“It’s a player’s game, man.”
If there was a bottom line to Jonathan Gannon’s introductory press conference this week (if you can really introduce a coach who’s been with an organization for about four months), it was that. Gannon wants to put his new players in positions to succeed, and he’ll leave no stone unturned as he looks for the right combination of players to make it happen.
“Everybody fits into winning. Everybody’s role might be different, but it all fits into winning, and you have to perform
your role at a high level.”
The famously schemeless Gannon doubled down on his scheme-agnostic philosophy every chance he got, telling assembled reporters he’s not married to any schematic identity. He doesn’t care what plays he runs or if you call his defense a 4-3 or 3-4; he just wants to help his players do well, because that’s how the defense does well.
He did reveal some preferences; he likes his defensive linemen big, when possible (“I do think it’s a big man’s game, especially late in the year”) and he’ll have his edge rushers (peep the roster page at Packers.com when you get a chance; it’s edges all the way down now) stand up if that’s what they’re more comfortable with. But we’ll have to wait and see what the rest of the defense amounts to, because the beat writers weren’t asking specifics and Gannon wasn’t telling.
I don’t buy the idea that the Packers have some state secrets to protect on defense. Gannon’s going to run some kind of quarters-based scheme in the secondary and the pass rush will be built around Micah Parsons when he’s healthy. It’s really not a mystery what the Packers will do on defense.
However, Gannon’s schemelessness does set an interesting bar for evaluation, though. If the Packers really are going to be some kind of schemeless entity, that gives us a two-fold path to assess Gannon’s performance as a coordinator.
For starters, if he really wants to hyper-tailor defenses to every week’s performance (and every coach does), that gives us a pretty easy window into his performance. How does the defense do from week to week? Do they counter their opponents strengths, or are they surprised when teams want to rely on their big guns (as Joe Barry and Mike Pettine so often seemed to be)? To paraphrase Marshawn Lynch, how often is Gannon getting his and how often is he getting got?
And at a more complex level, we can look at how the Packers’ develop their defensive talent under Gannon. If it really is a player’s game, is Gannon getting the most out of the players he has? Are players improving? Are they finding their niche in his defense? Are they filling it well? Do free agents who leave the team go on to improve elsewhere?
We can’t know the answer to the second question for years, but it’s going to be a pertinent part of the Gannon equation. If it’s all about the players, how he handles his players should be a significant part of the evaluation.
Ultimately, what we don’t know about Gannon and his defense still far outweighs what we do. That’s the nature of the beast, unfortunately, and that wouldn’t have changed had he had an introductory presser in January. But the curtain did flutter back a little bit this week, and if he leans as heavily on his players as he does, their performance opens a window into figuring out exactly how Gannon is performing in his new role.
