Here’s How Packers Defensive Coordinator Jeff Hafley Will Stop Run

The Green Bay Packers have played terrible run defense throughout coach Matt LaFleur’s tenure. His choice as defensive coordinator has a well-established solution.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ run defense was bad in 2023. It was even worse in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

The phrase “run defense” has been an oxymoron under coach Matt LaFleur. Opponents have “run” the ball. The Packers haven’t played much “defense” against it, though.

The Packers ranked 23rd this season with 4.42 yards allowed per carry. That was leaps-and-bounds better than 2022, when they were 28th with 4.96 yards allowed per carry. By ranking, the Packers were even worse in 2021, winding up 30th with 4.70 yards allowed per rushing attempt. In 2020, they finished 21st with 4.55 yards allowed per carry. And in 2019, LaFleur’s debut season, they wound up 24th with 4.67 yards allowed per carry.

Added together, Green Bay gave up a league-worst 4.66 yards per carry the past five seasons.

In 2023, the Packers were victimized by a league-worst four games of 200-plus rushing yards. During the LaFleur era, the Packers have given up at least 150 rushing yards on 25 occasions, tied for the sixth-most – which is quite a trick with the Packers rolling to victory in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and opponents being forced to throw the football.

Two of the 10 largest rushing totals the last five seasons have come against the Packers: the Eagles’ 363 yards against Green Bay in 2022 was the second-worst and the 49ers’ 285 rushing yards in the 2019 NFC Championship Game was the 10th-worst.

So, now that we’ve established Green Bay’s run defense has been more run defenseless – not that you needed the numbers – how is new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley going to turn entrenched weakness into sudden strength?

His history as head coach at Boston College offers a clue.

According to data that Pro Football Focus provided to Packer Central, Boston College’s defense played with eight men in the box on 170 snaps in 2023. So what? That was the most loaded-box snaps among all Power 5 schools, according to PFF.

Over Hafley’s four-year tenure at BC, his team played with an eight-man box 23 percent of the time. The ACC average was 18 percent.

As we’ve said repeatedly, take Hafley’s history at Boston College with a grain of salt. Any good coach must adapt his scheme to the talent on his roster, the talent on the roster of that week’s opponent and whatever the situation at any particular moment in a game.

Nonetheless, that’s a fairly engrained way of doing business.

Moreover, rather than the two-deep safety approach that former defensive coordinator Joe Barry relied on for most of his three seasons as Green Bay’s coordinator, Hafley went with a single-high safety on 79 percent of the defensive snaps during his four seasons at Boston College, according to PFF. The ACC average was 50 percent.

It’s that second safety that would be used to bolster the run defense.

But at what cost?

As former defensive coordinator Mike Pettine famously said, you get to Miami faster by flying than driving. Is it so important to stop the run that a defense is left exposed against the pass? That’s where general manager Brian Gutekunst comes in. He must find the right safeties to fit Hafley’s desired approach.

Finally, an extra point: From 2019 through 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs allowed 4.60 yards per carry. That’s fourth-worst in the NFL. During that span, they won two Super Bowls, are in position for a third and have won an NFL-high 63 regular-season games. The Packers are third in wins despite their league-worst 4.66 yards allowed per carry.

This year, the Chiefs finished 24th in yards allowed per carry (4.46) and the 49ers were 14th (4.13). They’ll be playing for the championship on Sunday. Why? A number of reasons, obviously, but Kansas City was third in yards allowed per pass attempt and the 49ers were fifth.

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