Why keep Joe Barry? A Packers DC search might have been doomed from the start.

Even had the Packers parted ways with Joe Barry, several of the big-name DC candidates likely would not have landed in Green Bay.

When in public, Matt LaFleur stuck closely to the script.

"We're not going to go down that road," the Green Bay Packers head coach said during a late November press conference. "If I thought there was an issue there, then we'd make the change. But we work as a staff. And collectively, we're all in this sucker together."

The cause for which LaFleur took arrows was Joe Barry, the Packers' embattled defensive coordinator who had just seen his unit allow 40 points and 363 combined rushing yards to the Philadelphia Eagles. That game represented a new low for Barry in an already underwhelming season, suggesting that the veteran coach might not have much time left in Green Bay.

But while no one could have offered a convincing defense of Barry's job performance, LaFleur tried anyway.

"It is never just one person. It starts with myself," LaFleur said. "And then it goes to our assistant coaches, and then our players. And we're all in this together. If I felt confident it was one person, then I would pinpoint it and let you guys know that."

Even months later, LaFleur never wavered on his commitment to Barry. LaFleur backed his handpicked defensive coordinator during his season-closing press conference, all but guaranteeing Barry's return for 2023. As before, the Packers' headman accepted responsibility for the defense's shortcomings while championing his players and coaching staff.

"I do think there's something to the guys that we do have in this building," LaFleur said. "Certainly, I think there's a lot of things that all of us can improve upon, most notably myself. But I do believe in the people, not only in the locker room, but our coaching staff. And, like I said, are there a lot of things that we've got to improve upon? Absolutely. No doubt about it. But it's my intention to try and have everybody back. I think continuity is a big part of having success in this league."

Certainly, a late resurgence by the Packers defense didn't hurt Barry's case. The post-bye pivot to heavier use of Cover 2 and Cover 6 with the blitz dialed down to a minimum propelled the unit over the final four weeks of the season. Over that stretch, Green Bay ranked fourth by defensive DVOA, a considerable improvement over the team's season-long position of 20th. That might not have provided much comfort to a fan base that expected an upper-tier collection of talent to perform as such, but it provided LaFleur and Co. with cover to retain Barry.

Perhaps LaFleur wouldn't have made a change at defensive coordinator under any circumstances. After all, he handpicked Barry just two years earlier, technically his first DC hire despite taking over the job in 2019. The two had known each other for years, dating back to their time with the Los Angeles Rams. Understandably, LaFleur would prefer not to fire Barry if at all reasonable.

But even had LaFleur determined that the Packers defense required new leadership, he didn't have the robust selection of replacement candidates that many on the outside assumed he might. Rather, by the time the 2022 regular season came to a close, the team knew that several of the big names bandied about in the media wouldn't or couldn't come to Green Bay.

Complications in Denver

Back when Barry's job security seemed precarious at best, an up-and-coming assistant coach became a popular name to replace him: Ejiro Evero. A former defensive quality-control coach in Green Bay during the Mike McCarthy era, Evero had blossomed into one of the league's top young defensive coordinators with the Denver Broncos just a year after nearly landing the same job with the Packers.

With the Broncos in flux following the December firing of head coach Nathaniel Hackett and Evero possibly available as a result, talk of a reunion in Green Bay began in earnest.

However, while connecting Evero with the Packers made sense for a litany of reasons, the rising coach faced a nearly insurmountable obstacle: his employer. While other candidates for DC vacancies spent the majority of January interviewing with interested clubs, Evero stood idle as the Broncos refused to grant him permission to pursue those opportunities. Because he already held a bona fide coordinator position in Denver and remained under contract through 2023, the team held the right to block him from making a lateral move.

Instead, Evero only interviewed for head-coaching openings such as the one vacated by Hackett, jobs that by rule do not require signoff from the organization. The Broncos ruled out Evero early in the process, leaving him to hang in limbo as the interview process continued without him. Denver eventually hired Sean Payton but didn't finalize the deal until last weekend.