The Green Bay Packers are hopeful that they can bounce back during the 2026 NFL season. Green Bay finished the regular season 9-7-1 on a four-game losing streak before collapsing against Chicago in the playoffs. To make matters worse, Micah Parson’s ACL injury makes his availability for Week 1 this fall an open question.
But if there’s anyone who can make the most of the situation, it is new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. He will face a tough task replacing Jeff Hafley, but he already has the confidence of his head coach.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur praised his new defensive coordinator’s scheme during a recent interview.
“The genius in what they do is they don’t give you looks that are easy, that you can tell, ‘Oh, this is a man coverage look.’ They disguise the look well,” LaFleur said on Monday, per Packers writer Weston Hodkiewicz. “It wasn’t until after we motioned that it was like, ‘Oh, it looks like it’s man.’”
Gannon’s specialty is his defensive scheme. He clearly impressed LaFleur over the years with his disguise-oriented approach to defense.
Gannon was most recently the head coach of the Cardinals. However, Gannon was fired after the 2025 season after a dreadful 3-14 season.
He came into the league as a defensive quality coach, but worked his way all the way up to defensive coordinator with the Eagles in 2021. The promotion almost immediately paid dividends, propelling Philadelphia to the Super Bowl.
The Packers were not the only team interested in hiring Gannon. He interviewed with multiple teams, including the Cowboys, for defensive coordinator roles.
Now Gannon can simply focus on the defensive side of the ball with the Packers.
Green Bay has much better defensive personnel than Arizona, so it will be interesting to see what Gannon can do with the unit.
The Packers could get even better if they decide to add more pieces on defense during the offseason.
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