Since the firing of defensive coordinator Bob Sanders a week after the Packers’ 2008 season ended and following a long search for a new coordinator, the defensive staff head coach Mike McCarthy is putting together is starting to look pretty good. First Dom Capers takes the defensive coordinator job and this week he brought the additions of outside linebackers coach Kevin Greene and safeties coach Darren Perry. In the words of Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, Perry is “the best defensive back coach in the league” and “they’ve really got a great defensive staff.”
Now we will see what the staff can do with the players the Packers have and the ones they will acquire this offseason. Speculation is running wild about who will play here and who will play there. I’m not going there just yet. For one, Capers said at his introductory press conference that we might not even see the 3-4 this year, he is going to play the defense his players can play and go from there.
I know Greene will bring intensity to the linebackers and my guess the defense in general. Perry will work with cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. to improve an already good secondary, but a secondary that can take it to another level as well. I don’t believe the thought that the Packers will move Charles Woodson to safety, but I guess anything is possible. It didn’t work all that well last year, though.
I am really looking forward to the minicamps and OTCs. This is going to be fun to watch and I believe the Packers defense will be better in 2009. How much better remains to be seen, but it will be new and it will be something the the other NFC North teams will not be used to seeing twice a year from the Packers, so for at least this year it will take more game-planning time. Even then, as the defense evolves it will probably be changing every week, making it even harder to prepare for.
So sit back and enjoy what should be an entertaining off-season. I’m going to chime in Friday or Saturday with my Super Bowl pick, I think the game has the makings of a classic, great storyline anyway with the Whisenhunt factor and all. More to come…