McDuffie has experienced four playoff appearances during his time with the club, but only one postseason victory. Although Green Bay has gone through a lot of changes this offseason — moving away from multiple starters on offense, losing McDuffie’s off-ball LB Quay Walker in free agency and bringing in new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon — the veteran still believes the pieces are in place to make a bigger push to bring home the Lombardi Trophy.
“I think we have everything we need,” McDuffie said. “At the end of the day, it’s just getting done. Getting late in the season, just getting these games done when we get guys, just putting the nail in the coffin.”
Last season, like the year before when Green Bay lost its last three games, the Packers proved far from the finish line late in the campaign. They lost five straight, including blowing a 21-3 halftime lead against the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card round. The first game of that losing streak, a Week 15 loss to the Denver Broncos, saw star pass rusher Micah Parsons tear his ACL.
Parsons has since said he also underwent meniscus surgery and plans to take his recovery gently, setting a goal of returning to full health rather than rushing back for Week 1. That means McDuffie’s Packers will likely have to find ways to work without Parsons for some time early in the season.
Just as he’s optimistic about the long-term vision of reaching the Super Bowl, McDuffie believes the defense can hold things down in the interim.
“It’s all hands on deck,” McDuffie said when asked who could step up as Parsons continues his recovery. “We need guys to come in. There’s a job to do at the end of the day. There’s an expectation to produce and wreak havoc and get after the quarterback. We’ve got a lot of great guys in that room and I don’t see there being any dropouts there.”
While McDuffie didn’t name names, the most likely source of pass rushing on the edge will come from Lukas Van Ness, Brenton Cox, Barryn Sorrell and fourth-round pick Dani Dennis-Sutton until Parsons returns. It’s not a well-known group, but Gannon has found pressure-producing results as a defensive coordinator in the past, such as when his Philadelphia Eagles led the league with 70 sacks in the 2022 season — his last in Philly before coaching the Arizona Cardinals from 2023-25.
With Green Bay’s training camp 10 days away, McDuffie is confident Gannon will be cooking something good again soon.
“He’s great. He definitely brings a lot to the table,” McDuffie said. “Being a head coach and having head coaching experience brings a lot of leadership. … He definitely brings that juice, and we’re having a lot of fun. We’re going to do some cool things. I don’t want to get into it too much. It’s going to look a little different, but we’re going to be fun to watch, I’ll tell you that.”