Opposition Intell: New Packers DC Ready To ‘Let It Rip’ Vs. Eagles

The Packers' new DC, former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley, is an unknown for the Eagles.

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is shown during the team’s minicamp. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

To many, new Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley was an out-of-the-box hire after spending three seasons as the head coach at Boston College.

Peel back the onion a bit and the Montvale, N.J. native spent seven seasons in the NFL coaching defensive backs in Tampa, Cleveland, and San Francisco before returning to college at Ohio State to be the co-defensive coordinator. The pit stop at such a high-profile program resulted in the big chair at B.C. 

Like many college coaches, Hafley wasn’t exactly upset to flee an NIL world and get back to football first, taking over an embattled Green Bay defense shifting away from a Vic Fangio-styled scheme piloted by Joe Barry that did a few things well but finished No. 28 in rush defense and No. 25 in third-down defense last season.

Much like the Eagles with Fangio, Green Bay needs to get to an acceptable defensive level to complement an explosive offense.

Unlike the Packers offense, which has a two-decade sample size of Fangio as a defensive leader in the NFL, Kellen Moore’s Eagles O is flying blind with Hafley.

“A lot of people face this, in football in general and certainly in the NFL, where you're facing an opponent that has a lot of unknown, whether personnel or scheme,” Moore said. “... You draw awareness of the different dots that you can connect with whether it be coaches, players, all the different circumstances.

“But you understand early in the season, everyone deals with unknown in the NFL. … You definitely have to emphasize that there's going to be an element of new. You lean heavily on what you've invested a lot of time in, things that people feel confident with, understand what the tools are and what the adjustments need to be made throughout a game, and we understand that adjustment football will be a part of this.”

All Hafley would offer was the cliched defensive idea of “playing fast.”

“I talk to the players and tell them we're gonna work really hard up until the time that we kick off and my sheet's gonna be in front of me and I'm gonna let it rip,” Hafley said. “We're gonna call it and we're gonna play fast and we're gonna play physical and I'm not gonna hesitate on the call.”

One goal for the chess match is to get the information to the Packers' green dot – linebacker Quay Walker – so the defense will have time to decipher what Moore is putting in front of them.

“We're gonna get it in quickly to Quay Walker so they can look out and see what the offense is coming out in and we can go line up and play,” said Hafley. “Once that starts, maybe I'll be a little anxious before kickoff but we're gonna work to the point where we're prepared. I trust the players. I trust the staff and I just gotta go call it and they gotta go play and execute and I cannot wait for that to happen.”

From a talent perspective, both Fangio and Hafley are up against it when matched against the respective offenses on the other side and the winner will be the group that perseveres best.

McMullen’s Week 1 Prediction: Eagles 33, Packers 28

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