The Green Bay Packers had to hire a new receivers coach, since Jimmy Robinson left to take the same position with the [intlink id=”140″ type=”category”]Dallas Cowboys[/intlink].
They announced the move on Friday and it’s a familiar face, although not someone you would expect.
Former Packers running back Edgar Bennett will take over for Robinson. Bennett coached the Packers running backs for last six seasons. For the previous four seasons, he served as director of player development.
Jerry Fontenot was named the Packers running backs coach. He served as the Packers assistant offensive line coach the last four seasons.
The team also announced two more coaching moves — Joel Hilgenberg was named offensive quality control coach and John Rushing was named assistant wide receivers/special teams coach.
The most interesting move is Bennett.
Now in his third coaching position with the Packers, the team could be grooming Bennett as a potential offensive coordinator, whether that’s in Green Bay or elsewhere.
If they’re not, the move doesn’t make a lot of sense. Bennett was a great receiver when he played — he holds the team record for receptions by a running back in a season (78 in 1994) — and he’s well respected within the organization, but he doesn’t necessarily fit the bill as a receivers coach.
Robinson, as an example, was a receiver who played six seasons in NFL. In his coaching career, he’s only served as a receivers coach.
The Packers obviously think highly of Bennett or they wouldn’t have let Robinson move on to Dallas.
Why not? Look what he did with the scrap backs this year. Congrats Edgar! Start with a how not to drop the for sure touchdown clinic.
If James Jones stays & stops dropping passes, Bennett may get a head coaching offer LOL
i never thought of edgar bennet as a great rb coach until this year when the rb’s had 0 fumbles all season. that says alot about th coaching. look at all the big fumbles by receivers this year, i think almost all our big receivers had at least 1 fumble, jones, jennings, quarless i remember 4 sure. good move pack
Actually, Jennings, Jones and Nelson all had 3 fumbles each. Driver had one. Props to him. And, of course, we all know Quarless and Donald Lee fumbled the ball as well. Edgar has said he is starting with ball security; so that is a good thing. I was thinking at the end of the year that it had been a long time since our RBs fumbled the ball. Of course, we didn’t notice since our WRs made up for them.
Obviously, Edgar is an impressive guy and seems destined for an OC position and maybe even a head coaching job sometime in his career. Great for him. We all know he was a great receiver out of the backfield. Frankly, he was probably a better receiver than Jimmy Robinson was when he played. So, this isn’t that odd of a move.