Packers hire a college football pass-rush specialist

COLUMBIA, MO - SEPTEMBER 21: A view of a Vanderbilt Commodores helmet during an SEC football game between the Vanderbilt Commodores and Missouri Tigers on September 21, 2024 at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, MO. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

FootballScoop is reporting that the Green Bay Packers have hired former Vanderbilt pass rush specialist Will Smart to their defensive staff under defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. At the moment, Smart's role with the team has not yet been reported, but usually, younger college coaches come to Green Bay to be defensive quality control coaches or assistants to positional coaches, rather than positional coaches themselves. Earlier this offseason, the Packers lost a defensive quality control coach in Wendel Davis, who was hired by the Miami Dolphins, so Smart might be backfilling for Davis' position.

Currently, the Packers have an assistant defensive line coach in Vince Oghobaase, who was brought to the team via Boston College by way of former defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. At the moment, it hasn't been reported that the Dolphins, now run by Hafley, have signed Oghobaase away, unlike other defensive staffers. It also hasn't been reported that Oghobaase has been fired by the team, either. The Packers' primary defensive line coach, as it stands today, is defensive line coach/run game coordinator DeMarcus Covington, who may be the one on-field holdover between the Hafley and Gannon staffs.

Smart played for Wake Forest from 2019 to 2021 before medically retiring from the sport. In 2024, he got his coaching career started as a graduate assistant for his alma mater. Last year, he was promoted to an on-field coaching role for the first time.

In 2025, the Vanderbilt Commodores finished the season 10-3 with a 6-2 record in the SEC, the team's best SEC record after World War II and the program's first double-digit win season ever. This isn't the first Vanderbilt assistant to be plucked away by the NFL, as nickels coach Jimmy Thompson also took a job with the Los Angeles Chargers, a team that also deploys a quarters-based system like Gannon is expected to run in Green Bay.