the big shuffle
How the new-look secondary comes together will be key to Packers’ hopes
GREEN BAY - Recycle the calendar 12 months, back to when the Green Bay Packers were entering training camp 2016, and their secondary was facing a much different forecast.
Remember, this was supposed to be the one area on the Packers’ defense they didn’t have to fret. They possessed an asset not every NFL team can match — a legitimate No. 1 cornerback.
Behind Sam Shields, there was a bevy of developmental defensive backs with high upside, including the only first-round cornerback general manager Ted Thompson has drafted.
This was before Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins fell into their sophomore slump. Before the Packers were torched for 670 passing yards and seven touchdowns with zero interceptions in consecutive November road blowouts. Before the NFL’s 31st-ranked pass defense let Julio Jones compile a one-game highlight reel in the NFC Championship Game.
“I knew there were going to be some growing pains that we’d have to work through,” cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. said. “I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was.”
It was enough to let Casey Hayward walk in free agency last spring. Hayward led the NFL with seven interceptions in his first season with the now-Los Angeles Chargers, but only revisionist history would fault Thompson’s decision.
Knowing what the Packers knew then, Hayward’s departure was the right move.
A lot can change in 12 months. As the Packers enter training camp 2017, their secondary is the clearest obstacle preventing a team built for the Super Bowl from
reaching it. The Packers can’t rank among the league’s bottom five in yards, touchdowns and passer rating and expect to win a championship, no matter how many points the offense scores.
“If the cornerback and the quarterback play well,” Whitt said, “this team has a chance. Last year we didn’t play well enough. That’s just the simple facts. I do a regression board of all the past defensive stats. In 2015, we finished third in the league. We were top 10 in every pass category. But last year we finished 27th in the league. We were in the bottom half of most.
“… Just a lot of things that we normally don’t do, we did last year. We have to make sure that we can get back to playing the styles of getting hands on, getting the ball and allowing our safeties and our linebackers not to have to protect us but to get in there and make plays.”