Green Bay Cleans House On Defense

by Mitchell_M on Jan 5, 2009 4:35 PM CST in News Comment 10 comments

Yesterday, the story was that Bob Sanders might be fired. Today, the story is so much more.

Defensive coaches that were fired, according to the National Football Post: defensive ends coach Carl Hairston, defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn, secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer, cornerbacks coach Lionel Washington and strength & conditioning coordinator Rock Gullickson.

In case you were wondering if anyone actually was retained, the answer is yes. Assistant head coach/linebackers Winston Moss, one of the highest regarded assistants (not just in Green Bay, but in the NFL) was kept on staff. Why? Probably because he's been quietly gathering attention as a head coaching candidate, even interviewing for the St. Louis job.

So what now? Well, Green Bay needs to hire some new assistants to go with a shiny new defensive coordinator. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: I had previously reported that defensive quality control coach Joe Whitt Jr. had been fired. I was mistaken; strength & conditioning coordinator Rock Gullickson was fired, not Joe Whitt Jr.

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Bloodbath

I’ve never seen the Packers clean house like this before. Usually the entire coaching staff goes, or just an assistant or two is released.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy released six assistants, including five on defense: Sanders, defensive ends coach Carl Hairston, defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn, secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer and nickel package/cornerbacks coach Lionel Washington. Also let go was strength and conditioning coordinator Rock Gullickson. "These are difficult decisions," McCarthy said in a statement. "I hold each of these men in high regard on a personal level, and I want to thank them for their service to the Green Bay Packers."

I’m wondering if it was a Mike Shanahan type thing. In Mike’s case, he didn’t want to fire his defensive coordinator, so he was fired. Maybe Sanders didn’t want to fire anyone, so they all had to go.

But I think this was all about GM Ted Thompson. It was like that with ex-head coach Mike Sherman; one losing season and you’re gone. One losing season and the defensive coaching staff is gone.

Hopefully the plan isn’t to name Winston Moss as defensive coordinator because that might not work out if he’s named the head coach in St. Louis.

One thing about Thompson/McCarthy is that long standing ties only go so far. Mike Stock and Kurt Schottenheimer both knew McCarthy when he got his start in Kansas City in the 1990s. Now Stock was asked to retire, and Schottenheimer was shown the door today. This is the second time the Packers have fired Schottenheimer in the last five years; Mike Sherman let him go in early 2005.

Does this mean an entire new defensive scheme? Switch from man coverage to cover-2? We shall see.

by Brandon on Jan 5, 2009 4:24 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

The good thing about the Rams

is that the players have already been lobbying for Jim Haslett to stay on as coach. Unfortunately, due to the NFL’s somewhat ridiculous “Rooney Rule,” other candidates (including at least one minority) must be interviewed. That said, Moss’ interview may have just been a formality and he probably won’t land the job.

It helps that Moss has “assistant head coach” as part of his title; it shows how important he is to the coaching staff.

"I'm so clean, cats think I sip Ajax."

by Mitchell_M on Jan 5, 2009 4:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I hope we keep the man-to-man scheme we’ve had. Too many teams use the Tampa Two scheme. It’s more fun to watch a defense with physical corners.

But if we do go to cover 2 that could spell the end of Al Harris’ tenure in Green Bay. Maybe he knew something we didn’t know when he predicted his departure.

by Weldon on Jan 5, 2009 7:07 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Time for an overhaul! Should be drafting defense too I believe.

by BadgerFan on Jan 6, 2009 1:45 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I’m not against fireing Sanders, the defense was horrible compared to ’07.
But a few questions comes to mind.

If they blame the problems on all the injuries on defense, why fire anyone at all ???

Why fire Schottenheimer and Washington ?? the secondary was pretty good all year, they can’t cover forever, when there’s no pressure up front.

Joe Whitt Jr, is in charge of qualtiy control on defense, well, the quality of our defense was very low this year, so shouldn’t he go ??

My take:
the problems on the Packers defense this year is directly and only related to the lack of depth on the D-line. And that makes it Thompson / McCarthys fault, and only their. (mainly Thompson) If you underestimate the importance of depth on the D-line, you should not be a NFL GM or HC in the first place.
All the great teams in history has had solid defensive lines, Packers had that last year, but Thompson choose to tag & trade Corey Williams, one of the best last year, and rely on Bustin Harrell among a few others.
Lombardi must have been turning a few times in his grave over the performance of our D-line this year, except Kampman and sometimes Picket.
If the big boys at the LOS (both sides), do great all season long, you can get away with a inexperienced QB, or an average RB, you don’t have to wory about broken coverage if the opposing QB is lying flat on his back.

This “cleaning house” is nothing other than Thompson and McCarthy trying to put out the looming fire under their own seats.

by Jarlsberg on Jan 6, 2009 2:15 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I think that the new DC will want some input in putting a defensive staff together. You might be able to stick him with a linebacker coach, but a new DC doesn’t want to get stuck with all the old coaches.

Moss was probably kept because he is under consideration for the job or because he is the assistant head coach (not because he coached linebackers).

by grant76 on Jan 6, 2009 2:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Amen

But in Thompson’s defense, he didn’t underestimate the importance of the D line, but the moves just didn’t work in 2008. Counting on Bustin Justin didn’t work, counting on Colin Cole didn’t either, and Ryan Pickett took a big step back this season (although injuries had a lot to do with it). He drafted Jeremy Thompson, but he didn’t contribute much. Maybe he was expecting more from Johnny Jolly. Corey Williams was really a backup on the 2007 team anyway.

It was basically the same defensive line that played well last season, and he was expecting a healthy Justin Harrell and Cullen Jenkins. I can see why he had faith in that unit. Instead, Harrell and Jenkins were hurt and other players regressed.

Thompson has to make some moves to shore it up this season or that fire is going to start burning again.

by Brandon on Jan 6, 2009 11:52 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs