Spot on Gil. All three differences nail most definitive changes between Hafley's Pack Attack D vs Barry Ball. Changes that highlighted what many of us said were glaring deficiencies of Barry's last three years in Green Bay and for 7 years as DC.

#2 is still a work in progress.

Hafley has the right people on the bus, but is still determining where the right seats are.

McDuffie, a solid LB and back up, needs to take a back seat to Cooper.

Walker, IMO, needs to switch seats with Cooper. Coop should be "Mike" and Walker at "Will", maybe "Sam". He's on pace for 144 tackles(!), but making few game changing plays...surprised me. He remains a tic slow in his "vision and break".

Would he better receiving pre snap instructions vs giving them? I do.

Bullard and Williams need to sit next to X in his first row seat. Packers mostly play Nickel and the 3 Samurai's at S need to be on the field together...a lot.

Need to get Wyatt back on the bus...but Brooks is picking up the slack. Keep an eye on him. The D line is on the cusp of being the pressure cooker we all hoped for in August.

You didn't mention the biggest difference: Xavier McKinney, ha ha.

Seriously, the differences between the Barry defense and the Hafley defense have so far been less pronounced than I expected, but it is trending in the right direction.

The main difference I see are all the turnovers we are getting. I see better hustle from last year, a little more aggression, improved tackling, but let's be honest here, the new DC is coaching an entirely new safety room from last year. Comparing this year from last year on that half of the field has less to do with Barry and Haf and more to do with having way better players this year.
Take away the turnovers and you are writing a different article. Our front four is doing a great job at containing running QB's but that is where the good news ends with that group (minus creating some fumbles). The LB's that he seems to be starting aren't very impressive. He certainly hasn't put number 7 in a position for success (if there even is such a place for him to succeed). I think he needs to start washing out 7 and 58 for this new talent out there at LB.
Is he better than Barry? I certainly think so. But we do have new talent out there that Barry didn't have. Is he getting better each week? I think he is. He certainly seems to make adjustments that Barry never even considered doing. I couldn't stand Barry. If our DC stays on this current trajectory, in a year from now, the difference between him and Barry will be miles apart, in a good way.
This game coming up will show us a lot win or lose.

We're 9th in scoring defense, as opposed to last year, when we finished 9th in scoring defense.
We're surrendering 20.2 ppg, as opposed to last year, when we averaged 20.5 ppg, so that's almost 0.3 points fewer per game. Massive difference, no doubt.

That's how much difference it made when we added McKinney, Cooper, Bullard, Williams , and got both Stokes and Alexander back from the injured list.

It's just too early to crown these guys. If they go out and hold the Texans to 20 or less, that'll be a sign that maybe the defense is for real, but we could just as easily get lit up for more than 30, in which case, it would be the 3rd time in 7 games we gave up 30. Not good.

The overall strategic move to generate more takeaways appears to be paying off. So far. Let's take another look in another month.

Based on what I read I like this guy but reading between the lines he also clearly understands who is doing their job and meeting expectations and who aint. As a teacher he can see where the problems lie and with who and will at some point eliminate those players for those who can do the job.
Right now for me we have no effective pass rush. I blame that on Gary being handled by bigger o linemen - just like college, and Smith being old, overweight out of shape and past his prime. Those two have done nothing to date and were relying on them and its not working, so were forced to give them help with more rushers.
I've come around more to the fact that yes, if your pass rush is effective it really helps the d backs who dont have to cover for a long period of time.

Yes, it's about time. One thing that I am still looking for, is for the defense to close out a game. They did it against the Rams. This will be needed for the playoffs and the Pack is situated well to get there.

ImaPayne, I couldn't agree with you more... Our Pass rush is below average and getting older... Starting Lucas Van Ness is a mistake he really is not ready yet. As far as I'm concerned Gute made a mistake drafting him with the 13thpick in the 1st round two years ago. There are about three weeks left before the trading deadline is up. Lets see if Gute can make a trade for a physical aggressive defensive end... I hear Maxx Crosby wants out of Vegas... Also Check with the Giants, Bronco's, Patriots, Browns and Jaguars. The Lions, Viking and Bears have all improved their defense. Packers need to see what's out there to help with the pass rush.

This defense is still a work in progress, in terms of personnel and adaptation to the new philosophy, notably in the front 7. There are links yet to be ironed out and players still to get involved or more involved. Hafley is still learning too, and it’s showed at times, against the Eagles and particularly versus the Vikings in the first half. Both should have been expected from a new to the NFL Coordinator and new to the players she and philosophy.

We have faced very few conventional offenses. We’ve face a lot of dual threat or even more run/broken play than pocket pass threats. We have been both progressively better at handling them and streets ahead of Barry/Pettine/Capers (latter years) Ds. That’s a dramatic achievement.

The exciting thing about the D thus far on field has been turnovers, but, to me, the real excitement is the move away from the one size fits all mentality of scheme over players and a reluctance to adjust. Hafley switches focus weekly. He also refines or corrects it as games progress and opponents adjusts. No scheme provides a universal foil. In realizing that to the extent he has we’ve taken a huge step.

