Joe Barry is gone. This is widely known. The Green Bay Packers and Matt LaFleur let Barry go after a defensive season that was deemed inadequate by the man in charge.The next defensive coordinator will be LaFleur’s third. He decided to keep Mike Pettine when he was hired in 2019 and named Barry as Pettine’s replacement two years later.This hire is huge for LaFleur. A coach can only hire so many coordinators, and the Packers enter the 2024 championship window with an offense that looks like one of the best in the league.When LaFleur hired Barry, what Barry used to do the last three years was run a Vic Fangio-style defense.
This time, LaFleur must meet certain criteria.Here are the three goals of the Packers coach, who is making one of the biggest decisions of his coaching career. Coach about the programThat has to be one of LaFleur’s biggest goals.Defenses are changing as offenses around the league find new ways to create big plays. By the time Barry was hired, Fangio’s plan had become a fad. Many NFL teams tried to copy a plan similar to the one implemented by Fangio after he joined the NFL. These are some of the reasons why Brandon Staley took over as the head coach of the Chargers. This is why Barry was hired to lead Green Bay’s defense. A quick scroll through Twitter/X shows that Fangio’s plans are no longer needed. The same people say the same thing about Pettine’s style, some might even go as far as Dom Capers. If you work a lot to work enough, the truth may seem useless.The best coach is not just the talent or discovery of teams in certain states. One of the criticisms leveled at Barry is that while his defense has done a great job of forcing the best quarterbacks in the league to be patient in order to frustrate the best offenses in football, his defense has struggled against smaller opponents .
Barry sat in the grenade defender’s seat and ran the ball to his opponent as much as he wanted. Bill Belichick is one of the best defensive minds in NFL history. His team had a philosophy, but no clear plan. That should be LaFleur’s goal.A good example was this year’s playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys like to throw the ball all over the stadium, but the San Francisco 49ers have their own style.If a coach can’t adjust with his players and more importantly with the opponent, the plan doesn’t matter. LaFleur appears to be working toward that goal, with five candidates with a mix of 3-4 and 4-3 averages in early interviews.Cade Walker fallsQuay Waker is one of the most talented players on the Packers defense. However, his physique was somewhat awkward. It has a sparkling shine. Walker is a midfielder’s dream.When all of these are combined, the results can be surprising. Walker’s return in the season opener against Chicago showcases his outstanding skills.The problem came when Walker had to diagnose what was wrong with him. His instincts as a linebacker aren’t fully formed yet.When Walker was asked to hunt, he did his best.
He’s an effective blitzer and looks like any other player when you see him and ask him to hit.When Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike McDonald was hired at Michigan, he was asked what the plan was to stop Ohio State’s offense. With his talent and investment in Walker, LaFleur should ask similar questions of his defensive coordinator candidates.As seen in defenses like San Francisco, a good linebacker can change the game. The Packers can’t ask Walker to be Fred Warner. He is the best defender in football. However, Walker’s talent, if fully unlocked, could make him a top player at his position.Write the conditionsThe best defense in NFL history played on its own terms. The Seattle Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” didn’t care who was attacking them on the other side. The Seahawks dictated the betting terms, not the other way around. The Packers did very little of that under Barry or Pettina.How many times in the past three years has a team put together a touchdown drive that seemed to meet little or no resistance along the way? Defense has long been a concern for Green Bay. Often there was an expectation that the defense would be good enough for the offense to win the game. Jordan Love appears to be on his way to becoming one of the NFL’s next great players. In other words, he’s not Aaron Rodgers in his prime. There are very few players.Even if he reaches such a high level, the championship drought of the last decade suggests that simply having a great defender does not guarantee success at the championship level. Earlier this year, I wrote that packing defense is the most important guilt. Because he did not win another championship when he was prime minister.
The “Defense Victory Championship” is a useless concept, but Boss, 49 and Crows have good protection. Two of those teams went to the Super Bowl and another went to the conference championship game.The goal of the Packers defense may no longer be to be good enough, but to be great. This starts with cultural change starting at the top. LaFleur needs to find someone who can change Green Bay’s dominant defensive mindset.
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