DeMarcus Covington on his new role as the Packers defensive line coach
The Packers new defensive line coach talks working with Bill Belichick, working with his new team in Green Bay and the key to an effective pass rush.
DeMarcus Covington, the Green Bay Packers’ new defensive line coach, was a receiver as a player but transitioned to defense as a coach.Covington’s extensive coaching experience includes roles with the New England Patriots and various college teams.He aims to improve the defensive line’s pass rush, which underperformed last season.
GREEN BAY – When DeMarcus Covington was a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, he got some unexpected bad news.
Though he’d been a receiver in college at Samford University, UAB decided it wanted him to coach on the defensive line.
“When they first told me I was moving to the defensive line, I was (angry),” Covington said Thursday at his lone offseason news conference as the Green Bay Packers’ new defensive line coach. “I was like, ‘How is a guy like me going to coach D-line?’”
Covington nevertheless took on the surprise assignment and has made a career coaching defense that led him to the NFL in 2017, the job as New England Patriots defensive coordinator last year and now to his current role of Packers defensive line coach as a replacement for Jason Rebrovich, who was fired in the offseason.
Covington served in several defensive coaching capacities with the Patriots over the last eight years, including defensive coordinator last season for Jerod Mayo, who was fired after one season as the Patriots’ coach. In his seven seasons working for former Patriots coach Bill Belichick from 2017 through 2023, Covington was a coaching assistant (2017-18), outside linebackers coach (’19) and defensive line coach (’20-23).
But all that came after he made the unexpected move to the defensive side of the ball as a college coach beginning with stints as a graduate assistant at UAB (2012) and Ole Miss (2013-14). That quickly led to becoming a full-fledged defensive line coach for the first time at the University of Tennessee-Martin (’15) and then another quick move up the ladder as co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach at Eastern Illinois (’16) before joining Belichick’s staff in New England.
Covington’s approach to the unwanted move to defense early in his coaching career is the reason he’s coaching in the NFL now.
“What do you do as a young guy?” Covington said of when he learned of the move. “You dive in. At first you have that like, whoa, moment, but then you do what? Turn the what? Page. So you have to turn the page.
“So then what I did was turn the page and dove and jumped right in. Didn’t stick my toe in the water, got right in. At the time I definitely didn’t want anybody to look at me as like, ‘This guy don’t know what he’s talking about.’”
Covington had never played defensive line, so he didn’t know many of the details or techniques defensive tackle and end require. He said he learned the fundamentals early on from mentors when he was a graduate assistant, including former UAB defensive line coach Kevin Peoples, though he immediately saw carryover between the techniques defensive linemen use against offensive linemen and those deployed by receivers against cornerbacks in man-to-man press coverage, even if the players’ body types are vastly different.
“When you look at receiver and you look at D-line, there’s a good amount of hand combat that’s just the same,” Covington said. “So footwork, hand combat, it’s not much of a difference. Obviously the size and speed and all that stuff (is different), but combatives are combatives, the way you use your hands and footwork are the way you use your hands and footwork. I took pride in that and getting to know the techniques and details of making sure nobody can question me on what I know to this day.”
Covington’s main charge with the Packers is improving the defensive line’s pass rush after that group underachieved last season. The Packers’ edge and interior rushers had only 28½ sacks in 2024 after putting up 40½ in 2023. That includes Kenny Clark dropping from 7½ sacks to 1 last season and Rashan Gary from 9 to 7½. Also, 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness dropped from 4 sacks as a rookie to 3 last season.
“I don’t think I’ve ever coached a first-round draft pick,” Covington said. “We have first-round draft picks, and we do a great job of drafting here. You’re talking to a guy who can develop players, and (players) who already have established themselves. You’ve got (Clark), you’ve got (Gary), you’ve got Van Ness, you’ve got (Devonte) Wyatt, you’ve got all these (guys). Our personnel guys have done a great job of drafting great, talented players.”
All four players Covington mentioned were first-round picks. It’s now up to him to get the most out of them.
“(Covington) to me felt like a great hire, great person, character,” said Jeff Hafley, the Packers’ defensive coordinator. “I’m glad he’s here. I think he’s done a really good job. I’ve sat in a bunch of those (defensive line) meetings now, he’s really good teacher, he’s got a great progression on how he teaches.”