GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Training camp is the training ground for developing habits that’ll carry over into the season.
On the defensive side of the football, Green Bay’s brass hasn’t held back what they’re expecting out of each player rocking a green jersey at Ray Nitschke Field.
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“That’s been the emphasis this training camp, over anything, we have to force more fumbles,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
That might come as a shock considering Green Bay finished top five in the league in forced takeaways last season (31), as well as third in the NFL in fumbles recovered (14). But the Green and Gold feel like they can outdo last year’s totals.
“I feel like last year was a good number (of takeaways),” said defensive end Kingsley Enagbare. “But even then, we weren’t as attentive to getting the ball as we are now, so I feel like we should blow past (last year’s numbers).”
In order to ensure this team ramped up their sense of urgency to get after the football, Hafley assigned the focus of that task to one of his defensive assistants, Wendel Davis.
Davis joined the coaching staff in 2019 after three years at the University of Georgia. He joined the staff in Titletown as a defensive quality control coach, but now his role is much more defined – “Ball King.”
No, that’s not a joke.
“If you see him, please refer to him as BK, or Ball King,” said Hafley. “We want to lead the league in forced fumbles, and I wanted to find a way to emphasize that, so I grabbed Wendel and I said, ‘I have some ideas, but I want you to run with this.'”
Since that moment, that’s exactly what Davis has done by adding a creative twist to incentivize those on the defensive side of the ball to prioritize forcing fumbles.
“We have three different teams with multiple players, and we have GMs for those teams,” said defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse. “RG (Rashan Gary), Xavier (McKinney) and Quay (Walker) are the GMs… then we get points for punchouts, interceptions, forced fumbles, and even scoop-ups after incomplete passes… at the end we get belts for our teams.”
But even amid the fun and games, what makes this approach work is the collective buy-in by everyone on the team.
“The guys are taking it to heart, though,” said Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. “I mean, we have a lot of fun with it, but it is critical, and those guys have embraced that.”
Packers safety Evan Williams even described the defense’s approach as attacking the ball with angry, violent intentions.
He added the team always has the number 43 in the back of their minds as they seek to break what they believe is the single-season record (42) for forced fumbles in NFL history.
