Green Bay Packers: 2 More Candidates Emerge at Defensive Coordinator

We know one thing about Matt LaFleur’s search for the next defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers, and that is that it’s going to be extensive.

On Sunday evening we would learn from ESPN’s Rob Demovsky that the Packers already had or are planning to interview Joe Barry, the Los Angeles Chargers Defensive Passing Game Coordinator, Chris Harris, the Defensive Backs Coach of the Washington Football team, and Ejiro Evero, the Safeties Coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

Well, on Monday, we would get a little more insight as two more candidates officially emerged–and neither should be that surprising. In his Zoom meeting with reporters, LaFleur did confirm that at least one coach from within the organization would be interviewed. Later, Tom Silverstein of Packers News was told by a source that the candidate would be Jerry Gray.

Of course, Gray was the Green Bay Packers defensive backs coach this past season and had quite a bit of success his first year. Known for his ability as a teacher, it’s not a coincidence that Jaire Alexander, Adrian Amos, and Darnell Savage all had career years under him.

He has an outstanding track record with defensive backs, having worked with players such as Fred Smoot, Antoine Winfield, DeAngelo Hall, Blaine Bishop, Samari Rolle, and more recently, Xavier Rhodes and Harrison Smith–both of which were first-team All-Pros under Gray.

Gray has held the position of defensive coordinator two other times, the first in Buffalo from 2001 to 2005 and then in Tennessee from 2011 to 2013.

During his first two seasons in Buffalo, Gray’s defenses were ranked in the bottom quarter of the league by DVOA before making a huge jump to the seventh rated defense in 2003 and the top-rated defense by DVOA in 2004. In Gray’s final year, the Bills ranked 29th.

With the Titans, Gray didn’t quite find the same level of success as his defenses ranked between 18th and 25th by DVOA during his three years in Tennessee.

One other little nugget from Silverstein’s article includes him calling Gray — along with Ejiro Evero — the “front runners” due to “their familiarity with LaFleur, the type of schemes they run and their excellent rapport with players.”

In addition to Gray, the other candidate that has emerged for the Green Bay Packers Defensive Coordinator position is Kris Richard.

Again it was Silverstein who would report that the Packers reached out to Richard, although at this point we do not know if he has accepted the interview request.

Richard was in Seattle for eight seasons and spent the final three from 2015 to 2017 as the defensive coordinator and commander of the “Legion of Boom.” During his first two years at the defensive helm, the Seahawks ranked fourth and fifth by DVOA. Then in 2017, they fell to 13th, and Richard was let go.

He then joined Dallas as the passing game coordinator under Rod Marinelli but did some of the play-calling as well. However, when Jason Garrett was fired, so was Richard. Last offseason, he interviewed for three head coaching openings as well as some coordinator positions, but after not receiving an offer, he decided to sit out the 2020 season.

Both Gray and Richard would bring different styles of defense than what we saw under Mike Pettine. While there is some overlap between Gray’s and Pettine’s schemes, as Silverstein mentions, Gray utilizes a 4-3 defense instead of a 3-4. Richard, on the other hand, runs a heavy Cover-3 scheme.

The list of potential coordinators is now at five, and it’s only going to continue to grow each day. After all, this is LaFleur’s first time hiring for this position as Pettine was a holdover from Mike McCarthy’s staff. So as he should, LaFleur is leaving no stone unturned.

Update: Per Rob Demovsky of ESPN, you can add Jim Leonhard, Chris Kiffin, Ryan Nielson, and Matt Burke to the list of upcoming interviews.