Boston College's Cross-Dog Blitz
Boston College's Cross-Dog Blitz
The defense will look much different for the Packers in 2024 with new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. One of the biggest differences will be evident in Green Bay's blitz package.
The newly appointed Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator shocked many when he decided to step away from his head coach position with Boston College. Jeff Hafley was coming off a bowl victory in his fourth year in Boston over a future ACC rival in SMU. The move had college pundits’ alarm bells ringing as UCLA’s Chip Kelly also stepped away from being a head coach to take the offensive coordinator position at Ohio State.
Hafley is relatively familiar to Packers head coach Matt LeFleur; have worked under Mike Pettine in Cleveland (‘14-’15), LeFleur’s original DC in Green Bay, and the Jets’ Robert Saleh in San Fransisco (‘17-’18). LeFleur’s move to hire Hafley symbolizes a re-alignment with Mike Shanahan's defensive philosophy.
Former Packer DC Joe Barry was hired by Sean McVay to be his assistant head coach/LBs in ‘17. At the time, Wade Phillips was coordinating the defense. Barry would stay in LA with the transition to Brandon Staley and the Fangio system, eventually being poached by LeFleur in ‘21 to bring the Rams defensive system to Green Bay. After three lackluster seasons, LeFleur decided to move on.
Hafley’s system will be a departure from the 3-4 base that the Packers have been running since Mike Pettine’s time early in LeFleur’s tenure. Though Hafley worked under Pettine in Cleveland, he has lived in the four-down world since he departed from San Fransico in ‘18. The same defense Robert Saleh implements in New York (and DeMeco Ryans in Houston) is reflected in the base structure Hafley prefers.
When Hafley moved to Ohio State in ‘19 to be the DC, Ryan Day wanted to keep the four-down Cover 1-centric defense that had become a staple for the Buckeyes under Urban Meyer. As the matrix above shows, Hafley has kept that philosophy in Boston. Last year, Boston College ran the fourth highest rate of Cover 1 in the Power 5 (PFF).
Illinois and Purdue have made a living in the past few years running five-man fronts and Cover 1 ~60% of their snaps. Notre Dame this past year saw Marcus Freeman go back to his Cover 1-centric ways similar to what he was doing at Cincinnati (‘17-’20).
Hafley’s aggressive nature comes from his defensive background. While at Pitt, Hafley worked under Phil Bennett, running Quarters and utilizing the Rex Ryan blitz package. After Dave Wannstedt was fired in ‘10, Hafley went to work with another aggressive defensive coach, Greg Schiano.
Schiano took the young coach to Tampa Bay until he was fired after the ‘13 season. As stated, Mike Pettine hired Hafley as his defensive backs coach for the Browns while Jim O’Neil was the DC. Pettine is another Rex Ryan disciple, learning the system while he coached for the Ravens.
O’Neil hired Hafley to be his DB coach in San Francisco under head coach Chip Kelly. Hafley survived the transition to Kyle Shanahan and worked under Robert Saleh, who evolved the system the 49ers run today, with primarily Quarters and Cover 1. Hafley’s defense is an amalgamation of what he learned under Saleh and the blitz package he has known since working under Bennett at Pitt.
The ‘Shanahan’ defensive style of play was developed once Saleh became the DC in ‘17. After the ‘18 season, Saleh felt he needed to depart from the Pete Carroll tree and start running more Quarters. In ‘17 and ‘18, Quarters only accounted for ~3% of the 49ers coverage choices. In ‘19, that number jumped to ~21%.
Outside of the Fangio and Ravens 2.0 (Macdonald) systems being implemented across the NFL, the Shanahan style of defense has also become popular. The hiring of Hafley will bring that structure to four teams across the league: the 49ers, Jets, Packers, and Texans. Outside of New York, which has two dominant man CBs (Sauce/DJ Reed), the others in the system reflect each other.
In my opinion, Hafley will most likely reflect what Saleh is doing with the Jets. Cover 1 and Cover 3 will be very similar in usage, with Quarters tags as a change-up on early downs and basic Quarters on 3rd Downs. The Packers will likely play relatively ‘static’ coverages similar to the others from this tree. Boston College disguised its coverages on 11.1% of its downs (PFF). Where Hafley will depart from this tree is in his blitz schemes, as he is clearly a student of the Rex Ryan approach.
Though Hafley did not have a high Blitz Rate in Boston College (32.2%) for collegiate standards, it was markedly higher than Saleh (18.4%), Demeco Ryans (21.6%/Texans), and Steve Wilks (16.9%/49ers). Green Bay, under Barry, sat at 29.4%. In contrast, Hafley had the second-highest percentage of six-man blitzes in the Power 5 at 36.2%, only behind the Hot Blitz godfather himself, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi.
We won’t know what the Packers’ defense will look like until Friday, September 6th, when they take on the Eagles (7:15 pm CST/Peacock). But we know the blitz package will likely be revamped. Green Bay will be much more aggressive than other Shanahan defensive disciples and Fangio-adjacent defenses from which the Packers are departing.
Last year, Joe Barry rarely blitzed six defenders, opting to lean more toward five-man pressures (86.4%). Let’s look at one of Hafley’s favorite six-man blitz paths from the ‘23 season.
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