After the Green Bay Packers fired embattled defensive coordinator Joe Barry days after their 24-21 Divisional Round loss to the San Francisco 49ers, one of the biggest storylines of the offseason revolved around who Green Bay would tab to replace him.
Wednesday afternoon, we got our answer, and it was a shocker.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Green Bay would hire Boston College Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley to replace Barry.
Sources: Boston College coach Jeff Hafley is expected to become the new defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. Hafley has brought BC to bowl eligibility in three of his four years. pic.twitter.com/TrcArWmiyb
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 31, 2024
As Thamel notes, Hafley took the Eagles to three bowl games in his four seasons at the school.
Hafley’s decision is less surprising the more you look into it. For starters, he was a defensive coach in the NFL from 2012-19 before becoming the co-defensive coordinator of the Ohio State Buckeyes, a role he held for the 2019 seasons before Boston College hired him.
“He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told ESPN. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore."
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 31, 2024
Thamel also spoke to a source who provided additional context on his move. “He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” the source told Thamel. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL, and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore.”
It would be unsurprising to see more of this in the future, especially for college coaches who already have NFL backgrounds. No matter how one feels about NIL and the transfer portal, being an NFL coordinator is unquestionably more manageable and less stressful than being a college head coach.
