Unpacking the hire of Jonathan Gannon as Packers DC
The Packers have hired a new DC, tabbing former Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon to run their defense. The decision raises questions, and not only those about his past job performance.
Sunday morning, the Green Bay Packers finalized the hire of Jonathan Gannon as their new defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports. Today’s edition of The Leap unpacks that decision and looks at what he might bring to Green Bay in 2026.
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Packers betting that personnel, not coaching, stymied Gannon at his previous stop
Jason B. Hirschhorn: Though many expected the Packers to wait through the weekend and interview more candidates before hiring their next DC, the news that Gannon landed the job hardly came out of nowhere. The Leap included him in our reporting about the candidates, and the former Arizona Cardinals head coach sat for a formal interview this past week. Green Bay had already fulfilled the requirements under the NFL’s interview policies, so the team had the green light to make a hire at any time.
Gannon, though only 43, comes to Green Bay with over two decades of coaching experience. When not serving as a head coach or defensive coordinator, he has primarily coached defensive backs, a résumé trait he shares with departing Packers DC Jeff Hafley. Also like Hafley, Gannon worked in a variety of systems in the NFL, making his schematic preferences harder to pin down. While most associate him with the Vic Fangio defense he ran with the Philadelphia Eagles, Gannon also has extensive experience in the systems run by Mike Zimmer and Matt Eberflus.
In terms of performance, Gannon’s defenses in Arizona leave a lot to be desired. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, those units never finished a season ranked better than 23rd in pressure rate or 27th in EPA per play. That stands in stark contrast to his defenses in Philly, which topped out at fifth in both categories, with Gannon calling the plays when the Eagles reached Super Bowl LVII.
Multiple causes can explain the variance in outcome between Gannon’s defenses in Arizona versus his units in Philly, but the on-field personnel stands as the largest difference. In 2022, the Eagles ran out a defensive front so deep that Jordan Davis, Milton Williams, Nakobe Dean, and Derek Barnett served as backups. In contrast, the Cardinals relied on Calais Campbell and Dalvin Tomlinson -- a tandem that combines for 80 years of age -- to start every game in 2025.
In Green Bay, Gannon won’t have the Murderers’ Row of defensive talent that the Eagles provided, but he’ll have more with which to work than the Cardinals offered. The presence of Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, Edgerrin Cooper, and, when he returns, Micah Parsons will provide more juice than Arizona had at any point during Gannon’s tenure, not to mention a talented safety group from which the Packers’ new DC can experiment.
All of which makes the Gannon hire difficult to parse at this stage. An upside case exists, and he has half a decade of NFL experience as a defensive coordinator and head coach. However, Gannon’s work outside of the years in which he had top-shelf talent paints a drearier portrait.
And several questions remain unanswered. Did Gannon have so much interest that the Packers felt they couldn’t wait long enough to interview Denver Broncos assistant Jim Leonhard, a coach with interest in Green Bay’s DC opening? How much will Gannon change about the defense he will inherit from Hafley? What did Gannon tell Matt LaFleur to assuage concerns about last year’s sideline altercation that resulted in a $100,000 fine?
Beyond selecting a DC, the Packers have other coaching decisions to make. Gannon’s arrival won’t result in a full reboot of the defensive staff, but he’ll likely have a few key assistants in mind to work underneath him. Will Gannon look to bring Nick Rallis, the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator and play-caller the past three seasons, to Green Bay? Rallis primarily coached linebackers before Arizona, and current Packers linebackers coach Sean Duggan could follow Hafley to the Miami Dolphins.
As of publication, the Packers have yet to announce Gannon’s hiring. Likewise, they have not scheduled his introductory press conference. Gannon presumably won’t provide answers to all of these questions when he meets the Green Bay media for the first time, but he should give some clarity on a few of these matters in the not-too-distant future.