Typically, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy sticks to his beloved offense and let’s coordinator Dom Capers handle everything on defense. This offseason, that isn’t the case.
McCarthy appears to be taking a more hands-on role in the defense, at least at this point. There’s good reason for that, as you well know. The defense was again the Packers’ Achilles heel. After starting the season strong, that unit faded and faded badly as the season wore on.
Now McCarthy is said to be “creating a new vision” for how he would like to see the defense play in 2014. In short, that means more sub-packages and alignments geared toward taking advantage of the strengths of the personnel.
“Our defense is going to change some,” McCarthy said. “You don’t ever stay the same. There will be some adjustments. I don’t know if you’ll notice them. (They’ll be) based on personnel, too. That obviously plays into it.
“We’re going through scheme evaluation. We weren’t as multiple as we were in prior years, really because of the stress of the injuries on that unit. We want to get back to doing some of the things we did well in the past, make sure we’re carrying enough packages to utilize all of our players. We also need to get better on defense. I think these moves on defense will definitely put us on that path.”
Are you excited? Thought so.
While some sort of change is obviously in order, it’s got to be pretty tough to formulate a defensive scheme based on personnel at this point in the offseason.
The entire starting defensive line and the team’s No. 1 cornerback are headed toward free agency. It’s also a pretty safe bet the Packers will have one new starter at the safety position in 2014.
So, we’re guessing this comes down to one guy and one question. How can we put Clay Matthews in a position to dominate?
They should probably figure out how to keep him healthy for a full season first.