaches was a failure on defense from the beginning. Hence yet another DC coming in. I would hope ML takes a hard look at the asst as well. The fact he is telling them to look elsewhere if they want is encouraging though.. Means he isn’t sold on them.
 
Wonder how much crap that so called insider podcaster is getting for saying GB offered the Denver coach the job. Though he will probably try to save face and say he declined the job but GB did offer.
 
Cheesedog said:
So now to the nitty gritty dirt, of X and O not the band…

Is there anyone in def roster that doesn’t fit with what the new DC wants to do? How does this change the approach to the draft in terms of what players will fit best?
Click to expand...
This defense adapts well to what he's doing, We need a safety badly the rest I think he can work with. Still early though.
 
No reason to panic. From what I've seen about him, he believes in flexibility. You scheme to attack the offenses, and use schemes that your players can handle. He doesn't seem the type to try to stick square pegs in round holes.

Also, I think he's going to sort through his assistants, and see which ones can convey what he wants with the players. That will go a long way towards which ones he feels comfortable working with. Firing them all isn't the answer. Letting him pick and choose which ones will benefit his chosen direction means they'd end up being his coaches anyhow.

It's him who calls the shots. The assistants do what he says, in tune with what he expects of the team. They don't all teach their own game.
 
Green Bay Packers' head coach Matt LaFleur decided to take a 180° turn. By hiring former Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley, the Packers will run a completely different style of defense, starting with a transition from 3-4 to 4-3 — a base that the Packers haven't run since 2008.

The differences between base schemes aren't so pronounced as they were in 2009, when the Packers made the transition to 3-4 under Dom Capers. Currently, teams run nickel defense most of the time, so they play with four down linemen either way. However, there are structural differences in alignment and gap strategy.

But Jeff Hafley's differences when compared to Joe Barry go much beyond the base. The Packers will have a single-high centric defense — goodbye, two-high/quarters-heavy defense. And Hafley is also much more aggressive to send blitzes and to apply man coverage.


"Nobody loves single-high and middle-of-the-field closed coverages more than Haf," said Mitchell Wolfe, a staff writer for BC Eagle Insider. "Pretty aggressive with blitzing. Mostly a 4-3, even front guy, but has some more diverse stuff in his bag. He loves man coverage."

Personnel fit​

The big problem for the Packers over the last couple of years was a perception that Joe Barry (and Matt LaFleur) wanted to run a scheme that wasn't ideal for the defensive personnel they have. Cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes, for example, are well suited to play man coverage — and Barry's zone-heavy scheme doesn't take advantage of what they do best.

It can also be applied to safety Darnell Savage. He played better under Mike Pettine, who allowed him to be closer to the line of scrimmage. With Barry, Savage was forced to play as a deep safety, something he isn't equipped for. His value for the Packers and his perception around the league went south.

What the NFL has seen​

Jeff Hafley has a big NFL track record in terms of varied defensive schemes. He's worked under Greg Schiano, Mike Pettine, Jim O'Neil (who was Pettine's coordinator with the Cleveland Browns), and Robert Saleh.

The Saleh connection is particularly interesting, because the New York Jets' head coach is a close friend of Matt LaFleur. That relationship certainly had a weight on the Packers' process to hire Hafley.

Jeff Hafley worked three years in San Francisco, the last two of which under Saleh. And the 49ers ran a 4-3 base defense, with a heavy usage of cover 3 — Robert Saleh has gone through a transition over the years, but his roots as a defensive mind come from the Seattle Seahawks under Pete Carroll. Greg Schiano liked to run simulated pressures, something that has been trending again in the NFL, and that's something Hafley can take advantage of as well.

It will be a process to understand exactly what Jeff Hafley will run as the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator. After all, he had several different perspectives to absorb, and it's yet to be known how he will adapt his college approach to the NFL.

However, it's clear that Matt LaFleur wanted something completely different from what they had with Joe Barry. And that's what they will get.
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Wonder if Hafley was GB first choice? Habich was promoted to Bill's DC, Denard Wilson got hired as Titans DC same day as Hafley got job, today Orr was named DC of Ravens. Figure Orr would have pulled name once McDonald got hired as he was probably told he was getting job with ravens
 
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