The Green Bay Packers add another experienced coach to Jonathan Gannon's staff. Bobby Babich joins to bolster the secondary, bringing a strong defensive resume along with him.
The Green Bay Packers are continuing to build their defensive staff as they look to move on from the Jeff Hafley era.
The big hire came last week, when they brought in former Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon to be the new defensive coordinator.
They've now made an interesting hire underneath Gannon, and it's another former defensive coordinator who will be coming in to Title Town.
According to reports, former Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich is being hired as the Packers' new defensive pass game coordinator/secondary coach.
Gannon, of course, was the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles before he got the Arizona job, and he even helped them make a Super Bowl. Throw in defensive line coach and run game coordinator DeMarcus Covington, who is still on staff at the time of this writing, and Gannon now has two former defensive coordinators underneath him on the totem poll. Covington was the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots for a year before coming over to Green Bay.
Who is Babich?
At 42 years old, he spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator under Sean McDermott in Buffalo. He had been in Buffalo since 2017 and had also coached linebackers and safeties.
From Tulsa, Oklahoma, Babich was a defensive back at North Dakota State from 2002 to 2005 before getting into coaching. His first coaching gig was a graduate assistant job at Kent State, and he went from there. He's also held assistant roles with the Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Eastern Illinois and FIU.
Last season in Buffalo, Babich's defense ranked seventh in yards allowed, 12th in points allowed and 15th in takeaways. In 2024, the Bills' defense ranked 11th in points allowed and third in takeaways.
McDermott being fired in Buffalo and the Bills ultimately promoting offensive coordinator Joe Brady to be the head coach absolutely paved the way for this move.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur had previously interviewed Babich when he was looking for a new defensive coordinator back in 2024. LaFleur settled on Hafley and Babich stayed in Buffalo. At the time, he was also up for defensive coordinator positions with the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins.
He's now with the Packers.