Paul Bretl | 10/10/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Once fully healthy, the Packers have the ultimate luxury in their secondary: a number of versatile defenders for Jeff Hafley to build his game plans around.
“I think just the versatility we have in the secondary is a huge luxury,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday. “I don’t think a lot of teams have as many guys that we feel confident in to put in the game and not only put in the game but play winning football.”
Once Jaire Alexander is back in the mix, between the cornerback and safety positions, the Packers will have seven different players that they trust to play significant defensive snaps on Sundays. In addition to Alexander at corner, there is Eric Stokes, Carrington Valentine, and Keisean Nixon. At safety, is Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard, and Evan Williams.
More often than not, with the majority of defensive snaps coming in nickel, five defensive backs will be on the field. The next most utilized formation will be when the Packers are in their base 4-3 defense, which requires just four defensive backs. Occasionally, we may see the Packers in dime, requiring six defensive backs.
Regardless, in just about every instance, the Packers will have a surplus of options at the cornerback and safety positions.
“I think that’s a great problem to have,” said Hafley of the depth. “When Ja comes back — hopefully we’ll get Ja back soon — once he does we’ll have to figure out who we’re playing, who our opponent is, what receivers we’re playing against, can there be different packages in the game.
“We call the package that Bull was in one thing and he knows to come out on the field in that spot and when he goes to the safety position, we call it something else and he goes to the safety spot and Keisean was going into the nickel spot, right, and this week we have some other things possibly up where we say this and guys are in different spots.”
One thing–and an important thing–that this provides Hafley with is immense flexibility when putting together the game plans each week. The only givens in the secondary are that Alexander and McKinney will be on the field. Beyond that, everyone else’s playing time or what roles that they have to fill could vary week-to-week depending on the opponent.
A great example of this flexibility came this past Sunday against the Rams. After the secondary had early struggles the week prior with Minnesota’s passing game, Hafley went back to the drawing board and came back with some brand-new looks on the back end.
Still without Alexander versus the Rams, we saw Nixon move from the slot to the boundary, while opposite of him, Stokes and Valentine shared playing time. In the nickel, against the more run-heavy Rams, was a more physical presence in Bullard. Then, at safety, was McKinney and Williams.
Every NFL fan wants their team to be willing to make changes on the fly when things aren’t working, injuries take place, or based on what the matchup dictates, rather than being rigid and rolling out the same game plan each week because that’s just how things are done.
Since Hafley arrived in Green Bay back in February, we’ve heard about his willingness to make those adjustments as needed, and we saw that on display against the Rams. The circumstances of that game–matchup-wise and injury-wise–played an important part in determining how Hafley approached things from a game-planning perspective.
“I think this game is a lot about matchups and I think sometimes people take it for granted that it’s not always your Xs and Os and like I’ve talked, these blitzes you can draw up and these coverages you can draw up, ultimately it’s gonna be me against you and I have to get off the block or I have to cover you or I have to beat you on a pass rush or I have to tackle you and those are the things we gotta win, so who gives us the best chance?”
With Hafley having so many options in the secondary in regards to who sees playing time, along with where he asks several of those players to line up and what their responsibilities are, it can make game-planning for this Packers defense quite difficult. As opposing offenses try to decipher how the Packers might attack them, they have to be prepared for a number of different outcomes, and when game day arrives, they might see something completely different than what was expected.
This advantage also goes beyond just the mixing and matching of personnel. Being able to rely on a number of different players means having a variety of skill sets to work with as well, which provides Hafley with the ability to use different coverages, along with disguising looks by moving defenders around.
“Matchups is huge, right, so for example,” said Hafley, “if they’re gonna line up with two tight ends, one back and two wide receivers, so they’re getting into a bigger grouping, you wanna put a SAM linebacker on the field or do you wanna put Bull on the field and play like that nickel-SAM position. What are they doing out of it? Are they gonna spread us out? Are they gonna get big and try to run the ball? Well then maybe you wanna put the SAM on the field.
“If they come out in 11 personnel, right, one back, one tight end and three wide receivers, do they wanna spread us out and throw the ball. Then maybe do we wanna play a lot of a certain coverage? Then maybe we’ll get true nickel personnel on the field and play with more corner-like people and if we feel like we have to play against the run, do we want a bigger body, a more physical body in the game? Then what do we wanna do on third down and medium vs. third down and long based on what the tendencies are and who they put on the field. So I think matchups are really, really important. But then I also think it’s within the course of the game, how are they trying to attack us and what are we gonna do to stop it and that’s constantly going back and forth.”
Without question, it is great to have as many reliable options as the Packers do in the secondary, but with that comes its own challenges–specifically finding playing time for everyone.
The competition at several of those positions will hopefully help elevate the play of the entire unit, just as we saw along the offensive line during the second-half of the 2023 season when there were rotations at right guard and left tackle. Perhaps, as the season progresses, one of Valentine or Stokes and Bullard or Williams will get more playing time as they begin to separate themselves from the other at their respective position.
However, with that aforementioned adjustability being in Hafley’s DNA as a coach, at least for the time being, to be any set-in-stone starters–again, outside of Alexander and McKinney. Playing time could continue to ebb and flow week to week depending on what the matchup calls for, and the Packers’ recent history of rotating players on both sides of the ball tells us that they may try to find a way to keep all of these players involved to some degree with there being specific alignments that get whoever the non-starters are that week on the field.
“I think it’s our job to, if they’re playing well, to find roles for ’em and make sure that they’re on the field,” Hafley said. “But what unit gives us the best chance to win that particular game.
“I think it’s very nice to have options and I think the more guys are healthier, the more competition we’ll have, the better we’ll get, the better they’ll get and we’ll play better defense as we continue to go. But having those guys on the field and having that versatility, where they can kinda switch around positions, I think it’s huge.”
Regardless of what side of the ball you’re discussing or what position, options are always a good thing. Options mean versatility, competition, and the ability to keep the opponent off-balance. Well, the Packers have a lot of options in the secondary and as the group gets healthy and the young players gain experience, we will really start to see the value in that, just as we did in Los Angeles.