Bye Bye Barry: The Green Bay Packers Fire Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry

The Green Bay Packers fired defensive coordinator Joe Barry on Wednesday.

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Joe Barry’s three-year run of mediocrity ended Wednesday morning.

NFL Network first reported that Barry — the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator since 2021 — would not be retained.

Matt LaFleur’s decision to move on from Barry shouldn’t surprise anybody.

The Packers finished 17th in total defense this year, and their average rank under Barry has been 14th. Green Bay’s average rank in scoring defense during the Barry-era is also 14th.

With the season on the line in the divisional playoffs last Saturday, Barry’s defense wilted once again.

Green Bay held a 21-17 lead with just more than 5 minutes left and needed just one stop to advance to the NFC Championship Game. Instead, San Francisco marched 69 yards in 12 plays and scored the go-ahead touchdown when Christian McCaffrey scored from 6 yards out.

LaFleur backed Barry in his 2022 season ending press conference. This year, he dodged questions about Barry.

“I haven’t even thought about that at this stage,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Kind of going through everything right now. I want to certainly sit down with every assistant before any decisions are made.”

The Packers’ last four first round picks — and 12 of their last 13 — have come on the defensive side of the ball. Green Bay had eight first round defensive players on the roster this year, and the organization believed that unit should have been dominant.

It wasn’t — and it hasn’t been during Barry’s three years coordinating the defense.

That’s been the case throughout Barry’s career, though.

Barry was a defensive coordinator in Detroit in 2007-08 and in Washington in 2015-16, where things went remarkably bad in both cities.

Detroit ranked dead last in yards and points in both of Barry’s seasons running the Lions’ defense.

In 2015, Washington ranked 28th in yards (380.6) and 17th in points (23.7). Then in 2016, Washington was once again 28th in yards (377.9) and 19th in points allowed (23.9).

Despite being handed a wealth of talent in Green Bay, Barry’s units were mediocre throughout.

There was a public outcry for LaFleur to move on from Barry after Week 15 this season after the Packers’ defense was dreadful in back-to-back losses to the New York Giants and Tampa Bay.

Giants’ quarterback Tommy DeVito completed 17-of-21 passes, posted a 113.9 passer rating and led a last-second drive in New York’s 24-22 win over Green Bay. DeVito was then named the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week.

Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield won the same honor the following week after completing 22-of-28 passes for 381 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 34-20 win in Green Bay. That helped Mayfield achieve a perfect passer rating of 158.3, the first time a visiting quarterback had ever done that at Lambeau Field.

Overall, Tampa Bay piled up 452 total yards, averaged 7.5 yards per play and scored its second-most points of the season.

LaFleur said communication was the No. 1 problem with Green Bay’s defense at the time. Instead of firing Barry with three games to go, LaFleur took a more active role in the defense down the stretch.

“It happens by people not talking,” LaFleur said of Green Bay’s communication breakdowns. “There was way too many examples of that and … as dumbfounded as you are right now, that’s how I felt watching it.

“I’ve got to be more present with those guys in making sure that we’re all on the same page because, I mean, football is, if you don’t have all 11 on the same page, it obviously starts with our staff making sure all our coaches are in lock step, but if you don’t have all 11 on the same page, it takes one guy and then everything goes to crap. After that you get exposed. Unfortunately we got exposed in a really bad way (against Tampa Bay).”

Hiring Barry had been a controversial move in Green Bay from day one.

LaFleur dumped Mike Pettine as his defensive coordinator after the 2020 season, one in which the Packers ranked ninth in total defense (334.0) and 13th in points (23.1).

After LaFleur was turned down by former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, he turned to his close friend Barry, who he had coached with during their time with the Los Angeles Rams. That move turned out to be a colossal mistake.

Now, the pressure is on LaFleur not to swing and miss again.