Packers seek edge by adding Robert Saleh to offensive staff

In 1988, Al Davis hired Mike Shanahan as Los Angeles Raiders head coach partly because Shanahan had intelligence on John Elway and the AFC West-rival Broncos, where Shanahan had served as offensive coordinator from 1985-87. Shanahan’s rocky Raiders tenure lasted just 20 games and Davis fired him after a 1-3 start in 1988. Then, only two weeks after Davis fired him, Shanahan returned to Denver’s coaching staff.  

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur made a similar in-season move this week, bringing Robert Saleh to Lambeau Field. Saleh, fired by the Jets on Oct. 8, owns a defensive pedigree but the Packers won’t see him in defensive meeting rooms.

“We’ve been close for a really long time,” LaFleur said Friday. “Shoot, we were roommates together back at Central Michigan. We thought it was a good idea to bring him back here. He’s helping us on the offensive side of the ball. I think that’s always a good deal to have that perspective, that defensive perspective on that side of the ball.”

Green Bay (5-2) flies to Jacksonville (2-5) for an interconference game Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX). Looking ahead, though, the Packers have a Week 12 home game against the San Francisco and a critical Week 17 rematch at Minnesota – each of which Saleh has already scouted and played this season. The former 49ers defensive coordinator might help reduce Jordan Love’s interceptions in those games and provide the intangible edge in others that could push Green Bay deep into the postseason. LaFleur didn’t approach Saleh only to benefit the Packers, though.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for him to learn and also for him to give us perspective on how teams might defend us,” LaFleur said, “where we can find holes and some vulnerabilities, if you will, in the defense that we’re playing.”

The brand of defense the Packers are playing has been fantastic. Behind new coordinator Jeff Hafley, who gave up a college head-coaching role to take his current post, Green Bay has rebounded nicely after a rough start. Over their current three-game winning streak, the Packers have allowed just 4.6 yards per play, second fewest in the NFL during that stretch. Overall in 2024, Green Bay leads the NFL with 17 takeaways. And because Saleh and Hafley coached together in San Francisco from 2017-18 – when Saleh was 49ers defensive coordinator and Hafley was defensive backs coach – a professional relationship already exists. LaFleur said he trusts Hafley’s staff and has “a great thing going.”

Saleh had a great thing going — at least on defense — during his tenure with the Jets. From 2021 through his final 2024 game in London against the Vikings on Oct. 6, New York’s defense allowed just 5.0 yards per play, tied for first in the league over that span.

Hiring fired head coaches in the same season is far from unprecedented. After the Broncos returned Shanahan in 1989 (and went on to lose to the 49ers in the Super Bowl), the Patriots brought back former Denver head coach Josh McDaniels during the 2011 playoffs before a win over Tim Tebow and the Broncos.

But defensive coaches shifting to the offensive side is a newer trend, one in which at least two current coordinators have used to grow in their careers. Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, likely a future head coach, began as a defensive assistant — ironically under Shanahan — with the Washington Redskins. After a stint with Pro Football Focus, Slowik joined Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers staff, working under Saleh and Hafley as a defensive quality control coach from 2017-18 before jumping to offense in 2019.

Another Mike and Kyle Shanahan protégé, Klint Kubiak, is now the New Orleans offensive coordinator. Kubiak was an all-conference safety and team captain at Colorado State in college.

Both Slowik and Kubiak, like Kyle Shanahan, had longtime NFL coaches as fathers. Slowik’s dad, Bob, preceded Hafley as a Packers defensive coordinator. Kubiak’s dad, Gary, was Elway’s backup quarterback on that 1989 Super Bowl team with the elder Shanahan on staff. The elder Kubiak went on to serve as Denver’s offensive coordinator when the Broncos won consecutive Super Bowls from 1997-98, then led the team to a Super Bowl 50 victory as its head coach in 2015.