Packers to Interview Bobby Babich, Aden Durde for Defensive Coordinator

The Green Bay Packers reportedly want to interview Bills linebackers coach Bobby Babich and Cowboys defensive line coach Aden Durde for their defensive coordinator vacancy.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers reportedly have asked permission to interview Buffalo Bills linebackers coach Bobby Babich and Dallas Cowboys defensive line coach Aden Durde for the open defensive coordinator position.

Both men come with interesting backgrounds.

Babich originally joined the Bills in 2017 as assistant defensive backs coach before taking over the safeties in 2018. In 2022, he replaced his father as linebackers coach. So, he’d bring a well-rounded view of defensive football after working under defensive-minded Bills coach Sean McDermott.

Babich was a cornerback at North Dakota State who got his start in the NFL as administrative assistant to the Panthers’ coaching staff in 2011.

Durde has schooled under highly regarded defensive mind Dan Quinn with the Atlanta Falcons from 2016 through 2020, when Quinn was Atlanta’s head coach, and in Dallas the last three years with Quinn as defensive coordinator. Durde has been the Cowboys’ defensive line coach all three years.

Of note, McDermott and Quinn operate out of 4-3 schemes, so that would be a change in business for Green Bay.

Babich’s father, Bob, was the former head coach at North Dakota State before working as an NFL assistant from 2003 through 2021. From 2017 through 2021, he worked alongside his son as the Bills’ linebackers coach.

“It cemented what I wanted to do,” Bobby Babich told The Athletic. “I was around it and I loved it. I was never pushed to love it. I just kind of fell in love with the game. I knew I wanted to be involved in football at a very young age. I knew I wanted to be involved in this sport in some way.

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“I like the grind. I like the challenge. I like the mental stimulus of the coaching side of things. Where some people would just enjoy being around the game. I liked learning the ins and outs of the game. Some people would look at it like a fan, but to me, I wanted to learn football and watch how it worked.”

Durde, a native of North London, England, played linebacker in NFL Europe for the Scottish Claymores and Hamburg Sea Devils. He spent time on practice squads with Carolina and Kansas City.

Durde joined the Falcons as a coaching intern in 2016 after serving as the head of football development at NFLUK, where he helped run the International Player Pathway program.

Like Babich, most NFL coaches are football lifers. For Durde, the English roots mean he is still relatively new to the game. That’s an asset.

“I think one of his gifts is he strips it down, the learning process, to the very beginning and doesn’t assume that you know anything,” Giants assistant coach Jerome Henderson, a former assistant with the Cowboys, told The Associated Press. “And he teaches from there and builds from there. And he has this unique ability to understand where people are at and what they need.”

Quinn agreed.

“I thought that’s his superpower as a teacher,” Quinn said. “So, he’s able to connect with different people on different sides of the ball. He’s digging into new ideas and new ways of looking at things. He gave me a ton of feedback through the years.”

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