The Green Bay Packers had a tough defensive stretch in December, which led to losses to the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and a difficult win over the Carolina Panthers, the worst team in football this year. That sequence put pressure on defensive coordinator Joe Barry, and head coach Matt LaFleur had to answer questions about Barry's job security on a weekly basis.

Three weeks later, though, the situation seems much better for LaFleur and Barry. And it sure feels like the head coach is willing to keep his assistant beyond this season.

"I couldn't be happier. I know what Joe Barry is all about, just in terms of the resiliency," LaFleur said. "There are tough moments, and there are tough moments in every season. I know what we have in him and I was confident that if anybody could right the ship, so to speak, it was him."

The Packers defense has played well over the last three games. To finish up the season, they allowed 10 points to the Minnesota Vikings and nine to the Chicago Bears. During this period, they were second in EPA/play and fifth in success rate in the entire NFL. Last Sunday, most of the 32 points happened in garbage time, and the defense got two important interceptions — one of them was returned to a touchdown by safety Darnell Savage.

Sample size

Joe Barry's situation is still not comfortable, though. The last three games are still a small sample size, and the Packers faced two bad starting quarterbacks against the Vikings (Jaren Hall) and the Bears (Justin Fields).

The Packers have to evaluate everything, and since Barry took over in 2021, the defense has been 24th in EPA/play and 30th in success rate.

In 2023, they were only the 27th defense in the NFL by DVOA, which takes the opposition into consideration to evaluate team performance.

LaFleur's decision

Even though Joe Barry hasn't had success — and his previous track record isn't great either —, he is Matt LaFleur's hand-picked choice. When LaFleur was hired in 2019, there was a general sense that the Packers should keep Mike Pettine as the defensive coordinator after a relatively strong 2018 season under Mike McCarthy.

However, the Packers decided to move on from Pettine after two more years, and LaFleur had the opportunity to choose his assistant.

LaFleur passed on Ejiro Evero and Ryan Nielsen, who were interviewed at the time, to go with Joe Barry. So, besides the team's success, there is also a personal component from LaFleur expecting that it will work out.

By mid-season, my bold prediction was that Joe Barry would be the Packers defensive coordinator beyond 2023. Since that piece was published, his firing seemed like an obvious decision at some point. But now, that take looks to make sense again — whether you agree with that decision or not.

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