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Packers drop Nolan from defensive coordinator search

GREEN BAY — Mike Nolan is crossed off the list and the Packers’ search for a new defensive coordinator moves on.

If the importance of the search is lost upon some, a quick review of this past weekend is all it should take.

Lest we forget, defense wins championships.

The four teams left in the NFL playoffs are the four teams that have played the best defense in January.

Yes, even the Arizona Cardinals—who allowed 56, 48 and 47 points in regular-season games this season—are now riding their defense.

Sure, the Cardinals have a high-powered offense with quarterback Kurt Warner and receiver Larry Fitzgerald. But their 33-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Saturday was produced by a defense that forced six turnovers.

Disguised zone coverages and a fierce pass rush led the Cardinals.

Certainly, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens boast great defenses. They ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the league in yards allowed and No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in points allowed.

And the Philadelphia Eagles ranked No. 3 on the season in yards allowed and No. 4 in the league in points allowed.

Arizona ranked 28th in points allowed and 19th—one spot ahead of the Packers—in yards allowed per game.

Yet, in their two playoff games, the Cardinals allowed just 250 yards to Atlanta and 269 to Carolina.

So even if Arizona didn’t have the regular-season pedigree, the Cardinals are proving that defense wins in the playoffs.

What does that mean for the Packers?

Well, it means that their hopes for making the 2009 post-season will hinge on their defense rebounding to a much higher level.

So the hiring of the next defensive coordinator very well could be the most important off-season development. More important than a free-agent acquisition or maybe even the draft.

Unless the Packers manage to find a player that turns into a dominant defender with their No. 9 overall pick, the replacement for Bob Sanders will be the most important pickup.

The Packers ranked 11th and 12th in the previous two seasons under Sanders before falling to 20th this season.

They went 13-3 in the regular season and all the way to the NFC title game in 2007 when they ranked 12th defensively. They won their final four games to finish 8-8 in 2006, Mike McCarthy’s first season as head coach. Even in 2005, when they went 4-12, the defense ranked seventh in the league under Jim Bates.

McCarthy is an offensive coach by trade. He will have to find a man he can trust to run the defense.

He might have had that guy in Nolan, but reports indicated that Nolan wasn’t too hip to the idea of Wisconsin’s winter climate and being away from his West Coast home base.

Nolan, who hired McCarthy in 2005 to be his offensive coordinator in San Francisco, ended up signing on to run the Denver Broncos’ defense.

Now all the attention seems to be focused on Gregg Williams, the former Jacksonville defensive coordinator who also has coordinated defenses in Washington and Tennessee. Williams, who also was a head coach in Buffalo, has interviewed with New Orleans and may be a candidate to return to Tennessee if current Titan coordinator Jim Schwartz leaves for a head-coaching job.

Williams is the man most in demand. He’s the man who has built winning defenses in Jacksonville and Washington.

But whether it’s Williams or someone else, the importance of the hire can’t be underestimated.

In 2006, when McCarthy assembled his first staff, the selection of Sanders came as somewhat of a surprise. With McCarthy as a first-time coach and the Packers coming off a 4-12 season, the job may not have seemed as attractive.

Now, the Packers are just one year removed from the NFC Championship Game and McCarthy is established. The job should be more attractive.

Williams won’t come cheap; he’s one of the best-paid coordinators in the league. But if McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson believe he’s the man to rebuild the Packer defense, they should leave no stone unturned in their efforts to get him.

After all, defense wins championships.

Rick Braun is a Packer beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.