Three days after former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry was fired, the Packers interviewed four candidates to fill the vacancy: former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, Bills linebackers coach Bobby Babich , Cowboys defensive backs coach Aden Durde and the Broncos. Coach Christian Parker.
According to a report from Andrew Mertig of the Pack-A-Day podcast, two sources said Parker is not only currently in Green Bay, but has been offered the role of the team’s next defensive coordinator. Packers writers have not confirmed or denied that report at this time, and Mertig has not disclosed whether Parker has accepted the offer. There hasn’t been any interest in Parker in recent hours, so while we wait for more details on the Packers’ defensive coordinator search, let’s take a closer look at Parker’s coaching history.
Parker is a native of Northern Virginia and attended the University of Richmond as a student athlete. As a Spider, he played both wide receiver and cornerback on the football team. Shortly after his playing career, he joined Virginia State, a Division II program, as a graduate assistant and then was promoted to defensive backs coach. After two years at Virginia State, he left one HBCU for another, joining Norfolk State of the FCS as the defensive backs coach. He also spent two years there before joining Mike Elko’s staff at Notre Dame in 2017. Elko, now the head coach at Texas A&M after a successful career at Duke, will leave Notre Dame for A&M in 2018, and Parker will follow him in an analyst role. In 2019, Parker was hired by the Green Bay Packers in his first NFL role as defensive quality control coach under then-defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. He was the defensive backs coach for the Denver Broncos, a position he held for two years before being given a full-time on-field coaching position.
In his three years in Denver, Parker was held back despite being coached by three different coaches and three different defensive coordinators.Most notably, he coached with current Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, current Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and current Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. Christian Parker’s coaching CV2013: Virginia State Graduate Assistant (D2).2014: defensive backs coach, Virginia State University (D2)2015-2016: Norfolk State (FCS) Defensive Coach.2017: Notre Dame (FBS) defensive analyst.2018: Defensive Analyst at Texas A&M (FBS).2019-2020: Green Bay Packers Quality Control Defensive Coach2021-2023: Denver Broncos defensive backs coachSo what kind of coach is Parker and what will he do in Green Bay if he is named the team’s defensive coordinator? Not much is known about the 32-year-old, who has yet to play at any level, but multiple reports indicate how highly regarded he is in DenverCurrently, the only teams that have interviewed Parker are the Packers and Patriots.
Another report highlighting how important Parker is to the Broncos’ coaching staff came from Broncos Wire, which included Joseph’s thoughts on the assistant coach. “He’s sharp,” current defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said of Parker on June 14. – It’s sharp. He is a star. He is a great partner to work with.
As an experienced trainer, I have been involved in coordination for about 7 years. I have tape and I’m looking for other ways to do things with it. “[I] talk to Christian every day and get a sense of what he was doing with Vic [Fangio] and those guys before. [We’re] making changes and building on what we did last year. He is smart, hardworking and his players love playing for him.
