At the end of the 2017 season, former Packers cornerback Damarious Randall lamented the lack of accountability on defense in Green Bay by saying that the team’s coaches were “allowing guys on the field” even if they didn’t fulfill their assignments on plays.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy slammed Randall in response to those comments and then shipped him to the Browns in a trade last month. Randall must have been the wrong messenger because it doesn’t appear the team disagreed with his assessment of the defense.
Linebacker Blake Martinez spoke to reporters on Tuesday and said that he likes the stress that new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine is putting on accountability.
“Just his need and want of having organization throughout every single part, making sure there’s no mental errors, no missed assignments, any of that,” Martinez said, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He was going to be strict on it. He wasn’t going to let anything fly, if you’re a Pro Bowler or a rookie coming in. I think that was kind of the cool stance hearing from him and talking to him about that because that was one of my things that I wanted to voice my opinion on, just making sure everyone is on the right page at the right time and nothing is confused.”
Martinez will play a big role in instilling the new way of doing things in Green Bay as he’ll be taking over the playcalling duties on defense with Morgan Burnett joining Randall as a former member of the Packers. That will leave him responsible for making sure everyone is lined up right and an added level of culpability should the move to a new system create new problems in Green Bay.