The Green Bay Packers are expected to make Mike Pettine their next defensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Pettine would replace Dom Capers, who was fired earlier this month after nine years with the team.
Pettine, 51, has been out of the league since getting fired in 2015 after two largely unsuccessful seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He went 10-22 in his two seasons in Cleveland.
Prior to that job, he spent the previous five seasons as the defensive coordinator of Rex Ryan's New York Jets (2009-12) teams and the Buffalo Bills (2013). Pettine’s defensive units finished in the top 10 in total defense in all five of those years. His defenses with the Jets were first, third, fifth, and eighth, and his Bills defense was 10th in his lone season in Buffalo.
The blitz-heavy 3-4 scheme Pettine employs is similar to Capers’, which should give the Packers defense a slightly easier time adjusting to his system.
Pettine will inherit a Packers defense which finished 22nd in total defense, the fourth time they’ve finished in the bottom third of the league in the last seven years under Capers. They haven’t finished in the top 10 since their Super Bowl-winning year in 2010.
Apart from Pettine, the Packers also interviewed three of Capers’ assistants – linebackers coach Winston Moss, cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt and safeties coach Darren Perry – for the job. They had also had their eyes on Vic Fangio and Gus Bradley, but they didn’t wait to interview them before deciding on Pettine for the job.
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