Coaching shake-up helps Packers staff

GREEN BAY - The 2012 Packers offensive coaching staff will feature plenty of familiar faces, but a number of them in new positions. Former running backs coach Jerry Fontenot will handle tight ends, former tight ends coach Ben McAdoo moves to quarterbacks and a new coach, Alex Van Pelt, will handle running backs. He, of course, spent last season coaching quarterbacks.

It’s a shuffle, but the Packers feel it will be an asset, not a challenge.

"I don't look at it as musical chairs, I really think it's creative thinking that's worked out for us," said Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.

McCarthy used this model with success in the past, including Edgar Bennett, who moved from running backs coach to wide receivers coach.

“Some of the best coaches I've been around did not play the position they're coaching," said new offensive coordinator Tom Clements, who got the promotion after serving as the Packers quarterbacks coach.

The moving pieces mean coaches bring different perspectives and experiences into their meeting rooms. Fontenot played as an offensive lineman in the NFL, and brought that perspective to his time with Green Bay’s running backs.

“The more knowledge you get as a coach, obviously it's going to increase your value,” said Fontenot. “At the end of the day we all want to do as good a job as we can."

Van Pelt, who comes to the Packers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is excited for the challenge.

“You know obviously they've been coached well here in the past and I'm just going to hopefully continue down that road, but it's an exciting time for me to have an opportunity to go into a world where I haven't coached before,” said Van Pelt.

The Packers can feel confidence that they have largely the same group of coaches, even if they’re not in the same positions, as they get ready for the 2012 season.