Packers Announce New Coaching Changes

Packers HC Matt Lafleur announced four new coaching changes on Thursday.

Jason Simmons has been promoted to defensive backs coach, and Ryan Downard to assistant defensive backs coach. Jerry Montgomery and Ben Sirmans have been retained as defensive line coach and running backs coach respectively.

Simmons, now in his ninth year with the Packers, will take over the defensive backs coaching spot. After playing in the NFL for ten seasons, he became a coaching administrator for the Packers in 2011, was promoted to a defensive/special teams assistant in 2014, and was the assistant special teams coach from 2015-2017. 

Ryan Downard becomes the assistant defensive backs coach after being promoted from a defensive quality control position. Before coming to Green Bay in 2018, he worked two seasons at Bowling Green as their safties coach, and director of football operations. 

Montgomery will be entering his fifth season as a member of the Packers staff and his second as defensive line coach. He has been a key piece in the development of Kenny Clark, who is a big part of Mike Pettine's defensive scheme, and will look to replicate Mike Daniels' dominance from his previous seasons. 

Sirmans will remain on the Packers staff for his fourth season, after helping Green Bay hold the second most yards per carry average in the NFL in 2018, a year that also saw Aaron Jones end up as the NFL's leading running back in yards per carry average. 

 

Ryne Ryskoski is a staff writer for Cheesehead TV who attends Texas A&M University where he is majoring in journalism in hopes to one day write for a pro sports team. He can be contacted directly through twitter @rusty_ryskoski_.

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Comments (26)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
Lare's picture

January 31, 2019 at 05:25 pm

Once Mennenga signs his contract he'll also be announced. Now the staff can get down to business acclimating themselves with the schemes and evaluating the current players on the roster.

One area LaFleur has not yet addressed is the strength & conditioning staff. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the current staff or takes it in a new (hopefully more healthy) direction.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

January 31, 2019 at 05:45 pm

Given some of the position coaches released it would be pretty shocking to se no changes in Strength and Conditioning.

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CoachJV's picture

January 31, 2019 at 06:19 pm

We definitely need an overhaul in the S&C dept. Too many ankles and hamstrings. I know that all teams have injuries, but for us, it's the same injuries all the time, to the same players all the time... so something isn't right.

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PAPackerbacker's picture

February 01, 2019 at 05:06 am

Coach, I agree. I've been saying this for the last 3 or 4 years now. There are far to many injuries and many times same old same old injuries to the same players as you stated. Packers need new S & C coaches as well. Should have been replaced at least a couple years ago.

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Hawg Hanner's picture

January 31, 2019 at 07:42 pm

With all the hamstring injuries something that could or should be done isn't.

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KnockTheSnotOutOfYou's picture

January 31, 2019 at 06:50 pm

Just draft and develop players with desire, passion, commitment, and motivation like David B. at left tackle, Blake Martinez or Hawk~. The rest will take care of itself!

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PatrickGB's picture

January 31, 2019 at 06:50 pm

I read that the soft injuries that we had were about league average. Maybe it’s just plan bad luck. But if that’s not true we probably need an up and coming S&C coach. Just like the other coaching spots there have been lots of changes in sports physiology and training. There is no reason why this team cannot take advantage.

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TKWorldWide's picture

January 31, 2019 at 08:57 pm

Maybe it just seems like GB has more than their share because the Packers are the only ones under our personal microscopes.

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fastmoving's picture

February 01, 2019 at 01:17 am

well said....

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stockholder's picture

January 31, 2019 at 07:03 pm

I still find all the changes interesting. I remember telling COW how wrong he was about the Packers and the production. (7-16) That winners and a good coach, would n't lose. It's amazing how in 2 years Cow was right. The production was, They did. 2 seasons of changes, losing. If cow argued that the production was bad in 2016. And Doom! What we really should be looking at is the offense. Not the defense. And not the coaching.

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Skip greenBayless's picture

January 31, 2019 at 07:29 pm

This is the least exciting group of assistant coaches ever assembled in my lifetime. I mean talk about a group of no names. As for the strength and conditioning, how about we do the opposite and just don't hire one. Do the opposite. Let these guy come in with beer guts, smoke some cigarettes or medical marijuana if preferred like the old days. Use training camp as the time to get in shape. I'd almost bet they could do that this year and there would be 50% less injuries. If you are going to hire a "coach" hire Richard Simmons. Get the Packers sweatin' to the oldies to work off the winter weight. Just light exercise is all you need. We need to think outside the box here.

Dash

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KnockTheSnotOutOfYou's picture

January 31, 2019 at 07:33 pm

LOL!

My post above was attempt at humor!

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Hawg Hanner's picture

January 31, 2019 at 07:43 pm

We need a spam button on this site for items like above

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LeotisHarris's picture

January 31, 2019 at 09:40 pm

We've gone down this road before, Dash, and here we see eye-to-eye. There's just too much science going into training these days. The human body isn't *that* complex. All these eggheads with their calipers and formulas are ruining the game!

So, I agree, more old-school calisthenics; push-ups, jumping jacks, trunk twisters, burpees to begin each practice. Swimming and bowling are great exercises, and should be part of the new fitness regimen as well. Sweatin' to the Oldies is a fine idea. I'd add Jazzercise to that mix, too. More than anything the fellas should run a mile before, and a mile after practice. Get rid of those damn kids' bikes, too. If the guys are going to cycle, at least employ someone to get a proper fit on the bike.

I'd advocate for a Strength coach, and a Conditioning coach. I'd look to hire someone strong (like bull) to teach the boys to lift weights properly, use good form and get position-specific musculature going. He'll coach strength. The Conditioning coach would work on endurance, get some distance running in for the defensive backs, and sprints for the receivers and running backs. Each of those coaches could have assistants, I suppose. Maybe members of the community who are unusually fit and/or strong. We don't want to turn our backs on resources right under our noses.

So much is made of soft tissue injuries with Packers players. Perhaps it's time to start drafting men with stronger soft tissues, or without soft tissue. Remember, Ray Nitschke played the 1966 and 1967 seasons without a left hamstring. Max McGee had no plantar fascia. None. Dave Robinson didn't have any fast-twitch muscle fibers, and no shoulder blades.

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porupack's picture

February 01, 2019 at 07:21 am

I agree. Hire Superman, Batman and Spiderman for coaches and Jared Kushner as scout, Richard Simmons for S&C; they have name recognition and would add some excitement.

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Barnacle's picture

February 01, 2019 at 07:35 am

Dash

McCarthy was very accepting of incompetent coaching and that probably applied to our strength and conditioning guys.

Fat and out of shape players should not be coddled or paid bonuses for being a little less fat than normal.

Without McCarthy, we are a better coached team.

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LambeauPlain's picture

February 01, 2019 at 07:43 am

Who were the “big names” on MMs first staff?

How about Mike Shermans?

How about Mike Holmgrens?

Bet you did not know any of their names back then, did you?

Stop the whining for a few days.

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JPierquet's picture

February 01, 2019 at 01:09 pm

I agree. Look who was on Mike Holmgren's first staff in 1992, that were nobody's - Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden, Dick Jauron and Ray Rhodes. Except for Rhodes and Jauron, the first three were unheard of at the time. I am not saying the new Packer assistant coaches will become household names in a few years, but can we at least wait a few games before people start complaining? :)

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JPierquet's picture

February 01, 2019 at 01:09 pm

I agree. Look who was on Mike Holmgren's first staff in 1992, that were nobody's - Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden, Dick Jauron and Ray Rhodes. Except for Rhodes and Jauron, the first three were unheard of at the time. I am not saying the new Packer assistant coaches will become household names in a few years, but can we at least wait a few games before people start complaining? :)

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Skip greenBayless's picture

February 01, 2019 at 01:49 pm

I knew all their namse LambeauPain. Since when is yawning considered to be "whining". Can a guy not get excited about some hires? Is there a law here that says everyone should be upbeat at every move the Packers make? Stop your whining LambeauPain.

Dash

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Johnblood27's picture

February 01, 2019 at 04:45 pm

If the hires are that BORING...

If you are truly UNEXCITED...

Please display those feelings by just S'ingTFU!

Thank you for your cooperation.

Each of the hires announced thus far have plenty of experience in reasonable roles to be thought of to contribute to a successful football program.

They have worked at their chosen profession for many years and are fully qualified to have a chance to extend their successes.

I have far more faith in the experience and promise of this coaching staff than I ever did with MM's moronic cross-training, or simply put OJT for coaches that will either fail at the new role or succeed and leave. Stoopid program. Yeah, lets replace our successful position coaches with other position coaches who have had no experience coaching their new assigned positions.

Brilliant.

What we have happening in GB here and now is FAR FAR better than what went on with MM over the past 7 years. I will give him some credit for the first 5 years of his tenure and successes.

6 points
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fastmoving's picture

February 02, 2019 at 07:30 am

yeah, this dash guy is the king of the crybabies and the smarties. but a least he keeps tryin to make any sense...…….even in a strange way.
but one way or another, no matter what the move is, he will find something to complain about. Thats what he likes to do. I believe he really believes that he knows everything better. He is the best contra indicator ever….

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fastmoving's picture

February 02, 2019 at 07:34 am

you are always outside the box. And your "thinking" even more……
Bet you are highly successful….. whatever you may do...if you do something of course.

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Leatherhead's picture

February 01, 2019 at 11:43 am

So....January has ended. Only two teams are still playing. The rest are preparing for 2019.

We've hired a new coach who has staffed his assistant positions. Our entire starting offense is under contract, along with key backups. Most of our starting defense is under contract already.

And we still have FA and the draft to strengthen the team. This has been a very, very good January for us.

Of our FAs, I would assume we'd be looking to resign Breeland. We have a bunch of FAs that we can probably resign for close to the minimum like Brice, Matthews, Campbell, Allison, Tonyan and Kumerow.

Obviously, the big questions are going to revolve around Cobb and Matthews. Cobb only played in 9 games, but he's averaged about 14 games/season, and he's reasonably productive when he's on the field.

Spotrac compares him to similar players and their deals and places his value at about 7.5 million/year. He's clearly one of our best WRs if he's on the field.

Allison would come considerably cheaper, and he's younger by 4 years.

Matthews at 33......I think you have to pass. Right now, we've got Fackrell and Perry at OLB and not really anything behind them. I'd think this would be a good spot to target a FA AND an early draft pick.

1 points
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Lare's picture

February 01, 2019 at 05:16 pm

I don't know how much of any current player's performance was due to talent or coaching, both good and bad. I'm really looking forward to seeing what player decisions are made now that we have a completely new, unbiased coaching staff evaluating them.

There's going to be a lot of pressure on Gutekunst and the new coaching staff to make this team competitive next season. Many of these coaches are taking a major step up the coaching ladder in their careers. If a current player can't help them be successful, you can bet they'll be looking for other players that can.

5 points
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CoachJV's picture

February 02, 2019 at 08:36 am

I agree Lare.

This coaching staff is hungry and have a lot to prove. I believe they will surround themselves with players who are just as hungry.

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