The Packers have identified Mike Pettine‘s defensive coordinator successor. They intend to hire Joe Barry, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
This will continue a busy offseason for Barry, who made a previous move in going from the Rams to the Chargers. Barry spent four seasons with the Rams, coaching with Matt LaFleur in 2017, but agreed to follow Brandon Staley to the Chargers last month. Those plans will change.
After Jim Leonhard indicated he will stay on as Wisconsin’s DC, the Packers job came down to Barry and Rams safeties coach Ejiro Evero, Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. It appears Leonhard was the favorite for the position, Silverstein adds (on Twitter), with Barry and Evero being the top backup options. Both were Rams staffers from 2017-20, with Evero still on Sean McVay‘s staff. Barry previously agreed to bolt with Staley and become the Chargers’ defensive passing-game coordinator.
Barry brings defensive coordinator experience to Green Bay, but his previous units mostly struggled. Barry worked as the Lions’ DC from 2007-08. Both seasons ended with Detroit’s defense ranking last in points and yards allowed, with the second ignominiously concluding with an 0-16 record. Barry resurfaced as a coordinator in Washington from 2015-16. While both those defenses landed just inside the top 20 in points allowed, each ranked 28th in total defense. Washington fired Barry after the 2016 season.
The Rams interviewed Barry for their DC post last year, but Staley wound up landing the job. Barry will be tasked with elevating a Packers defense that has come up short in big spots in the past two postseasons. The Packers ranked first in offensive DVOA but 17th on defense. Each of Green Bay’s coordinators is now a LaFleur hire, with Pettine being held over from Mike McCarthy‘s final Packers season.
Did #12 approve of this hire? Sounds like he’s going for a power grab this offseason.
Ooof! Lets get the guy whose team went 0-16. This should end well.
Other NFC North teams are happy with this hire.
Wow, at least the Badgers are happy with this hire.
A retread failure? Great.
As a Vikings fan I really can’t understand this move, this guy seems like at best he’s a good Linebackers coach, why does he keep getting coordinator positions?
Not impressed with this hire. Glad Leonard is staying with the Badgers but if he was going to leave the Packer’s would of been nice to see him staying in Wisconsin. But hiring someone with 0-16 with Detroit as there D Cordinator isn’t to impressed also was bypassed as the Rams Cordinator but time will tell.
My guess is LaFleur didn’t want to take even more from his old buddy in LA. This might be a painful lesson for him to learn.
I will say this a million and one times, no one knows anything about if this is a good or bad hire. Talents levels, and players are different than where he was previously. Just because he failed elsewhere doesn’t make him an instant failure here.
True. After all, Belichick got fired in Cleveland. I hope this works out, but Indo have very little faith.
Belichick had built a Super Bowl winner back before you could buy free agents willy nilly. This perception that he was a bad coach is just wrong. He had built the #1 ranked defense in the league over his time there and brought a Super Bowl contender in 1995 before Modell screwed him by announcing the team was moving early in that season and essentially making him a lame duck coach that everyone knew wasn’t going to Baltimore with them.
Nah, we know pretty well he’s not good. That Washington defense had some players. It’s like how Leslie Frazier keeps getting DC jobs despite his defenses never being as good as their talent level, this year in Buffalo the latest example.