The Green Bay Packers have two internal candidates who could be strong contenders to fill the defensive coordinator vacancy, bringing significant experience to the role.
The Green Bay Packers need a new defensive coordinator. Jeff Hafley is now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, so the Packers must quickly find a replacement who can be just as good, if not better, than Hafley has been for them.
There have been plenty of names floating around and the Packers have already requested interviews with two outside candidates. The first is Philadelphia Eagles' pass game coordinator Christian Parker. The other is Minnesota Vikings' pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Daronte Jones.
The Packers could absolutely choose to go outside of the room to find their next defensive ocordinator and perhaps they should.
With that said, it's worth noting that Justis Mosqueda of Acme Packing Company has heard throughout this season that there are two internal candidates who could end up getting a look as well.
That would be defensive line coach and run game coordinator DeMarcus Covington and pass game coordinator Derrick Ansley.
"In talking to those in the know in the coaching and coaching representation space, two names have come up consistently (throughout the year), mostly because of convenience: defensive line coach/run game coordinator Demarcus Covington and pass game coordinator Derrick Ansley, two internal candidates who came to Green Bay after previous stints as defensive coordinators in the NFL," Mosqueda recently wrote.
Covington was most recently the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. Ansley was the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023.
Other organizations have been looking at Covington to fill their defensive coordinator vacancies, namely the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. There's also the potential that either of those two coaches could follow Hafley to Miami, where he will need to find a defensive coordinator to coach under him.
Covington is 36 years old, and he played college ball as a wide receiver at Samford from 2007 to 2011. He coached college ball for a few seasons as an assistant before making the jump to the NFL in 2017. He served as a coaching assistant for the Patriots in 2017 and 2018 and was promoted to outside linebackers coach in 2019. He coached the defensive line from 2020 to 2023 and was the defensive coordinator under Jerod Mayo in 2024.
Ansley is 44, and he played defensive back at Troy in college. He, as well, started his coaching career at the college leve,l and he held several big-time assistant gigs. He was the defensive backs coach at Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama before jumping to the NFL to coach defensive backs for the Oakland Raiders in 2018. He then went back to college as a defensive coordinator for Tennessee in 2019 and 2020, and then jumped back to the NFL in 2021 with the Chargers. Ansley was the Chargers' defensive coordinator in 2023 and came to Green Bay in 2024. As an assistant at the college level, he won a BCS National Championship and a CFP title.
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