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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff WriterSep 20, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobDemovsky.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — For those who thought things would be drastically different right out of the gate for the Green Bay Packers under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, the following stats after two games might be alarming.
The Packers rank:
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27th in total yards allowed per game (17th in 2023)
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26th in passing yards allowed (ninth in 2023)
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T-21st in rushing yards allowed (28th in 2023)
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30th in sack percentage (ninth in 2023)
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19th in red zone defense (ninth in 2023)
Same old, same old, you say?
Consider this: The Packers (1-1) lead the NFL with five interceptions, and if they pick off Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis twice on Sunday, they will match their entire 17-game total from 2023 in only three games. Their seven INTs in Joe Barry’s final season as defensive coordinator ranked ahead of only one team, the Titans.
Safe to say LaFleur would take this current pace of 2.5 per game.
“I don’t know how you get a half an interception,” LaFleur said. “But I hear you.”
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In that regard, this is what LaFleur wanted from his defense when he hired Hafley, the former Boston College head coach who worked as an NFL assistant from 2012 to 2018.
“I would say our defense is predicated on vision,” LaFleur said this week. “And when you play with vision, typically you’re able to get more interceptions.”
Safety Xavier McKinney, the $68 million free agent signing in the offseason, already has two of them. He picked off Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts in the opener and Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson Sunday.
“It’s very encouraging,” McKinney said. “Anytime you can get takeovers is always fun. It gives us confidence as a defense. We get a better feel of … playing with our instincts and playing fast. I think that’s what it’s been doing. Obviously, the more that we get, we’re building that confidence more and more every time we step out there on the field. We’re executing. We keep doing that, we can do some really good things.”
While Hafley comes from a defensive backs background, it’s not just the DBs who are picking off passes — although linebacker Eric Wilson looked like one with his diving interception against the Colts.
Wilson goes and gets it!#INDvsGB pic.twitter.com/ipVcX0nRoE
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 15, 2024
Wilson might be the epitome of what’s different about the Packers’ defense. Seldom used last season unless he was an injury replacement, Hafley gave Wilson the chance to earn a starting job as the third linebacker in the base 4-3 package, and Wilson grabbed it, even though the Packers drafted a pair of linebackers — Edgerrin Cooper (second round) and Ty’Ron Hopper (third round).
While Wilson is the first player to come off the field when Hafley goes to the nickel package, meaning he played only eight snaps on defense against the Colts, he is all in on the new defensive coordinator.
“He’s a guy who’s easy to play hard for,” Wilson said.
“I think [the Colts game] was a good show of that, Wilson added. “A lot of guys made a lot of good plays, just seeing what they see and trusting it and going to get it. I think we all really like ‘Haf’ and what he brings.”
The interceptions don’t appear to be an accident. Hafley’s group regularly picked off passes during training camp.
However, Hafley doesn’t want to rely on turnovers to mask issues in other areas.
“Absolutely not, there is no masking,” Hafley said Thursday. “There’s certain areas where we have to play better. And there’s certain areas we’re playing really good at times. It’s like four, five, six really good plays, and then all of a sudden there’s one that we need to play better and we need to coach better on.
“We are giving up too many explosive plays right now, which goes against the philosophy of our defense. And I think the more we play, the better we coach, the more we’re together and I think you’ll see those go down. The only number that’s important to me is if we win or lose the game. I’m not going to be one of these guys up here that sits up here and brags about yards and takeaways. How can we win each game?”
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The defense also got after the quarterback in training camp this summer.
One of things that excited the defensive front about Hafley’s scheme was the ability to pass rush more freely instead of, as defensive tackle Kenny Clark put it earlier this year, “in a more controlled way” like in the past. In theory, players formerly known as outside linebackers, such as Rashan Gary, will get more pass rush opportunities as hand-on-the-ground defensive ends because they’re not asked to drop into coverage much anymore.
However, that has yet to translate to games, as the Packers have three sacks so far (only three teams have fewer). Part of that could be related to the quarterbacks they’ve played. Hafley was careful not to over-pressure Hurts and Richardson because both have remarkable ability to scramble and make plays on the move, which has forced pass rushers to play with discipline.
Gary, who had one of the two sacks in the opener against the Eagles, said after the Packers sacked Richardson once last week that while “it gets tempting” to relentlessly pressure the quarterback, they need to remain disciplined.
“It don’t matter if it gets frustrating,” he said. “You execute the game plan and do it the right way, [and] we come out with the win, and that’s what we did [Sunday].”