That includes using players differently by game and by circumstance. Putting Nixon outside against AZ was clever. In other weeks not so smart. The question now is whether that’s coincidence or tactical ability. Questions remain over when this will extend to the front 7. We may be starting to see it with the emergence of Cooper, but that again could just be play on his part at this point.

To date we’ve seen little from the front 7 in terms of rush variation, but again, we have seen honing of play and tactics versus mobile QBs. We now need to see similar refinement against more conventional Os with multiple sources of threat. The Texans provide one such challenge. The downside of flexibility is that bad choices make one worse. The first half against the Vikings I think was an example of that. Hopefully, lessons were learned and we start to see the benefits.

We are no longer predictable. Opponents don’t know what we intend to do. Part of that is that Hafley is new, but they see week to week changes as well. By the late season, this could be a good D generally, at the moment we have been good at some things and at times. We need to refine and expand our competence to a wider set of opponents and threats. Those opportunities are here. Can we rise to them this week and next? It’s going to be a very good and interesting test. If we do, then maybe it’s time to dare to say that we have a good D for the first time in over a decade.

Some commenters here have said they don't see any difference in our defense from last year. They weren't watching the same games I was. Even when the bottom line results were similar, it looked different. And of course the improvements since then only amplify that!

I do wonder if improving the defensive line won't include using more people but so far they've taken the opposite approach, having the same people play more. I can't argue with that, but I wonder if Cox, Mosby, and maybe even #7 wouldn't help? Quay is at his best when attacking the LOS, sometimes misses the play when tasked with a role requiring more finesse, and weighs almost as much as Maxx Crosby who seems to do ok.

Some context on the turnovers: Before Last year, Barry's defenses were above average in generating turnovers. In 2021, the defense had 26 turnovers, which was 8th in the league. In 2022, they had 24 turnovers, which was 12th in the league. Then last year they had just 18 turnovers and plummeted to 23rd in the league. I think a lot of that was due to Darnell Savage declining and Adrian Amos leaving and not being replaced. This meant that the safeties needed to be protected rather than having the safeties protect everyone else. It also hurt that Jaire Alexander missed more than half the season with injuries (and one game with a suspension).

Credibility and players being enthusiastic about a change, maybe? For example, it was mentioned in yesterday's article that the Packers now excel at containing mobile QBs. That tells me the players are buying into Hafley's coaching--not in one ear and out the other as soon as they hit the field.

Better safeties, the key to a complete defense. In addition to creating turnovers, they are much better tacklers then we've seen at the position recently. So Gute deserves just as much credit as the coaching staff for identifying and signing the players that have made a difference here.

Maximizing the talents of his players: I see Van Ness's name has been mentioned here already, and it seems we have some work to do with this player. Right now he is roughly on the same trajectory as he was in his rookie season as far as pressuring the QB goes. Some of the off-season articles mentioned he was getting stood up too often by linemen, easily getting blocked by tight ends, and lacked secondary pass rush moves. So I wonder how his development is coming along. I'm trying not to be jealous, but the development of Will McDonald, taken just two spots later by the Jets, seems to be going quite well with 7 sacks, 6 TFLs, and 11 QB hits so far this season. I guess we'll just have to hope we see something similar with Van Ness is year 3.

"Barry believed that if you force an offense to go 10 plays and 80 yards, eventually there will be a penalty, a dropped pass or a mistake of some kind that will end the drive short of the end zone."

The fundamental failure of Joe Barry's system is that he's betting that the offense will make a mistake before his defense - and that his defense doesn't make mistakes. Both false perspectives.

That may (????) have worked 2 decades ago, but in this era of QB protection, Defenseless Player and stricter Press coverage rules - along with high-definition footage - means that only the most rounded, best drilled, experienced defenses could play this type of football.

For me, the most welcome change is not to have to see our corner backs playing 10 yards or more off the receivers when it's 3rd and three.

Mina Kimes and another analyst gave an in-depth analysis of both teams: Packers v Houston.

-Houston D-line will rush Love relentlessly in an attempt to generate pressure and increase interceptions (Stroud will have little pressure)
-Both Mina and the other analyst were impressed with GB's D ability to generate turnovers on the opposing team
-Both said the GB weak pass rush 'will come back to bite them' .
-Both felt Houston will win though it will be close

One thing I'm liking about this D is the 4th quarter performance. 4th quarter scores by opponents in '24. Week 2 and week 5 were wins, too.

week 1 3
week 2 7
week 3 0
week 4 3
week 5 6
week 6 3

Just not seeing DBs line up 10 yards off on 3rd and 2 has warmed my heart. Everything else is just gravy.

"Yes, Hafley does blitz a bit more often than Barry did..."

Uh, what?!? One of the most obvious statistical differences between these defenses is that the Packers blitz much, much *less* than they did under Barry. They finished top 10 in blitz rate each of Barry's last 2 years. This year, they're one of just 8 teams with a blitz rate under 20%.

Pretty reasonable analysis otherwise, but I almost spit out my drink when I saw that quote above.

Almost the first words out of Hafley’s mouth when he got here were, the scheme is not gonna be that much different. It’s the style of play that’s changing. I think he’s definitely accomplished that.