Entering this season, one of the big unknowns for the Green Bay Packers is what the defense will look like under new defensive coordinator Joe Barry. Mike Pettine is gone, and hopefully so are the many of the lapses of judgment the group suffered at inopportune times under his tutelage.
Often a complete overhaul is necessary when a new coordinator takes over. That’s not the case here. Barry doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel with this Packers defense, which already has so much in place. They already have All-Pro Jaire Alexander, one of the best cornerbacks in the game. They have Za’Darius Smith, who has been a constant nightmare for opposing offensive lines in his two years with the Packers. Add in Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos, Darnell Savage — the point is, most of the pieces are in place.
Barry isn’t taking over a group that was near the bottom of the barrel across the board. They don’t lack talent or depth. Quite the opposite, and Barry won’t have to be some kind of savior for this defense because of that.
The Packers need consistency. They need competence on the defensive side of the ball. Too many times under Pettine it felt as though the defender who was guilty of giving up the big play was put in a spot to fail from the start. This was most evident with Kevin King getting torched by Scotty Miller on the final play of the first half in the NFC Championship last January.
With no deep safety help and King pressing at the line of scrimmage from the 40-yard line with less than 10 seconds left, Miller breezed by King as Tom Brady put the ball right on the money with one second remaining. It left Lambeau Field dead silent going into the break and deflated the Green Bay sideline.
Those are the things that need to change under Barry.
There is a zest to the defense so far this offseason, and a lot of it has to do with Barry’s approach and energy. The defense seems to be feeding off of it, as noted by several players via ESPN.
“Coach is always turned up, man,” Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “He’s in the locker room, in the meeting rooms, [and] all of his meetings are just, like, high energy. You love to see that from him, and it’s just a new voice, new energy in there, and, you know, that’s our DC, man, and [we’re] excited to have him here.”
“He’s someone you want to play for, someone you want to be around,” second-year linebacker Krys Barnes said. “He’s very detailed, so he’s going to tell you where you’ve got to be, why you’ve got to be here. He’s someone we’re all excited to play for and ready to go.”
“Man, Joe Barry, he brings a different kind of energy,” Jaire Alexander said. “Very positive and just a bunch of energy. We all feed off of that. Somedays, when we don’t have any energy, Joe Barry will hype us up and he’ll give us the energy.”
Gone are the days of an unenthusiastic Pettine and a stale Dom Capers. In comes Barry, who’s bringing all the hype.
While this is encouraging, it still needs to translate into production on the field. There’s no reason this can’t be a top-five defense. The Packers have that much talent across the board; they just need the right coordinator and the correct blueprint.
Some will bring up Barry’s past as a defensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions in 2007 and 2008, when those groups ranked dead last in total defense. He received another opportunity with Washington in 2015, and it was much the same. There’s one big difference in those scenarios compared to now: Those defenses had very limited talent and not much for Barry to work with. It isn’t an excuse for Barry, it’s the reality. He could’ve altered things in some ways, sure, but neither were cushy gigs to step into.
Now Barry has a chance to prove those two pit stops were a product of the situation and not who he is as a defensive coordinator. It could be his last chance, especially with the cupboard being full on defense in Green Bay.
There’s a different feel around the defense this offseason, and Barry’s energy is a big reason why. The man was out tackling air to demonstrate proper technique to his defense at one point.
“He hit the ground and tackled the air,” Alexander explained with a chuckle. “It was amazing to see. He got right back up. His glasses were still on the shirt. It was cool, man.”
“I got a little carried away,” Barry, 51, said without apology. “I was just talking about making a left-shoulder tackle and how you’ve got to roll. I was gonna ask one of the guys to come up and said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that.'”
Let’s extend those vibes into the regular season as this defense looks to go to the next level under Joe Barry.
