Packers HC Matt LaFleur 'excited' to welcome new DC Jeff Hafley to Green Bay

The Green Bay Packers have found their next defensive coordinator, announcing the hiring of Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley Wednesday.

He will lead the defense under head coach Matt LaFleur, who released a statement after the Packers made Hafley’s hiring official.

“We are excited to welcome Jeff, his wife, Gina, and their daughters, Hope and Leah, to the Packers and the Green Bay community,” LaFleur said. “Jeff has had success at every stop of his coaching career with an impressive track record of developing players at every level. We look forward to him leading our defense.”

Hafley, 44, spent the last four years at Boston College after coming up the ranks as a defensive backs coach at the collegiate level. He led the Eagles to a 22-26 record and bowl eligibility in three seasons. Hafley spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers as a defensive backs coach from 2012-18. He then returned to the collegiate ranks at Ohio State as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2019 before taking over at Boston College in 2020.

“I loved my four years at Boston College,” Hafley said in a statement. “This is an exceptional place to coach given the caliber of student-athletes we recruit, the facilities, and the support from the University and BC fans. I will miss the players who gave so much of themselves these past four years, and my wife Gina and I will certainly miss the BC community and the many friends we have made here.”

Pete Thamel explains why Jeff Hafley is leaving Boston College

Per Pete Thamel of ESPN, Hafley’s reason for his decision stemmed from the changing landscape in college football, and the need to focus on other areas such as NIL and roster retention.

“He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told Thamel. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore.”

In Hafley’s lone season at Ohio State, the Buckeyes had the best defense in the Big Ten, holding teams to 259.7 yards and 13.7 points per game en route to a 13-1 record and a College Football Playoff appearance. In Hafley’s first season at the helm in 2020, Boston College allowed 416.8 yards per game, and that number improved to 385.1 yards on average in 2023. The defense’s best year came in 2021 when the Eagles ranked fourth in the ACC with 343.8 yards allowed on average and third in the league with 22.2 points allowed per game.

Hafley will hope to recreate that success in Green Bay with a defense which struggled under Joe Berry. This season, the Packers finished 27th in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA). In more traditional stats, Green Bay finished 17th in yards per game (335.1) and 10th in points per game (20.6).