American Football

Packers will hire former Cardinals CB coach Greg Williams, per report

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Williams seems likely to replace the departed Jerry Gray as Green Bay’s defensive backs coach.

The Green Bay Packers chose not to actively move on from any of their assistant coaches this season, seemingly happy to retain all of their coaches who have contracts that continue through the 2023 season. That includes defensive coordinator Joe Barry, who was widely expected to be on the chopping block until the team’s late-season surge on defense.

However, one position did become vacant when defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator Jerry Gray’s contract expired and he signed on with the Atlanta Falcons. Now the Packers appear to have their replacement as defensive backs coach: Greg Williams.

According to NFL insider Aaron Wilson, the Packers are expected to hire Williams, who was most recently the Arizona Cardinals’ cornerbacks coach.

Williams has spent the last four years in that role for the Cardinals, coinciding with Kliff Kingsbury’s four years as head coach. In those four years, Arizona’s pass defense had somewhat varied results, finishing 27th, 6th, 13th, and 19th in net yards per attempt from 2019 through 2022. Looking at DVOA, the Cardinals’ pass defense ranked a bit better, finishing 26th, 9th, 5th, and 21st.

Prior to his tenure with the Cardinals, Williams held defensive backs coach jobs for the Denver Broncos (2018) and Indianapolis Colts (2016-17). Vance Joseph was the Broncos’ head coach for that 2018 season and brought Williams with him to Arizona after taking the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator job in 2019; that came after Williams worked under head coach Chuck Pagano and DC Ted Monachino with the Colts.

Williams was a defensive back himself and played for the University of North Carolina in the mid-1990s. He moved around various leagues in his pro career, working in NFL training camps as well as playing in NFL Europe, the original XFL, and the Arena Football League.

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