Official Fire Jeff Hafley Thread

[MadtownPacker]

Hafley did better than Pepe LePew this season. LaPew was blowing his top at fans waving the flag instead keeping shit in order and the team focused. I have to wonder if he had personal issue this past year that bled into his coaching life.

[Joemailman]

Albert Breer
@AlbertBreer

Per source, the Jets have requested to interview Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley for their HC job. The Jersey native has four years of head coaching experience, at Boston College (2020-23), and led a Top 5 unit this year.
Looks like that one happens end of this week.

[MadtownPacker]

Wouldn’t that be some shit him and Saleh traded jobs.

[Fritz]

Halfley - or Saleh, or whomever it ends up being - needs that one stud rusher, that guy that consistently puts pressure on the QB. You give him that, and that defense will be able to take this team a long way - if The Flower and The Love can get their shit together next year.

To me, that's more important than loading up on cornerbacks. Not that the team doesn't need them - it does - but the defensive lineman who can push the pocket consistently and get there often will do more for this team than one lockdown corner.

[Joemailman]

Halfley - or Saleh, or whomever it ends up being - needs that one stud rusher, that guy that consistently puts pressure on the QB. You give him that, and that defense will be able to take this team a long way - if The Flower and The Love can get their shit together next year.

To me, that's more important than loading up on cornerbacks. Not that the team doesn't need them - it does - but the defensive lineman who can push the pocket consistently and get there often will do more for this team than one lockdown corner.

Another stud rusher would also help Gary. Gary was chipped on 14.89% of rushes which ranked 9th in the NFL. And the numbers were even higher than that after Preston Smith was traded. Preston Smith was actually getting chipped more than Gary, but after the trade, opponents' focus turned to Gary.

[run pMc]

Gary had a bad start to the year and then after about Game 6 got better. Agree he got chipped/doubled a LOT, he was often the only real threat an OL coach had to worry about.

The Jets (and Bears) are pretty much interviewing anyone with coaching experience and a pulse at this point.

FYI - IIRC Joe Barry never had a defense in the top half by DVOA; Hafley had GB's D in the top ten in one season. The secondary's rate of contested catches dropped each year under Barry, they went up under Hafley. He's made an immediate impact for the better. Defense is highly variable because it's impacted by randomness like the team schedule and turnovers but I think you can still tell if a D is any good or not. Barry is supposedly a nice guy and decent LB coach, but overmatched as a DC. Hafley appears up to the task.

[pbmax]

We finally got a guy running multiple disguised looks in the back end and we let him get away.

Seriously, another reason why the offense needs to punch harder and faster. You can't keep playoff teams down forever. Need to load up the score boys.

Warning: this review is not for the faint of heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJBbxH5E8lQ

[bobblehead]

I was not a bit sad to see Halfwit go. His playoff defenses weren't any better than Joe Barry. I think we dumb lucked into upgrading.

[bobblehead]

I'll add that "what went wrong" is that the Bears wanted it more. They played dirty and instead of punching back we went into fetal position.

[texaspackerbacker]

I tend to agree with bobblehead on both counts. I didn't see all that much unpredictability from Hafley. The new guy at least talks a good game. We'll see how much he does it on the field.

[pbmax]

I was not a bit sad to see Halfwit go. His playoff defenses weren't any better than Joe Barry. I think we dumb lucked into upgrading.

I completely disagree. He got as much defense as you could get out of virtually no pass rush. They needed the offense to bury the Bears and they kept coming up short. That plus McManus misses kept the door open.

[pbmax]

I tend to agree with bobblehead on both counts. I didn't see all that much unpredictability from Hafley. The new guy at least talks a good game. We'll see how much he does it on the field.

Did you watch the video?

[Fritz]

The defense in the first half of the Bears' playoff game was just dandy. It was that second half . . . which somehow coincided with the Green Bay offense going into a shell.

Now, about the new guy, Gannon . . . I just read an article that focused again on the idea that The Flower liked Gannon because his defenses were so hard to gameplan for. In the same article, it was mentioned that one feature of Gannon's defenses is that - with high-end pass-rushing talent - they are good against the pass but very mediocre against the run. And since LeFleur loves to run, run, run the ball so much, you'd think the game planning would be fairly simple. The very thing LeFleur seems to love to do was also the weak spot of a Gannon defense. So you just do that.

Also from the article, it sounds like Green Bay is going back to that "make them earn every yard and grind it out," that "bend but don't break" philosophy that seems to be baked into previous Green Bay D-coordinators, minus Halfley. The trouble was that a lot of those defenses bent and bent and then eventually broke anyway.

The bottom line is that, for the most part, the players can make a coordinator look good or bad. You have great players and your scheme is great. You have poor talent and that same scheme looks crummy. All I can think is that LeFleur must've thought that if Gannon had a Micah Parsons on his side, that scheme would be great. We'll see.

[pbmax]

The defense in the first half of the Bears' playoff game was just dandy. It was that second half . . . which somehow coincided with the Green Bay offense going into a shell.

Now, about the new guy, Gannon . . . I just read an article that focused again on the idea that The Flower liked Gannon because his defenses were so hard to gameplan for. In the same article, it was mentioned that one feature of Gannon's defenses is that - with high-end pass-rushing talent - they are good against the pass but very mediocre against the run. And since LeFleur loves to run, run, run the ball so much, you'd think the game planning would be fairly simple. The very thing LeFleur seems to love to do was also the weak spot of a Gannon defense. So you just do that.

Also from the article, it sounds like Green Bay is going back to that "make them earn every yard and grind it out," that "bend but don't break" philosophy that seems to be baked into previous Green Bay D-coordinators, minus Halfley. The trouble was that a lot of those defenses bent and bent and then eventually broke anyway.

The bottom line is that, for the most part, the players can make a coordinator look good or bad. You have great players and your scheme is great. You have poor talent and that same scheme looks crummy. All I can think is that LeFleur must've thought that if Gannon had a Micah Parsons on his side, that scheme would be great. We'll see.

Any defense predicated on the Packers acquiring pass rushers makes me nervous.

[bobblehead]

I completely disagree. He got as much defense as you could get out of virtually no pass rush. They needed the offense to bury the Bears and they kept coming up short. That plus McManus misses kept the door open.

While I agree the offense needed to bury them, they put 21 up in the first half. The D held them to 3. Then a 2 sided collapse occurred. I blame MiLF for too many 1st down fat mike type calls with a 3 score lead. Let's just run every 1st down for zero and eat clock. Stupid. That said, we gave up 25 in the fourth quarter. That's awful and on the D. Joe Barry never gave up 25 in a quarter in th playoffs.