Add Assistant Coach Joe Whitt, Jr. to the List of Outgoing Packers Coaches – Mike Pettine Will Officially Stay

13 Comments on "Add Assistant Coach Joe Whitt, Jr. to the List of Outgoing Packers Coaches – Mike Pettine Will Officially Stay"

1. Savage57

   01/12/2019 at 5:11 am

   Joe Whitt, Jr., has consistently been lauded as a top secondary coach by former players and his coaching peers.

   The rub is, the Packers have just rarely seen the results on the field. This is one of those deals where if you put the pieces together, you conclude Pettine has a vision for his secondary that differs from Whitt’s.

   Personally, I’m looking forward to a DB’s coach who has a more aggressive philosophy that includes things like knowing where the ball is, actually playing it and making an interception every now and again.

   Reply
   • Cheesemaker

     01/12/2019 at 7:36 am

     ^^^This. I remember those accolades back in 2009 and thinking we were lucky to have this guy. But from that point on, we seemed to consistently underperform – on the field and in development of young players. At some point years ago, I stopped believing much of what Woodson had to say about former coaches and let the actual results speak for themselves. I’ll wager that wherever Whitt lands next, he’ll get high praise from his players and yet the team will be a sieve against the pass.

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     • Thomas E Lind

       01/12/2019 at 7:40 am

       Good points by you too Cheese!

       Reply
   • Thomas E Lind

     01/12/2019 at 7:38 am

     Very good points 57!

     Reply
2. Howard

   01/12/2019 at 11:57 am

   Very good points 57 and Cheesemaker.

   I would like to add the DBs for the Packers have been for some time one of the worst tackling DBs in the league. The defensive backfield does not show up in a physical manner. Alexander did show he would stick his nose into the run game and play physical. So would Tony Brown. Many of the other DBs would avoid tackling and taking on blocks.

   One of the knocks coming out of college was Josh Jackson did not like to tackle. There were many plays last year that Jackson avoided getting involved in the action. You have to get your 2nd round pick to play more physical or he will be a bust. Part of Whitts job was to have the DBs involved in run support, taking out blockers, and making tackles. The Packers DBs have failed miserably at that for years, and that is an important part of being a DB. The top defenses have DBs that tackle well. The Packers DBs do not have that quality and haven’t for years. Add in the stats for yards allowed per pass attempt, interception rate per pass attempt, and passer rating allowed and the Packers were almost at the bottom of the barrel again for the 3rd straight year.

   One other thing if you look at most of the pass defensive stats you will see that in the last quarter of the season the DBs as a group dropped off in performance considerable. You could see it on the field. It almost looks like they gave up. That does not keep a position or group coach around when they lose their players. Sure injuries may have had an impact, but that can not be used as an excuse.

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   • PF4L

     01/12/2019 at 1:37 pm

     Spot on about the tackling issue Howard, this group is horrible. Some people lauded King’s tackling aggressiveness, until it dawned on them he’s only aggressive at the line of scrimmage on lateral passes to receivers when they just caught the ball. As long as the receiver is relatively stationary, King is your guy,lol.

     Most others will avoid contact especially Jackson, he doesn’t want any part of it. Part of the problem is…..the Packers brought in Tramon to show these guys how to play in the NFL. Here’s the problem…..If Tramon is 9 yards away from the ball carrier, and he see’s Brice (or whoever) 8 yards away, Tramon will slow and pull up and let Brice deal with it. I’ve seen it 20 times. Quite a bargain for only 5 million. This team is fairly pathetic when you go through the roster player by player. The smallest guy Alexander is probably the most aggressive. It’s not the size of the man, it’s the size of the heart. If a NFL player won’t go to battle for you, what does that say? Sure, not all superstar corners like tackling, but if your last name isn’t Sanders, you best start tackling.

     In another thought for the masses…..If anyone wants to determine (in advance) whether Green Bay has a Championship caliber team or not at the beginning of the season. Instead of just dreaming for one, do this…….

     Take the current year Packers roster….compare every player against each player the team had on the 1996 season roster, and the 2010 roster, and that should give you a fairly accurate determiner..

     Reply
   • ay hombre

     01/12/2019 at 7:20 pm

     Proving once again why he’s the best commenter on this site. Howard…always a pleasure.

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3. PF4L

   01/12/2019 at 1:05 pm

   Joe Whitt Jr. made a name for himself, being credited for developing 2 UDFA’s into pretty good corners back in the day and deservedly so.

   But you can’t cherry pick and judge him only on that, you have to look at his totality of work.

   I absolutely hate putting position coaches under a microscope when you had Ted Thompson supplying the talent.

   Regardless, i wish Joe the best in his future endeavors.

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4. Joe

   01/13/2019 at 4:46 pm

   Does not help either that Green Bay needs an entirely different draft philosophy – we need to look at quality instead of quanitity. Then change the strength and conditioning staff – to many years of too many players on IR

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5. Empacador

   01/13/2019 at 5:20 pm

   Here are some really interesting conversations on Whitt I found while looking for something else.

   https://www.packerforum.com/threads/joe-whitt.77844/ (Page 4 of this is really interesting to see what he worked with from 2009 on.)

   https://www.packerforum.com/threads/joe-whitt-winston-moss-fired-merged-threads.80528/

   http://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/322465971.html

   https://journaltimes.com/sports/football/packers-secondary-has-unusual-talent-depth/article_a66393dc-d428-5390-828b-72fe63a838c2.html

   https://totalpackers.com/2016/01/joe-whitt-and-darren-perry-get-some-deserved-recognition/ (Nice comments in the comment section.)

   Impressive how all over the board people are regarding Whitt and his football acumen. Whitt declared the best people play regardless of draft status or paycheck. Back when Howard first recognized Gunter in preseason, Whitt admitted not going with his gut feeling to play Gunter later that season when the secondary was struggling. A DB whisperer Whitt was not and played it safe, much like the rest of the coaching staff at that time and was part of the dysfunction within.

   If Philbin did one thing right, it was getting rid of Moss. I’d like to see Pettine/LaFleur change up the coaching staff a bit more to get guys they want rather than be stuck with holdovers from the McCarthy era.

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6. Empacador

   01/13/2019 at 5:24 pm

   So what’s the deal? Referencing other sites when commenting to provide source material is forbidden now?

   Reply
   • Jason

     01/13/2019 at 9:33 pm

     They have to be manually approved.

     Reply
     • Empacador

       01/14/2019 at 1:32 am

       Thanks for the info Jason!

       Reply