{"id":726512,"date":"2026-02-03T15:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/726512\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:21:14","slug":"all-sorts-of-playmakers-are-lurking-on-this-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/726512\/","title":{"rendered":"All sorts of playmakers are lurking on this defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Packers Everywhere. Besides fans, it seems now to cover former GB coaches on so many other teams. Surprised to read Joe Barry was in Miami, as well, and re-signed as Dolphins LB coach.<\/p>\n<p>I believe it was a brilliant move on Hafley&#8217;s part, especially with a first-time defensive coordinator in Sean Duggan who&#8217;s only 32 years old. For everything that went haywire for the Dolphins, Barry&#8217;s linebackers held up their end of the bargain last season. Under Barry&#8217;s watch, Jordyn Brooks went from a solid linebacker in Seattle to a first-team All-Pro in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>The Pats&#8217; defense looked great against the Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons, Jets twice, Bengals, Ravens and Dolphins&#8230;Giants. Battle-tested? I know it&#8217;s not their fault they played a last-place schedule, however, call me skeptical and predict a &#8216;Hawks rout. I say that because their offense squared off against the Saints, Titans&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m favoring Seattle. The Pats are a great story, but the Seahawks probably faced stiffer competition within their own division than New England did all season. Credit to the Patriots. They&#8217;ve beaten all but one team put in front of them over the past four months, but Seattle is the Pats&#8217; biggest test by far.<\/p>\n<p>What will Seattle need to do to win and what will the Patriots need to do to win?<\/p>\n<p>Ball security. New England has to get Sam Darnold to turn over the ball a couple, three times and Drake Maye must keep the chains moving to prevail. The Seahawks are the NFL&#8217;s most efficient squad and they will papercut you to death if you let them.<\/p>\n<p>Do the Packers still have the ability to trade any of their upcoming FA players before those players are free to talk to other teams about signing a contract?<\/p>\n<p>No. They&#8217;d have to franchise tag them to retain their rights in order to trade them (e.g. Davante Adams in March 2022).<\/p>\n<p>Wes: I am somewhere between Mike and you on MLB. I didn&#8217;t watch from after the 1994 strike (eighth strike in 20 years) for about 20 years. I waited until almost all the players involved in the strike were done. It also coincided with a high school classmate of mine becoming commissioner. What are your thoughts on the impacts of a possible 2027 strike on the fan base? Do you think another World Series cancellation is a possibility? Awaiting your expertise opinion. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>A strike would be devastating for Major League Baseball, but it also may be necessary for the league to grow. I respect Mike&#8217;s approach to his Brewers fandom. It&#8217;s commendable and principled. As a casual fan, I need an even playing field to be fully invested. Call me a killjoy, but I can&#8217;t overlook the Dodgers having a salary three times that of the Brewers.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s your favorite part of the offseason?<\/p>\n<p>This is honestly one of them. I&#8217;d love to be covering a Super Bowl right now, but it&#8217;s nice to relax and catch your breath again after a six-month gauntlet.<\/p>\n<p>Justin from Thousand Oaks, CA<\/p>\n<p>In coach interviews, I&#8217;ve always wondered: Do candidates bring visual aids? Seems like if you&#8217;re explaining an offensive or defensive approach, it might help to have a presentation or cutups or some other way to break it down, but maybe in the culture it would be frowned upon and they&#8217;d rather just talk.<\/p>\n<p>Some bring binders. Some bring PowerPoints. Everyone brings a plan.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer from Middleton, WI<\/p>\n<p>Sooooo, Matt LaFleur&#8217;s brother Mike LaFleur is getting the HC job in Arizona, formerly held by Jonathan Gannon, who is now Matt&#8217;s DC in Green Bay because his former DC Jeff Hafley is now the HC of the Dolphins where he&#8217;s retaining Joe Barry, who used to be Matt&#8217;s DC in Green Bay. Lots of fun sentences like that to be had across the league this year. It&#8217;s like everyone is using the same ingredients but mixing them up in different combinations trying to see who can make the prize-winning soup.<\/p>\n<p>And the wheel in the NFL sky keeps on turning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Packers Everywhere. Besides fans, it seems now to cover former GB coaches on so many other teams. Surprised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,34,417,1655,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-726512","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-homepage-cp","14":"tag-news-all-news","15":"tag-news-insider-inbox","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116007382839186215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726512","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=726512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}