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Green Bay’s new defensive coordinator knows several prospects in this month’s draft from his time in college football.
The Green Bay Packers sent shockwaves throughout the college football universe in January when they hired sitting Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley to replace Joe Barry as their next defensive coordinator. Fans immediately questioned: Is an NFL coordinator job now a better job than a Power 5 head job in today’s college football climate? It very much felt like a shot fired between the two levels of the sport, particularly the low- to mid-level Power 5 programs — which also saw sitting UCLA head coach Chip Kelly voluntarily leave his post to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
As we inch toward the NFL draft, let’s revisit Hafley’s college career but from a new angle. Instead of making his hiring some sort of a referendum on NFL jobs vs. college football jobs, let’s take a look at the players that Hafley has a connection to in the upcoming draft class. These could be either players he coached at the college level or attempted to recruit to the Eagles’ program, be it out of high school or as transfers.
Obviously, this list needed to start with the two big Boston College prospects in the upcoming draft class: offensive lineman Christian Mahogany and cornerback Elijah Jones. Under Hafley’s watch, Mahogany was a two-time All-ACC guard (lining up at both left and right guard) despite missing the 2022 season with an ACL tear. Hafley, who worked in the NFL as a defensive backs coach from 2012 to 2018 prior to taking the Ohio State job, also saw Jones start 38 games over the last four seasons.
Per the consensus draft board, Mahogany and Jones are the 94th- and 126th-ranked prospects in the 2024 class. No other Eagles are featured in the top 350 prospects on the consensus board.
There’s going to be a couple of different categories here. The first one we’ll touch on is the defenders that Hafley coached while at Ohio State in 2019. Linebacker Tommy Eichenberg (#124 on the consensus board), safety Josh Proctor (#208), edge rusher Javonte Jean-Baptiste (#216) and safety Ryan Watts (#227) were all members of that 2019 Buckeyes defense, his long season in Columbus. Eichenberg took a redshirt year that season, though, Watts, Jean-Baptiste and Proctor played limited time for Hafley.
Eventually, Jean-Baptiste transferred to Notre Dame and Watts ended up transferring to Texas, where they finished their college careers. Proctor’s uncle, Patrick Collins, also played five games for the Green Bay Packers in 1988 after being selected in the eighth round of that year’s draft. There’s your fun fact of the day.
The next category of players that we’ll hit is the players that Hafley offered out of high school but was unable to sign at Boston College. Some of these names include major prospects. Here’s a list of players that Hafley offered in the 2021 recruiting class...
