Green Bay Packers: Mike Pettine Will Not Return for 2021

Well, it happened. As reported by Tom Pelissero, the Green Bay Packers will move on from defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. His contract expired at the end of this season, and Green Bay will not renew it.

For Pettine this ultimately comes down to the defensive unit not consistently playing to a level that they should have. Any defensive coordinator would be thrilled to inherit a unit with Kenny Clark, Za’Darius Smith, Rashan Gary, Jaire Alexander, Adrian Amos, and Darnell Savage. I mean, that is a lot of playmakers right there.

By Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, which is a more accurate measurement than total defense, Green Bay’s defense ranked 17th in 2020. And that’s in part to a second half surge by this unit, who struggled over the first few months of the season. Early on, they ranked near the bottom of the NFL in red zone defense, pressures, and turnovers–three areas they were very good in the year before.

In 2019 under Pettine, the Green Bay Packers’ defense ranked 15th by DVOA and 29th in 2018. They certainly improved over the last two seasons, but was that because of Pettine or because of the influx of talent? Odds are it was the latter.

It wasn’t all bad by any means, this defense certainly had their moments under Pettine, and the Packers do not reach the 13 win mark or the NFC Championship game in 2019 without the play of this unit. And even this past Sunday against Tampa Bay, Green Bay doesn’t have the opportunity to win without the defense forcing three turnovers in the second half.

While it was frustrating at times, this defense under Pettine wasn’t nearly as bad as some will lead you to believe. With that said, they weren’t as good as they should have been either given the talent available.

Week to week the same problems seemed to exist with this defense, which means poor play calling from an Xs and Os standpoint, not utilizing players correctly, or a lack of development. Either way, all three fall on Pettine.

As I said, this defense had their moments but in the end, they just weren’t good enough.

Now the focus for Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers is finding Pettine’s replacement. A few names to keep your eyes on that Ross Uglem of Packer Report mentioned include Mike Smith, who is the current Packers OLB Coach, Jim Leonhard, Wade Phillips, Kris Richard, and Teryl Austin.

If you recall, LaFleur didn’t hire Pettine; he was hired by Mike McCarthy. So this will be LaFleur’s first opportunity to bring in his own guy on the defensive side of the ball. Now, we wait and see what happens for the Green Bay Packers at defensive coordinator.