Retaining Mike Pettine, hiring Joe Barry. The first two moves from Matt LaFleur to address the defensive coordinator position on the Green Bay Packers were massive failures. But it seems like the third time's the charm.
Jeff Hafley has transformed the Packers defense, starting with the transition from 3-4 to 4-3, and adding new elements to the unit throughout his first season.
The growth is obvious. A defense that was 16th in EPA/play during the Matt LaFleur era is now seventh this season. It improved in both dropback EPA (from 12th to 6th) and, especially, rush EPA (from 32nd to 9th).
"The mark of a good coach to me is, 'Can you keep evolving and are your players improving?' And I think that's what we're seeing, especially defensively. It's Year 1 of a new system, there's gonna be a learning curve, we have a couple young players, there are rookies, they are contributing quite a bit, and so naturally the expectation is that they're gonna get better throughout the course of the sea
son," Matt LaFleur said during the episode 4 of his podcast. "I think we're seeing that. It's not just Hafley, it's our whole defensive staff, how they've come and are working together and maximizing our players' abilities and putting them in good positions to have success."
Secret sauce
When Jeff Hafley was initially hired by the Packers, it was hard to know exactly what his defense would look like. When he worked in the NFL, he coached defensive backs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns, and San Francisco 49ers.
There was a fair perception that his base is similar to what Robert Saleh used to run with the 49ers. But Saleh himself adapted to the new NFL, utilizing more disguises and varied styles of coverage.
And that's exactly where Hafley is trending. He started the season with a more conservative approach, mostly cover 3 and not much post-snap disguise. Because of injuries in the secondary and just because of the time he had to work with his players now, the unit has changed.
Through 15 weeks, the Packers are tied for 1st in the entire NFL in cover 2 zone rate (26%). And a big part of that are the post-snap disguises. The Packers show single-high, but after the play starts, one of the safeties go deep to a two-high structure.
Besides the coverage disguise, simulated pressures are also part of his plan. The Packers are 27th in blitz rate, but that doesn't mean Hafley is not creative to make things more difficult for the opposing quarterback.
"He's done an outstanding job changing the coverage contours on the backend. But those simulated pressures can be a problem for teams, especially if you get a beat on where the back is inserted into protection," LaFleur added. "Because there's nothing worse than somebody sending four and you're caught in a six-man protection with your back in the backfield. You lose your checkdown a lot of times, and that can cause problems, can cause the quarterback to have to hold on to the ball a little bit longer, or maybe not even get out of the pocket at all."
It might have taken longer than Matt LaFleur wanted. But he finally found a perfect fit to his coaching style on the other side of the ball, and the results have been immediately positive.
