Green Bay Packers: 5 biggest questions facing the defense

1. Inserting the new defense

Just like the offense, there is a brand new defense for the team to implement. After running the old-school 3-4 for nine seasons under Dom Capers, they will now be running Mike Pettine’s version of it. Pettine is a much bigger fan of hybrid players and complex looks thrown at the offense.

The main difference between the two of them has to do with their blitz packages. Capers excelled with extremely complex packages, such as his Nitro and Nascar packages. Pettine prefers as many athletes as possible to go with blitzes coming from all locations to confuse the center and quarterback.

The coverage differences are going to be very noticeable. Capers rarely had his corners in press-man coverage while running complex coverage schemes. Pettine prefers a simpler approach, which will help his young corners get up to speed. King and Jackson are both great man cover corners where they only have to focus on locking up the man they are covering. The Packers were often burned in recent seasons in coverage on miscommunications and poor planning. That should change this season.

Issues are bound to arise early on as the defense picks up the new plan. However, they need to iron out the issues quickly as they head into the season. In a stout NFC, playoff spots will require great records, rather than just good ones. If they struggle early on, that could set them back even later in the year.