Getty Images

The Packers made a change at the top of their defensive coaching staff this offseason with Mike Pettine replacing Dom Capers as the defensive coordinator, but they didn’t get rid of everyone who had a role prepping the unit last year.

Joe Whitt was the cornerbacks coach under Capers — he has added the title of defensive passing game coordinator this season — and that gives him insight into how things have changed under Pettine. He said the biggest schematic difference is in the simplicity of what Pettine is putting in place.

“What I will say is, what we’re doing right now, we’re trying to make sure that everything is as simple as possible so when they run through that tunnel, we remove doubt out of the equation,” Whitt said, via Jason Wilde of the Wisconsin State Journal. “If we can remove doubt out of the equation as coaches, that allows them to play fast and now you can see the true athletic ability and play-making ability of the players. If they’re out there thinking, [that’s problematic]. You cannot tell the difference between a confused player and a coward — because they both move slowly. If you take that doubt out of the equation, now they’ll play fast, they’ll play with an edge and we’ll play with a tilted field. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

The simplification process includes the terminology the team is using for play calls as well as the number of defenses that they will run on a weekly basis. Pettine said he has “to be confident as a coach that I can go into this game with like 25, 30 defenses” so that the players have all of them “dialed in” come Sunday.

Green Bay has also made changes to personnel. They drafted defensive players in the first three rounds and signed veteran free agents like Muhammad Wilkerson and Tramon Williams in hopes that a new system and new players will yield different results.