Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur knew, coming into his end of the season press conference, that there would be questions regarding his coaching staff — in particular, about the decision of keeping or not defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

And, after saying the defense was "fantastic" against the San Francisco 49ers during the divisional round loss on Saturday, LaFleur wasn't definitive about the future.

"I know there's going to be a lot of long-term, big picture questions," LaFleur said. "I'm not there yet, fellas. We're just starting the process."

That doesn't mean Barry will be fired. As the Packers head coach said, he's starting the process and there's no decision made at this point.

"Just gonna go through my process at my own pace," LaFleur mentioned.

However, it is at least curious that the tone is much different than it was a year ago. One day after the loss to the Detroit Lions in week 18 that eliminated the Packers of the 2022 season, LaFleur was pretty definitive about his staff.

"That's what I anticipate, yes," LaFleur said last January about keeping Barry. "I don't really anticipate a whole lot, if any, staff changes at all."

Last year, LaFleur praised his coaching staff and said they would keep most of it intact.

"I do believe in the people, not only in the locker room, but our coaching staff," LaFleur added. "It's my intention to try and have everybody back. I think continuity is a big part of having success in this league. When you feel good about the people, then you gotta work to improve. We have to challenge each other."

In fact, LaFleur didn't make significant staff changes from 2022 to 2023. The biggest one was the departure of defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Jerry Gray to the Atlanta Falcons as an assistant head coach. The Packers replaced him by adding passing game coordinator Greg Williams and promoting Ryan Downard from safeties coach to defensive backs coach. Moreover, Rich Bisaccia was promoted to assistant head coach, in addition to his role as special teams coordinator.

Other than that, there were just minor moves. Offensive assistant Aubrey Pleasant, who had been hired midway through the season, was not retained, and offensive quality control Rob Grosso was let go. They switched senior defensive analysts, going from John Donovan to Tim Lester, and special teams quality control coaches, changing from Micheal Spurlock to Kyle Wilber.

Mixed messages

After the game, it sounded like LaFleur was happy with Joe Barry. He praised the unit's performance against the 49ers — as he did multiple times throughout the season.

"I thought it was fantastic," LaFleur said when asked about the defensive production in Santa Clara. "Certainly, we'd like to get a stop at the end, that's one of the best offenses in this league."

The Packers finished the regular season as the 27th best defense in the league by DVOA, a downgrade compared to 2022, when they were 20th.

Joe Barry was hired by the Packers in 2021, and most of the staff under him had been in place longer than that. Defensive line coach/running game coordinator Jerry Montgomery, inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti, and defensive backs coach Ryan Downard were all on the staff when Mike Pettine was the defensive coordinator. The biggest new names are Greg Williams and pass rush specialist Jason Rebrovich.

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