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Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Dallas Cowboys have asked to interview Green Bay Packers defensive line coach and tight end coordinator Demarcus Covington for their defensive coordinator vacancy. On Friday, the New York Jets announced that they have completed negotiations with Covington, along with seven other potential candidates for the job.<\/p>\n
The Jets are led by defensive line coach Aaron Glenn, unlike the Cowboys, but Glenn doesn’t call defensive plays. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks held that role until he was fired midseason and replaced by interim defensive coordinator Chris Harris, who will also hold the job through 2026.<\/p>\n
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The fact that Covington is a hot name in the defensive coordinator market is not surprising. Throughout the year, whenever I talk to sources in training (be it coaches or their representatives), the two names that came up the most as potential replacements for Packers DC Jeff Hafley, if he leaves the opportunity to coach the head, were Covington and Green Bay passing game producer Derrick Ansley.<\/p>\n
Both Covington (with the 2024 New England Patriots) and Ansley (with the 2023 Los Angeles Chargers) were defensive coordinators at the NFL level in their last positions before Green Bay. And they’re among the few current Packers assistants with on-field experience in the league outside of Green Bay.<\/p>\n
Expect to keep hearing Covington’s name thrown around the NFL, especially if Hafley and\/or head coach Matt LaFleur end up leaving the Packers, as he could be a candidate for defensive coordinator either way, too.<\/p>\n
Covington took over Green Bay’s defensive line after back-to-back internal promotions that didn’t go well for the team. Jerry Montgomery, who was with Dom Capers, Mike Pettine and Joe Barry, was released by the team in 2023. He spent one year with the Patriots in 2024 before resurfacing with the Cincinnati Bengals. This year, the Bengals finished 30th in defensive DVOA, 29th in pass defense and 29th in rush defense.<\/p>\n
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Montgomery was replaced by Jason Rebrovich, who was promoted from pass-rush specialist (a nice title for a 3-4 outside linebackers coach) in 2023 under Barry to man the Packers’ entire line in 2024 in their new 4-3 defense under Hafley. He stayed in that role for a year before being fired last season. Currently, he is an assistant linebacker coach (ie an assistant defensive line coach) with the Buffalo Bills. The Bills currently rank 31st in rushing DVOA on defense.<\/p>\n
Although the Packers defensive wall has not been ready this year, there seems to be interest in Covington, who was playing the best football for Micah Parsons until his injury and it seems that he has made a name for himself in the defense of Lukas Van Ness, depending on how Van Ness looked when he did not injure his foot (his last two games against the Ravens and Chicago against the Ravens the Chicago. Arguably the best of his career).<\/p>\n
The defensive tackle was a mess all year, in part because Kenny Clark was expected to start at nose tackle just before the season, in part because Devonte Wyatt used three options and missed a lot of time with injuries and in part because the roster wasn’t built to cover those losses. Colby Wooden, who was 273 pounds in the 2023 draft, was supposed to start at nose tackle on this team (he’s clearly put on pounds from his combined weight and is saying a lot), which wasn’t the plan until Parsons fell out of the sky and Clark was a condition for the team to get him.<\/p>\n
In the early going, the Packers defense was at its best this season. However, in the end the depth of their defensive line caught up with them as the games wore on. Hopefully, whether or not Covington is back, that can be fixed in 2026. It really was like Green Bay’s defense (and especially the defensive line) was playing with a ticking clock in their head all year. After that first game of a 15-play drive, their legs will give out and never come back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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