Not going out my way anymore and I’m not playing through injuries anymore cause when shit goes wrong they always use it against you. I’m treating everyone accordingly and giving them the same energy they giving me. Focus on yourself and your mental 59 you owe it to yourself
— De'Vondre Campbell (@Came_Along_Way) December 19, 2023
The vibes at 1265:
This De’Vondre Campbell tweet could be in reference to a LOT of different things. It could be that he’s frustrated that Joe Barry is sticking around. It could be that he’s playing through an actual injury and got dragged on Twitter during Sunday’s game because he gave up 135 yards passing. It could be that fans are chirping him for poor play even though he’s just following the defensive assignments passed down to him. It could be because he rolled up to the famous Ashwaubenon Red Lobster for an off-day meal and they were closed because they were short on staff. It could be all of those things.
One thing that seems obvious at this point: The morale in the defensive locker room is starting to feel like the morale of any staff in hour 5 of an 8 hour HR meeting. In the span of 6 days they allowed Tommy DeVito to be named NFC Offensive Player of the Week and we are likely to find out today that Baker Mayfield is receiving that same recognition for Week 15. On top of that they are banged up and it seems like they could be fed up with Joe Barry.
On that last point: As expected yesterday, Matt LaFleur did what Matt LaFleur seems to always do: He stuck with his guy. He did it with Mo Drayton and the Special teams in 2021, and he’s doing it with Joe Barry in 2022 and 2023. LaFleur pointed to communication breakdowns as a part of the problem on that side of the ball in recent weeks, and he raised his own hand while telling the assembled media that he needs to take more responsibility for that unit.
As always, he was loyal and accountable to a fault. And it may end up costing him his job at some point. I wouldn’t say LaFleur’s seat is all that hot at the moment, he’s maybe at 1 click out of 5 on your car’s seat warmers, but the more he continues to say that all of these issues are on him, the more people are going to believe him.
Now look, there are three weeks left in the season. From a practicality standpoint, I’m not sure what firing Joe Barry yesterday would have accomplished other than giving the fan base their pound of flesh. If you fire Joe Barry, you’re likely to just promote someone on his current staff for the last three games of the season. How different would this defense look when you go from Barry, to someone who was helping Barry put together schemes during the week? Probably not too much. We’re 80% of the way through a bad movie, firing the director at this point isn’t going to turn Pluto Nash into Goodfellas.
What is WOULD have done, though, is at least tell the locker room and the fans that what we’ve seen recently is not acceptable. That we have a head coach who is willing to make tough decisions in order to move the franchise/team forward. That we have a coach that still believes this team can win its final 3 games and make the playoffs, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to spark the squad. That we are watching Pluto Nash and we shouldn’t be.
De’Vondre is notoriously prickly with the media, so we’ll see if he wants to expound on anything later today. But things don’t look great at the moment.
PS: Reckless Speculation: I’m sure Jaire Alexander is hurt to some extent. BUT, the more veterans that seem to be taking shots at Joe Barry makes me wonder if he’s also not willing to throw his body around in a scheme and coach he doesn’t believe in.
Double PS: When your unit plays so poorly that even The Onion takes a shot at you on Monday:
