The Green Bay Packers have promoted Jason Vrable to wide receivers/passing game coordinator, Luke Butkus to offensive line coach, Connor Lewis to assistant quarterbacks coach and Ryan Mahaffey to assistant offensive line coach. Head Coach Matt LaFleur made the announcements on Tuesday.
Vrable enters his 10th season as an assistant coach in the NFL and fourth with the Packers, working as the wide receivers coach for the past two seasons. Vrable joined Green Bay in 2019 as an offensive assistant after working in the same position for the New York Jets in 2017-18. Prior to his time with New York, Vrable spent four seasons with the Buffalo Bills, working as an offensive quality control coach from 2013-15 and then as an assistant quarterbacks coach in 2016. After Week 3 of the 2016 season when Anthony Lynn was promoted to offensive coordinator, Vrable added the duties of interim running backs coach. Prior to his time in the NFL, he worked in the college ranks for six years. Vrable began as a strength intern at the University of South Florida for the summer of 2007 and then returned to Marietta (Ohio) College, where he was a two-time captain and offensive Most Valuable Player as a quarterback, to coach the position for the 2007 season. In 2008, he went to Robert Morris University (Moon, Pa.) to coach quarterbacks, and then worked for Syracuse University as an offensive quality control/assistant to the wide receivers coach (2009) and graduate assistant/assistant to the quarterbacks coach (2010). Vrable spent two seasons at the University of Charleston (2011-12) as the school's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks/running backs coach, as the school led its conference in total offense and rushing offense in 2012.
Butkus is entering his fourth season with the Packers, having worked as the assistant offensive line coach from 2019-21. He came to Green Bay after serving as the offensive line coach for the University of Illinois for three seasons (2016-18), a position he also held for the Fighting Illini in 2012. Between the two stints at his alma mater, Butkus was the assistant offensive line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2013-15). The nephew of former Chicago Bears linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Dick Butkus, he worked as a quality control assistant for the Seattle Seahawks (2010-11) and as an offensive assistant/assistant offensive line coach for the Bears (2007-09). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Oregon (2005-06). As a player, Butkus was a two-time All-Big Ten selection at center and served as a captain of the 2001 Big Ten championship team. He had stints in the NFL with Chicago (2002) and the San Diego Chargers (2003), while also playing in NFL Europe with the Rhein Fire (2003) and Cologne Centurions (2004).
Lewis in entering his seventh season with the Packers and worked last year as special teams assistant/game management specialist. In 2020, he served as an offensive quality control coach, assisting offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett with a focus on the offensive line. Lewis originally joined the Packers in 2016 as a football technology analyst intern before being promoted to football technology analyst in 2017. From 2016-19, he helped the offensive coaching staff in data analysis, playing rules and game management. Prior to joining the Packers, Lewis was an independent consultant for the Oakland Raiders (2015) and worked in the football analytics and information department for the New York Giants (2014). He was a mathematics major with a corporate strategy minor at Vanderbilt University (2010-14), where he also worked in the football office (2012-14), assisting the director of player personnel, the director of recruiting and the coaching staff.Â
Mahaffey (muh-haff-ee) joined the Packers last year as an offensive quality control coach. He came to Green Bay after coaching in college from 2013-20. The former tight end/fullback at Northern Iowa (2007-10) spent the 2019-20 seasons at his alma mater as the offensive coordinator. Mahaffey also worked as the recruiting coordinator/tight ends (2013) and co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers (2016) at UNI. Between those stints, he was a graduate assistant/wide receivers coach at Notre Dame (2014-15) and the tight ends coach at Western Kentucky (2017-18). After his collegiate playing career, Mahaffey signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2011 and appeared in five games that season for the Indianapolis Colts. In 2012, he spent some time with the Miami Dolphins.
