Now that Jeff Hafley is officially headed to south Florida to be the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, the Green Bay Packers are well and truly kicking off their search for a new defensive coordinator. One day after new broke that Eagles assistant Christian Parker will interview for the job, the Packers have identified a second external candidate for an interview.
That individual is Daronte Jones, who has spent five of the last six years with the Minnesota Vikings. He was Minnesota’s defensive backs
coach in 2020, left for one season, then returned to the same job in 2022 before adding defensive passing game coordinator duties for the last three seasons. Those last three years also coincided with Brian Flores’ tenure as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator.
The 2021 season saw Jones depart to spend a year as the defensive coordinator for LSU, working under head coach Ed Orgeron, though the Tigers went just 6-7 that season. Jones has NFL experience prior to Minnesota as well, having served as the Cincinnati Bengals’ cornerbacks coach in 2018 and 2019 and the Miami Dolphins’ assistant DBs coach for the two years prior to that.
The 47-year-old Jones has a Wisconsin connection as well — he served as the defensive backs coach for the Wisconsin Badgers in 2015, a season that saw the Badgers go 10-3 with a win over USC in the Holiday Bowl. While the Badgers’ defense that year was led by a whopping ten future NFL linebackers, they did have a future NFL Draft pick in the secondary in the form of cornerback Natrell Jamerson.
The Vikings have finished as a top-half defense in net yards per pass attempt allowed in each of the last three years, ranking as one of the league’s best passing defenses in 2025.
It is worth noting that both external candidates, Parker and Jones, were their respective teams’ DBs coaches and pass game coordinators in 2025. The Packers may well be targeting potential coordinators with a background in the secondary rather than the front seven.
