-- First to come, one of the last to leave.

Last January, the hiring of Mike Pettine as the Green Bay Packers' new defensive coordinator was one of the first personnel moves Mike McCarthy made in order to replace Dom Capers, who was fired shortly after the 2017 campaign reached its end.

Now, Pettine is one of the last remaining pieces of McCarthy's final coaching staff in Green Bay. He was relieved of his duties after a stunning home loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 2, paving the way for Matt LaFleur to take the reins just over a month later.

And, according to Pettine, that was a major selling point in his return to Green Bay for a second season.

"It was an easy decision," Pettine said on Monday at a press conference introducing LaFleur's finalized staff. "I talked to him before he got hired, and I got the sense there was a lot of common ground."

Much of Pettine's unit is remaining intact, sans the exception of Patrick Graham exiting as the team's linebackers coach and instead pursuing a defensive coordinator job with the Miami Dolphins. Former cornerbacks coach and defensive passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. also no longer remains on the staff, and instead landed with the Browns as a secondary coach.

Pettine is at the helm of a young defense with several examples of talent you can either deem rising or promising, but regardless, he anticipates a "big jump" in the second year of his system.

"We spent so much time last year on coaching players what to do and not how to do it," Pettine said. "We look forward to having a lot of guys who are experienced in the system. We have a much better sense of who we are.

"You have a little bit of momentum but you've built a pretty solid foundation with the guys you're going to have back."

The "common ground" for Pettine is cemented in his years working with LaFleur's brother, Mike, when he was a coaching intern with the Cleveland Browns in 2014. That was also the first of two seasons Pettine spent as the Browns' head coach.

That head-coaching experience, albeit netting a 10-22 record, is invaluable to Pettine in the sense that he essentially knows what to avoid as a first-year head coach -- another reason why his input could be so critical to LaFleur and the rest of his youthful coaching staff.

"The good thing is what I bring from my experience in Cleveland. I have a real thick book on what not to do, so I can steer him clear of the pitfalls of being a first-year head coach.

"If the staff isn’t all united and on the same front, it’s going to be hard for the players to be."