Coming into Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers had lost defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, linebackers coach Sean Duggan and defensive backs coach Ryan Downard to the Miami Dolphins. It doesn’t seem like
the coaching churn is stopping, either, as Aaron Wilson reported on Wednesday night that passing game coordinator Derrick Ansley will be leaving the team, and quality control coach Wendel Davis is also joining the Dolphins under Hafley .
If you’re trying to keep track at home, here are all of the Packers’ defensive coaches from 2025 who haven’t left in 2026:
- Defensive line coach/run game coordinator DeMarcus Covington
- Assistant defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase
- Defensive analyst Nathaniel Hackett
- Defensive assistant Jeff Koonz
- Defensive quality control Jamael Lett
Only Covington, at least for now, remains in an on-field role for Green Bay. Oghobaase was one of two former Boston College coaches, along with Duggan, whom Hafley brought to the Packers. Hackett, a former Green Bay offensive coordinator, is reportedly reverse-engineering schemes for the defense while in a buyout year.
For what it’s worth, Koonz has a linebacker background (was special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach at West Virginia) and Lett has a secondary background. Lett is currently at the Senior Bowl coaching defensive backs for the National team.
Out of the Ansley and Davis moves, I am most surprised that Ansley is gone. New Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon has called more Cover 4 than any team over the last five seasons. Ansley, a former defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Chargers, has a background in coaching that system at the NFL level (Chargers) and in college football (Alabama and Tennessee).
Ansley will be replaced by Bobby Babich, the former defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, who was reportedly hired on Wednesday morning.
It looks like Gannon wants his own guys in the building, but it is interesting that the coaches the Packers are losing — which, to be fair, are mostly going to Hafley — haven’t been reported to be fired. A staff changeover without needing to get into the buyout world might have been the best option for the 2026 Packers. Sometimes assistant coaches and the organization just agree to mutually part ways without buyout money needing to exchange hands, like when offensive line coach James Campen was still under contract with the Packers and was allowed to leave for the Cleveland Browns in 2019.
When Gannon was in Philadelphia as a defensive coordinator, he had just one on-field coach for every level of the defense: the defensive line, linebackers and the secondary. In Arizona, as a head coach, he had five defensive on-field coaches (beyond the defensive coordinator): a defensive line coach, a 3-4 outside linebackers coach, a 3-4 inside linebackers coach and two defensive backs coaches.
Depending on whether Covington is staying or not, Green Bay will hire between one and four more on-field coaches this offseason under Gannon. For what it’s worth, Covington interviewed for the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator opening this season, on top of the Packers’ vacancy. Per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, head coach Matt LaFleur interviewed each of his defensive coaches during the defensive coordinator search. Now, all but one have left the team.
