On Wednesday, the Detroit Lions announced the hiring of Deshea Townsend as passing game coordinator and
defensive backs coach, Terrell Williams as defensive line coach and run game coordinator, and Jim O’Neil as
defensive assistant. That final move, in particular, is intriguing given what else is going on in the NFC North.
O’Neil and incoming Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley both began their careers coaching at the
University of Albany, with O’Neil as an assistant offensive line and tight ends coach in 2001 and Hafley as a
defensive assistant from 2002 to 2005. They never officially met until 2014, when O’Neil was named the Cleveland
Browns’ defensive coordinator. Hafley was the first defensive backs coach hired by O’Neil in Cleveland, having r
ecently completed his first season as a full-time on-field NFL coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After their two years together in Cleveland, the team took a different direction, and Hafley joined the San Francisco
49ers as their defensive backs coach, a position he would hold until Kyle Shanahan — a former Browns coach during
their time together — took over as the franchise’s head coach. Hafley kept that post for three seasons until former
49ers assistant coach Ryan Day was elected Ohio State’s head coach, at which point Day offered Hafley the position
of defensive coordinator. After only one year, Hafley was named head coach at Boston College in 2020, a post he
held until this offseason, when he returned to the NFL.
