{"id":699353,"date":"2026-01-23T17:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699353\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T17:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:06:16","slug":"the-2-ex-head-coaches-considered-for-defensive-coordinator-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/699353\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2 ex-head coaches considered for defensive coordinator role"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 season did not go according to plan for the Green Bay Packers<\/a>. Green Bay went all in before the season, acquiring edge rusher Micah Parsons<\/a> as their final piece. But now Parsons is recovering from ACL surgery<\/a> and the Packers need to find a replacement for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley<\/a>. Fortunately, they already seem to have a few great candidates in mind.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Ben Solak ranked the top coordinator openings<\/a> around the NFL in a recent article.. They agreed that Green Bay has the best defensive coordinator opening.<\/p>\n

Fowler broke down the two former head coaches who could be good fits for the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon<\/a> is one of the strongest coordinator options left and is firmly in the mix in Green Bay, though others are looking at him,\u201d Fowler wrote on Friday. \u201cPackers coach Matt LaFleur has strong ties to former Falcons coach Raheem Morris<\/a>, who will have coordinator options if he doesn’t get the Arizona head coaching job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gannon had an interview with Green Bay<\/a> this week. He flamed out as a head coach in Arizona but was a great defensive coordinator with Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Packers have not yet conducted an interview with Morris. However, Morris is rumored to be a great fit for the Packers<\/a> given his shared history with LaFleur. Both coaches worked under Mike Shanahan in Washington from 2012-13.<\/p>\n

Both candidates must be tempted about the opportunity to work with LaFleur. The opportunity to coach a player like Micah Parsons should also be a big draw for Green Bay.<\/p>\n

But they are not the only coaches linked to Green Bay’s opening.<\/p>\n

Fowler added one additional candidate to the mix who has local ties to Green Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenver defensive pass-game coordinator Jim Leonhard is a name to watch, too,\u201d Fowler added. \u201cHe played and coached at Wisconsin, and he was up for this job two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly seems like the Packers could have their pick of the litter of the remaining defensive coordinator candidates.<\/p>\n

Packers fans. and players like Parsons, must be excited to learn who the team will eventually hire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 season did not go according to plan for the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay went all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,7062,6,832,428,2663],"class_list":{"0":"post-699353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-jonathan-gannon","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-rumors","16":"tag-packers","17":"tag-raheem-morris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}