The Green Bay Packers have landed on their next defensive coordinator.
According to reports, the Packers are hiring Jonathan Gannon, the former Arizona Cardinals head coach and former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky has since shed some light on the Packers’ search.
Demovsky reports that the Packers had to move quickly on Gannon because both the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants were also interested in him.
Demovsky adds that the Packers did indeed have interest in Denver Broncos assistant head coach and defensive pass-game coordinator Jim Leonhard.
But given the fact that he could not interview right away with the Broncos still in the playoffs, Green Bay didn’t want to wait and risk losing out on Gannon.
Here’s the details from Demovsky.
A source also said Gannon was drawing interest from both Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh for their respective defensive coordinator openings with the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants, and if the Packers had waited any longer, they might have lost out on Gannon.
However, that meant the Packers could not interview Denver Broncos assistant head coach/defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard for the job.
While there was mutual interest between LaFleur and Leonhard, the Wisconsin native and former Badgers player and coach, the Packers could not interview him because the Broncos are playing in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
Demovsky reports one of the main draws for the Packers when it comes to Gannon was Green Bay “loved the fact that [Gannon has] sat in the [head coach’s] chair.”
Gannon didn’t have much success with the Cardinals over three seasons, but that is still valuable experience and something Green Bay clearly coveted.
And, when combined with his success as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, he was always going to be an attractive candidate for defensive coordinator openings.
