Green Bay Packers: With Joe Barry Gone, Fans Identify Next Coach They Want Fired.
In 2024, the Green Bay Packers made a positive change by firing defensive coordinator Joe Barry after three years of frustration. Despite having eight first-round picks on defense, Barry’s tenure saw no improvement in that area. In fact, one could argue that things grew worse. While they performed admirably in the last two weeks of the regular season, no defense allowed as many 200-yard running games as the Packers. Furthermore, they let New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito have the game of his life in a stunning and humiliating defeat.
The fact of the matter is that Barry’s defense was wildly inconsistent. There were other games where the defense performed exceptionally well, such as when they defeated Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs this season. However, they frequently made ordinary quarterbacks look like superstars. A week after being humbled by the Giants, the defense let Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield become the first visiting quarterback to have a perfect passing rating at Lambeau Field.
Needless to say, the decision to fire Barry was met with positive reactions from Packers fans. Unfortunately for Barry, he always had an uphill battle to fight with fans. Being the guy who was offered the job that former Wisconsin Badgers’ coach Jim Leonhard declined could not have been easy. That being said, his body of work did him no favors.
Now that Barry is gone, Packers fans are hopeful that the 2024 defense will be much improved from what is was over the last three years. They have also turned their displeasure towards another prominent member of the team’s coaching staff.
Green Bay Packers Fans Want Rich Bisaccia Gone
The Packers’ special teams haven’t been particularly good since, well, 1996. Despite having Keisean Nixon as their kick returner for the last two seasons (during which Nixon was voted First Team All-Pro), the unit’s overall performance has been dismal.
This season, their troubles were exacerbated by rookie kicker Anders Carlson’s inconsistency, particularly on extra point attempts. Rich Bisaccia handpicked the 2023 sixth-round draft pick as the successor to long-time Packers kicker Mason Crosby.
When the Packers hired Bisaccia, who had just been passed over for the head coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders, he was supposed to help everything improve. But it has not, at least not to the extent that many fans would have liked.
For this reason, Bisaccia is now drawing the ire of fans:
people who are dissatisfied with Bisaccia are the same people who, for the most part, praised the Packers for employing him in the first place. In any case, Bisaccia is also the assistant head coach, and Green Bay’s coach-firing deadline for the season has passed.
Hopefully, he can strengthen his unit by 2024, or fans may have even more reason to grumble.
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