When Jeff Hafely had his introductory press conference as the Green Bay Packers new defensive coordinator, he went into detail about what he’s looking for at the safety position.
When GM Brian Gutekunst has described what he wants at the safety position, his response has been much more brief. In fact, you can often boil it down to one word: “interchangeable.”
“For me, those guys I’d love to be interchangeable,” said Gutekunst on Monday about the two safeties and the nickel position. “I’d like them to be able to do everything. I think that’s really tough on an offense when those guys can move down inside, they can play the post, they can go in the nickel and cover. I think when you have two guys that can do everything, it’ll allow Jeff to be much more, you know, efficient so to speak.”
We know that Xavier McKinney can wear a variety of hats, but one of the tasks at the top of Gutekunst’s to-do list in the draft was finding a running mate for him that can do the same. And it sure looks like the Packers were able to, selecting Georgia safety Javon Bullard in the second round.
“He’s a good football player,” said Assistant Director of College Scouting Pat Moore. “He’s very smart, knows how to play, knows how to make plays. I don’t think we took him with a specific spot in mind other than a good secondary player who can help us.”
During the 2022 season, Bullard spent most of his snaps lined up in the slot, where he held opponents to 8.9 yards per catch with two interceptions and five pass breakups.
Then in 2023, with Georgia wanting to get all of their top defenders on the field, Bullard made the move to playing free safety, where he held opponents to 8.5 yards per catch with two more interceptions and five more pass breakups.
Throughout his career, regardless of where Bullard has been asked to line up, he’s been a very reliable tackler as well.
“As far as my role, man, just being — really doing whatever the team needed me to do, man,” Bullard told reporters on Friday night. “It was some cases where as far as my sophomore year at nickel, there were some cases where I was more involved in the run game and more involved in blitz packages and things like that and also more involved in man to man coverage, being able to cover slot receivers and things like that.
“As far as safety, we lost a great player in Chris Smith to the NFL, as well, so like I said, just being that versatile Swiss Army knife that the team needs, whatever they ask me to do, I will definitely do that and I try to do it at a high level.”
The reason why Gutekunst and Hafley want these roles to be interchangeable is because it will make it more difficult for opposing offenses to decipher what the Packers are doing defensively. With Bullard and McKinney each able to take on different responsibilities, it becomes much more difficult for offenses to get a beat on where they will be lined up or what they are being asked to do.
From a game-planning perspective, it really opens up the playbook for Hafley. That level of versatility at multiple spots allows him to be much more flexible with adjustments, and able to alter the game-plan week-to-week depending on who the opponent is and how they operate.
In short, it allows the Packers to better plan for the opponent, but makes it more difficult for the opponent to plan for them.
“I think probably his ability to maybe play more nickel than some of those guys,” said Moore on why they preferred Bullard over other safeties. “We felt like him at the second level, playing that slot and playing a little bit more nickel, with the ability to play safety as well was probably a strength. Just really we have a good feel for him and who he is and what he’s going to bring to our defense intangible-wise, too. That’s just where we had him stacked.”
As Hafley made clear in his first press conference, safety is a crucial position in his defensive scheme that isn’t afraid to send five or six-man pressures and utilize press coverage, both of which can leave the safety on an island. As a result, this offseason, Gutekunst has prioritized the position, and in doing so, put an emphasis on versatility.