Joe Barry, the defensive coordinator, is not the only coach that has left Matt LaFleur’s staff in Green Bay.
On Thursday, the Packers announced the dismissal of Chris Gizzi, their strength and conditioning coach. Gizzi made 28 tackles and forced a fumble in 23 games for the Packers in 2000-2001 before joining the team’s coaching staff in 2014. He has served as the head strength and conditioning coach for the past five seasons.
“We appreciate Chris’ dedication and contributions to our success during his tenure with the Packers,” LaFleur said in a statement. “We wish Chris and his family the best moving forward.”
The Packers had three assistant strength and conditioning coaches in 2023. Thadeus Jackson, Mark Lovat, and Grant Thorne are all still mentioned on the team’s website.
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Green Bay Packers: Aaron Jones outlines plans for potential comeback to team in 2024.
In many ways, the Green Bay Packers’ 2023 season was successful. Most importantly, for the future of the team, they discovered that Jordan Love is more than capable of being their next franchise quarterback. Furthermore, in their first season without Aaron Rodgers, the Packers improved on their previous season’s record, made the NFL Playoffs, and defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round.
The development of their Packers’ young pass catchers as one of the NFL’s deepest groupings was another nice surprise that many did not expect. That being said, none of the Packers’ accomplishments this season have come lightly. They overcome several obstacles and, at times, looked very terrible before figuring it out.
One of the difficulties they encountered was the injury-plagued season of star running back Aaron Jones. Jones missed the next several games due to an injured hamstring following a spectacular effort in Week One in which he had over 100 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
Jones did not look like himself after recovering from his hamstring injury. Then, during the Packers’ victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, he damaged his MCL, causing him to miss a few more games. Many questioned Jones’ future with the squad after losing so many games.
Aaron Jones set a Green Bay Packers record at the end of the season
Jones returned from his damaged knee in Week 16, and the Packers needed to win their last three regular-season games to qualify for the NFL Playoffs. They won all three (against the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings, and Chicago Bears), with Aaron Jones totaling 127, 120, and 111 rushing yards, respectively.
In the playoffs, Jones rushed for 118 yards (and three touchdowns) against the Dallas Cowboys and 108 yards in the Packers’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
It was the first time in the Packers’ 100-year history that a player had rushed for 100 yards or more in five straight games.
Aaron Jones Says He’ll Be Back with the Green Bay Packers Next Season
Jones’ stretch of five consecutive 100-yard games demonstrated that he remains an important element of the offense. When he was on the field, the Packers performed better than usual. Their success has persuaded many that he will return next season with a revised contract to reduce his $17 million salary cap burden.
Jones, too, appears to expect that he will be “back with the Pack” next season, based on statements he made to Larry McCarren in an interview on the Packers’ website.
“I believe what we’re creating here is exceptional. You can feel it. You can see it. The chemistry, the link, the standard we have established. I believe that given the benchmark we’ve set, we’ll know what to anticipate when we return next year. Our standards are high. We have no excuse not to meet that bar every day because we’ve demonstrated that we can do it this year, and we can do it game after game after game. I think we’re going to be in trouble. “We’re going to be special.”
“We” is a great indicator that Jones intends to return next season. If this were not the case, he would have stated “they” instead. Jones famously accepted a $5 million salary cut to stay with the team this season, and he appears to be willing to go to any length to avoid becoming a cap casualty again.
