Matt LaFleur is surprisingly right about Joe Barry for once

There is a popular saying that NFL is really short for "Not For Long", and the 2023 Green Bay Packers are a good embodiment of that mantra. The Packers looked like the toast of the league after upsetting the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13 to climb back to .500 but have since dropped two straight games to put their playoff hopes back in jeopardy.

The lion's share of the blame has fallen on Green Bay's defense, which blew a late lead against the New York Giants last week and got carved up by Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 15. There is a ground swell brewing amongst the fan base clamoring for Packers' head coach Matt LaFleur to fire defensive coordinator Joe Barry, but those fans will be disappointed that he has no plans to make such a change.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur correctly defends Joe Barry's job

When asked about the potential of a coordinator change, LaFleur told reporters that he felt now wasn't the time for that, FOX 6 Milwaukee's Lily Zhao reports. LaFleur was then asked a follow-up about why a change wasn't warranted and he noted that they are still trying to find solutions to their issues through deeper dives into game tape.

While keeping Barry now isn't going to be popular, LaFleur is correct to believe that changing coordinators this late in the season isn't going to make a major difference. The players simply haven't gotten the job done and changing who is calling defensive plays isn't going to magically make the team's defense play like a Top-10 unit.

The Steelers recently made a much-ballyhooed coordinator change when Mike Tomlin fired Matt Canada, long a target of fan criticism, and got a one-week bump in performance before the offense went back to struggling again. Firing a coordinator with three weeks to go simply offers the fans their pound of flesh without having any real hope of sparking a serious turnaround.

If the Packers' defense proves to be the reason they miss the playoffs, LaFleur will undoubtedly take a long look at whether Barry's system or the team's personnel is a bigger reason why the unit didn't work. Fans shouldn't mistake this vote of confidence as anything more than simply maintaining calm at a critical juncture of the season.