It appears as though that two of Green Bay’s defensive assistants will remain with the team in 2024, while three others will be forced out of their roles.
Former Green Bay Packers defensive line coach and run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery, who was the longest-tenured coach on the team’s staff, was hired on Monday as the New England Patriots’ next defensive line coach, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. Montgomery, like the rest of the Packers’ assistant coaches, was under contract with the team through the 2024 season, meaning that Green Bay allowed him to move on.
Per Demovsky’s reporting, defensive backs coach Ryan Downard, who had previously coached with new Green Bay defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley during their stint with the Cleveland Browns, and pass rush specialist Jason Rebrovich will return to the Packers in 2024. It was previously reported by Peter Bukowski of The Leap that Rebrovich would be promoted to an “elevated role” under Hafley’s watch. With the change from Joe Barry’s 3-4 defense to Hafley’s 4-3 defense, Rebrovich might be promoted to the team’s solo defensive line coach or even run game coordinator, both titles that Montgomery previously held.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein also added that passing game coordinator Greg Williams, who was hired last offseason when Jerry Gray left for the Atlanta Falcons, and inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti will not be coming back to Green Bay this year. Olivadotti, per Silverstein, will be joining Mike McDonald’s staff with the Seattle Seahawks. Again, the Packers could have blocked a lateral move for Olivadotti, which means that Green Bay allowed him to walk.
Last season, in total, the Packers had five full-time on-field assistants who worked under Barry. Out are Montgomery, Olivadotti and Williams. Rebrovich will remain, under an expanded role, as will Downard. At the very least, the Packers will need to hire a linebackers coach, who will oversee all the team’s off-ball linebackers in their new 4-3 defense. How they use those final two assistant coaching positions will depend on whether or not they trust Rebrovich with the entire defensive line or Downard with the entire secondary. For perspective, before they were coaching in their current roles, Rebrovich was the team’s outside linebackers coach (the position that will now be considered 4-3 defensive ends) and Downard was the safeties coach for the team.
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