Playbook? Scheme? Packers’ Jonathan Gannon Provides Peek Inside Defense

GREEN BAY – When Jonathan Gannon went from coordinating the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl defense to coaching the Arizona Cardinals in 2023, he said he had neither a scheme nor playbook.

Say what?

Gannon explained his defensive philosophy during his long-awaited introductory news conference as the new defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers on Monday.

Let’s start with the scheme, which includes the move away from the 4-3 employed by former coordinator Jeff Hafley the previous two seasons. It’s not as cut-and-dried, though.

“The point is – Matt (LaFleur), same thing honestly – the point is the game. It adapts,” Gannon said at Lambeau Field. “I don’t really get caught up in 4-3, 3-4. We’re an NFL-style defense hopefully.

“I just believe that you’ve got to continually every year try to adapt and solve problems and, really, with your guys in mind. This is a whole new crew for me that we’re just getting ready to learn – all new different players. That’s kind of what I mean by that. Yeah, there are some principles, there are some things I like to do, but it’s only if our players can do it. I told them the other day, if we’re not good at this, just because I like to do it, we’re not going to do it. That’s our job. We’ve got to put them in the best positions possible that they feel comfortable that they can go out and play the game.”

While Gannon will be bringing a different defensive style than Hafley, he will be counting on the same thing that Hafley preached. Play hard. Do your job. Everyone to the football.

“Before scheme, I truly believe it’s not what you play, it’s how you play,” Gannon continued. “Matt calls it play style. I love that. So, that’s been cool with our guys, to define that for them. Here’s the expectation, here’s what you’re accountable for. We’re all accountable for it, because I think that’s what a good defense looks like – a fast, violent, physical team that takes the ball away.”

It seems preposterous to believe Gannon didn’t have a playbook to hand out to his players once they arrived for the offseason program.

He does. He just didn’t bring it with him from Arizona or take the one from Philadelphia out of mothballs. It’s going to be a playbook from here, there and everywhere.

“We develop the playbook when we get here,” Gannon said. “I told the players this: I said this is going to be a little different for them because as we’re teaching them things. They’re going to see tape of Philly, Minnesota, Arizona, Green Bay, San Francisco, Buffalo, Alabama, Georgia.

“I don’t really get caught up in, if you said, ‘This is my playbook. Here’s what we’re going to run,’ what I said to you guys earlier is kind of full of you-know-what because you’re really not adapting your scheme to the players you have. ‘This is just what we do.’ Well, if this guy can’t do that, what are you going to do? ‘We’re just going to do that,’ that doesn’t make sense to me.”

If it sounds complicated for the players to digest an evolving playbook that includes principles of 3-4 and 4-3 schemes, Gannon said it’s up to the coaches to make it easy so the players can play fast and think less.

“I think that the beauty of simplicity, there’s a lot of long, hard work and thought that goes into making it simple when they walk in here. That’s our job,” Gannon said. “We’re not going to have a bunch of stuff. We’re going to play staples, have some bullets. I’m more concerned on our play style. That’s the first thing I’ll look at.”

Gannon’s 2022 defense in Philadelphia was good enough to get to the Super Bowl. That got him the head job with Arizona, but the Cardinals went only 15-36. His defenses finished 25th in yards and 31st in points in 2023, 21st in yards and 15th in points in 2024 and 27th in yards and 29th in points in 2025.

When Gannon was fired by Arizona and Hafley got the head job in Miami, LaFleur reached out to Gannon. The interview took about a day-and-a-half, Gannon said. LaFleur’s rapid-fire line of questioning made Gannon sweat a bit, but when he got done and returned home, he told his wife that the Green Bay job was the one he wanted.

Now that he’s been here for a couple months, he’s got to work in teaching what he believes will be a unique scheme that could vary from week to week, depending on the matchup.

“It really is the truth when I tell you guys this is going to be a new system this year,” he said. “It’s the 2026 Green Bay Packers. It’s awesome, to me. It’s fun.”

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