When the Packers traded Damarious Randall, the team’s best cornerback in 2017, the terror from Cheesehead Nation was palpable. Ted Thompson spent the last half decade pretending like this defense could muddle through with Lambeau hot dog vendors and parking lot attendants in the secondary.
Brian Gutekunst, a Ted Thompson disciple, would be more of the same for the Packers, the defense wouldn’t get better, and Green Bay fans would be stuck wondering yet again what it could accomplish with Aaron Rodgers if he even had a passable defense.
But then Mike Pettine injected life into a pallid group, bringing with him a verve permeating a defensive unit without much juice since Charles Woodson left town.