Losing Anthony Campanile to Jaguars Would Be Major Blow for Packers

Green Bay Packers linebackers coach Anthony Campanile has interviewed to be Liam Coen’s defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Green Bay Packers linebackers/running game coordinator Anthony Campanile is shown before their game at Minnesota. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For years, the Green Bay Packers have been looking for a stud linebacker. They might have him in rookie Edgerrin Cooper, who was coached this season by Anthony Campanile.

Not surprisingly considering his success and full-throttle approach, Campanile is a candidate to become a defensive coordinator. On Tuesday, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced they had interviewed Campanile to fill that role under new coach Liam Coen.

Campanile was the Miami Dolphins’ linebackers coach from 2020 through 2023. He was a coordinator candidate last year – he interviewed with the Giants – but Packers coach Matt LaFleur lured him to Green Bay to be part of new coordinator Jeff Hafley’s staff.

As they expected because of their long relationship, they hit it off.

“We’ve never worked together, but I feel like I've known him for over 15 years,” Hafley said late in the season. “We're from the same area. When I was a younger coach, even coaching Division III and I-AA, he was at a high school, and I used to go to it all the time and we just kind of hit it off and we'd hang out. We'd meet up after and just talk football, draw plays.

“And then I got to Pitt, he came and visited me and we continued to have a really good friendship and relationship. A lot of that started with the respect I had for him and how hard he worked. I tried to get him to college football and then it worked out [in Green Bay]. We've just become really close. I have a huge amount of respect for him as a coach, his knowledge, how hard he coaches, his intensity but, more importantly, as a person.”

As linebackers coach and defensive run-game coordinator, the Packers finished seventh in the NFL against the run and third in rushing yards allowed per carry. It was the first time the Packers allowed less than 100 rushing yards per game since 2009.

“I definitely think there’s always things you can do better, but I think these guys are totally bought into what we’re teaching,” Campanile said before Week 18. “I firmly believe that there’s a progression each play – your eyes, your feet, your hands – and then there’s got to be a violent finish. That’s how every football play should start and end.

“If your eyes are right, your feet will be right, you’ll get there and your hands will buy you time. That’s some of the fundamental things about defending the run, those are essential. Your body position, where your feet are, not compromising your base, playing with great hands and technique, pad level. Some people talk about those things, but you’ve got to drill those things every day, almost like to the point where it’s a martial art.”

Losing Campanile would be a major blow to the coaching staff. Defensive assistant Sean Duggan was Hafley’s linebackers coach at Boston College, so there’s trust and a relationship, but Campanile’s energy and experience would be hard to replace.

“He's an extremely loyal friend; he always has been,” Hafley continued in talking about Campanile. “He's a guy that, no matter where I've been, if I picked up the phone and needed anything, I know he'd be right there. When Matt first called me, he was one of my first phone calls once we decided to go in this direction.

“He had a bunch of opportunities to go elsewhere and we had been kind of waiting to do this for a while. We were on two separate planes on the way home from the last game and we were texting back and forth and he just wrote me a text back, ‘How cool is this? This is what we always talked about doing.’”

Among the Jaguars’ other candidates are Patrick Graham, who was linebackers coach and run-game coordinator for the Packers in 2018, and Aubrey Pleasant, who was an offensive consultant on LaFleur’s staff at the end of the 2022 season.

“I'm going to be involved, but it's more the shared vision of the identity, the style of play,” Coen said about his defensive coordinator search. “How do we continue to drive home the message of the style of play that we want to work with and play with? That's within the meetings, like being in the meeting sometimes. …

“So, I'll be involved, but I'm not going to be overbearing. I want that guy to have autonomy. I want that guy to have confidence, to be able to go and do it, and feel like his personality and his moral compass is showing on the product.”

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