GREEN BAY — Brian Gutekunst was still working as a college scout in the Green Bay Packers’ personnel department when Dom Capers arrived as the team’s new defensive coordinator in 2009.
But the Packers general manager hasn’t forgotten what happened on defense after the veteran coach’s arrival in Titletown.
In Year 2 of Capers’ 3-4 scheme, with Capers deploying future Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson in every way imaginable and maximizing the talents of safety Nick Collins, outside linebacker Clay Matthews, defensive tackle B.J. Raji, nose tackle Ryan Pickett, and defensive end Cullen Jenkins, the Packers defense ranked second in the league in scoring defense and fifth in total defense in 2010.
And the Packers won the Super Bowl XLV.
Coach Matt LaFleur will have his third defensive coordinator in six seasons in 2024, following the hire of former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley earlier this week. He hopes Hafley, who succeeds Mike Pettine (2019-20) and Joe Barry (2021-2023), will be the game-changer Capers proved to be.
Capers not only became the longest-tenured defensive coordinator in franchise history, serving until Pettine replaced him after the 2017 season, but he also had another championship-caliber unit in 2014, prior to the team’s historic meltdown in the second half of a heartbreaking NFC Championship Game loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
However, unlike then-GM Ted Thompson when Capers arrived, Gutekunst does not expect to have to retool the defensive personnel to account for the philosophical shift from Barry’s keep-everything-in-front-of-you umbrella scheme to Hafley’s system, which is influenced by Pettine and New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh, who was the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator when Hafley was their defensive backs coach.
