Micah Hyde Starred Under New Packers Assistant Bobby Babich; Here’s Why

When Bobby Babich was named defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills after the 2023 season, star safety Micah Hyde said Babich always brought “the juice” to the practice field.

“Micah also would accuse me of fake juice at times, so we’d get in that argument a lot,” Babich, the Green Bay Packers’ new defensive passing-game coordinator, told reporters at Lambeau Field this week.

That’s a true story.

“That was something we always talked about,” Hyde, who was drafted by the Packers in 2013 and had eight interceptions in four seasons with the team, told Packers On SI.

“He’d come in the meeting room, he’d come onto the football field early in the morning – it’s 7 o’clock and he comes walking in, hair all messed up, with his coffee in his hand, yelling and screaming. We’d all be like, ‘Yo, Bobby, that’s fake juice, bro. Like, you’re just trying to do that. That’s not real. You just want to be heard.’ That was Bobby Babich in a nutshell.”

Hyde signed with the Bills in free agency in 2017. That’s the year when Babich was hired as assistant defensive backs coach. He was promoted to safeties coach from 2018 through 2021, replaced his father as linebackers coach for 2022 and 2023, and was defensive coordinator the past two seasons.

Hyde was a good player with the Packers. He was a very good player with the Bills, earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2017 and again in 2021 with five interceptions during each of those seasons.

He will be an asset for the Packers under new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, Hyde said.

“A very detailed, hardworking, smart man. It’s really all those combined,” said Hyde, who became a father for the third time last Friday. “When it comes to a coach that’s going to get you right each and every Sunday or Thursday, Monday, whatever the hell day it is, he prepared us so well.

“He gave us all the information we needed on a weekly basis early in the week to get us ready, get our mindset ready. Each and every day was a confidence builder as in, ‘We’re the best in the world at what we do.’ And then later in the week, he kind of allowed us to be us – watch our own film, talk about the quarterbacks – and go out there on Sundays and make plays. But very, very detailed.”

Driving the Point Home

So detailed that it might get to the edge of being annoying at times, but then the results come and it all makes sense.

“Very detailed to the point where he talks about it a lot and it’s like, ‘All right, man, I got it.’ You know what I’m saying? Like, ‘I got it,’” Hyde said. “But then at the end of the day, you respect him because of it, because when you’re on the field, you start to get that Bobby Babich voice in your head telling you where to be, what to do. You start making plays and it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, this is what he’s asking me to do.’

“The good coaches that I’ve played for have found some way to get inside of your head so that when you’re playing the game and when you come off the field, you know what you did right, you know what you did wrong. Bobby’s one of those coaches.”

During Babich’s nine years in Buffalo, the Bills finished third in points allowed and first in takeaways.

Micah Hyde steps in front of Packers receiver Malik Taylor for an interception. | JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE / USA TODAY NETWORK

The question is how quickly the changes can pay dividends in Green Bay. The first season in Buffalo, in Hyde’s words, was a “sh** show.” There was a three-game, midseason losing streak in which Buffalo gave up 34, 47 and 54 points.

“We were trying to learn the defense, we were trying to learn each other, learn a whole bunch of different stuff,” Hyde said. “But I would say a good couple months into the season, we were making plays, we were playing well on the back end. Personally, I was playing well.”

Indeed, during the final seven games (including playoffs), the Bills gave up less than 17 points in five games and more than 23 only once.

“He was giving me confidence to go out there and do what we had to do,” Hyde said. “So, I would like to think that it happened pretty fast. If you’re willing to learn as a player and put everything on the table and say, ‘Hey, help me get better.’ And then as a coach, in Bobby’s sense, trusting your guys that they’re going to go out there and make plays. I feel like it happened pretty fast.”

Biils Produced Takeaways With Bobby Babich

Last season, even with the addition of Micah Parsons, the Packers finished 26th with 14 takeaways. The Bills had 20 in 2025, 32 in 2024, 30 in 2023, 27 in 2022, 30 in 2021 and 26 in 2020.

From 2017 through 2023, which was Hyde’s final season, the safety combination of Jordan Poyer and Hyde combined for 38 interceptions.

“I think they put me in positions to do that,” Hyde said. “I loved every minute I had in Green Bay, but when I was playing in that defense, my back was turned. That’s not me. You know what I’m saying? I’m a football player where I’m instinctive. I want to see the quarterback. I’m a centerfielder – nothing gets past me. And if that ball goes up in the air, I’m going to go get it. That was me in a nutshell. And so that’s what Bobby did; he put me there to do that.

With Babich at the controls and Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams at safety, big things could be in store after Green Bay went from 17 interceptions in 2024 to seven in 2025.

“We talked so much about not giving up big plays and making the offense work for what they’re going to get,” Hyde said. “Even in the NFL, some teams can’t do that. Some teams can’t go 12 plays down the field and score a touchdown. They’re going to have penalties, they’re going to force the throw and it’s an interception for us.

“So, that’s just what we preached every single day: not giving up big plays. ‘Micah, don’t let nobody get past you.’ If a run breaks through, get them on the ground, live to fight another day. If they try to throw the ball up in the air over top of you on a double move or on somebody else, you cover the top and make sure that doesn’t happen. And we lived by that for seven years.”

Back to the juice, it’s all about being passionate about the game, Babich said, with the belief that it translates on the field.

“Like I told the guys, it’s one thing to love somebody, right?” Babich said. “Like I gave them the example, I love my parents, but I’m passionate about my wife. That’s how I feel about the game of football. I’m passionate about the game of football, and I think there’s a difference there. It’s done a lot for me, so I need to give it that every day and be consistent in that way.”

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