The 2020 offseason was a relatively quiet one for the Green Bay Packers, at least in comparison to 2019. Coming off an NFC Championship loss to San Francisco, the Packers had little cap space, and in the draft, they addressed future needs more than immediate ones.

This meant that Green Bay was going to run back a similar team for the 2020 season, hoping that internal development and a Year 2 leap in the Matt LaFleur offense would take place--both of which did. 

And part of that internal development was getting a young but extremely talented secondary to the next level--they just needed more consistency. Enter Defensive Backs Coach, Jerry Gray. 

Gray was a former first-round pick and a four-time Pro Bowler during his playing days, which spanned nine years. As a coach, he has a reputation as being an excellent teacher.

"My job is to make sure the guys are getting better and seeing the success on the football field that they want to see, and they'll keep listening," Gray said via Packers.com. "If you don't see success, they won't come back. My job is to keep them coming back."

Gray has an extremely impressive track record, having worked with players such as Fred Smoot, Blaine Bishop, Samari Rolle, Nate Clements, DeAngelo Hall, and Antoine Winfield. More recently in Minnesota -- where he came from before joining the Packers -- Gray worked with Harrison Smith and Xavier Rhodes, two Pro Bowlers and first-team All-Pros.

"He’s known for filling in the blanks,” said Smoot via Packers News. “Every time you get a cornerback in this league, it’s always going to be ‘he does this well, does this well, but..’ He’s going to find out whatever that ‘but’ is and he’s going to work on that. He’s never going to work on the things you already do great. He’s going to try to complete the pizza, if you know what I mean.”

Now in just one season in Green Bay, we've already seen several members of the Packers' secondary have career years, and it's not a coincidence that it just so happened to be under Gray's tutelage. 

Jaire Alexander found that down-to-down consistency and has turned into a legitimate shutdown cornerback. This season he was named a second-team All-Pro, allowing a completion rate of just 48.7 percent on 76 targets for only 9.5 yards per catch with 14 pass breakups and three interceptions--two of which came in the NFC Championship Game.

Over the second half of the season, Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage formed the best safety duo in the NFL. Savaged finished the regular season second among all safeties in total pass breakups and interceptions, and Amos was Pro Football Focus' ($) second highest-graded safety in 2020. 

On top of that, Chandon Sullivan made strides, and even Josh Jackson had shown some improvement during his limited action. While most of his playing time came when he was filling in for an injured Kevin King -- who admittedly didn't play as consistently well in 2020 -- and quarterbacks were still fairly efficient passing the ball on Jackson, he allowed only 7.9 yards per catch--although penalties were still an issue. 

There are a few other young players, including Ka'dar Hollman and Stanford Samuels, who are hopefully benefiting from Gray's knowledge and experience as well. 

"He’s been in a lot of different systems, he's been a coordinator so he sees it through that coordinator’s eye and understands how all 11 work together," LaFleur said via Packers News after hiring Gray. He does such a good job of connecting with our players in a short period of time that they’ve had a chance to sit down and talk."

Gray has only been in Green Bay for one season, but needless to say, he has been as advertised. In his short time as defensive backs coach, he's taken Alexander, Savage, and Amos all to new heights, and he did so during an extremely unusual offseason.

According to Gray, it's a pretty simple process; he knows what to do, the players just have to be willing to listen and to work:

"Because like I tell all the young guys, I got the knowledge to get you where you have to go. Now, it’s up to you to want to work to get there. Every guy who has basically taken that knowledge I’ve tried to give them, I’m not going to force it on you, but I’m going to try to give (it to) you and let you be the best corner in the league. If you want to be the Pro Bowl guy, I can help you get there. If you want to be an All-Pro, I can try to help you get there. But you’ve got to put your work in. I’ll give you the knowledge, but you got to put the work in.”