Rookie safety Javon Bullard will decide the upside of Jeff Hafley's Packers defense

The Green Bay Packers' new defense doesn't only require one post safety, but another one who allows that safety to be everywhere at once.

When Matt LaFleur replaced Mike Pettine with Joe Barry, he played follow the leader. The Rex Ryan blitz scheme faded while the Vic Fangio ideology thrived. It’s what everyone was doing. But it became the classic scold, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?” And jump they did, right into the Fox River. Hiring a coach with 49ers ties may seem like LaFleur did it again. The arrival of Jeff Hafley signals a profound change though and with it, a willingness to cut against convention. Rather than live in two-high safeties all season, Hafley prefers a lone ranger approach. But to do it, he’ll need a second safety on the Green Bay Packers to emerge.

The collegiate game moved to Fangio-adjacent systems to combat the spread, RPO world of college offenses. NFL teams soon followed. Hafley, even at a school without elite talent, stayed the course, preferring to disguise with his safeties, playing as much single-high coverage as any program in major college football, and beguile opponents with designer blitzes, all-out pressures, and a chaos philosophy that could outperform his players’ talent.

Hafley’s Boston College defenses played Cover-1 or Cover-3 on 70% of snaps while the rest of college football preferred a quarters-based approach with two safeties deep. That includes an incredible 43% of man coverage snaps (Cover-1). Compare that to Joe Barry last season who ran single-high safeties on 60.5% of snaps, while playing man a paltry 19.5% of snaps. They’ll need a safety to handle the post.

Xavier McKinney: four years, $68 million. Problem solved.

Except to maximize McKinney, an adept slot defender, blitzer, and lurk defender in the middle of the field, Green Bay must find a complementary player, someone who can also do everything so McKinney can thrive as the queen of Hafley’s cheeseboard chessboard.