GREEN BAY – Three members of the Packers' Super Bowl XLV championship team are back in Green Bay this spring as coaching interns.
Brandon Jackson, Jarrett Bush and Nick Barnett will be assisting the Packers' coaching staff in different capacities during OTAs and minicamp over the next month.
Antonio James and Jay Hayes round out a group of five coaching interns and consultants. All but Hayes, a longtime NFL assistant, are part of the league's Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship program.
Jackson, a former running back, has returned for a second consecutive spring as a coaching intern after spending time in the college ranks coaching wide receivers at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, and at Tusculum College in Greenville, Tenn. He'll be helping with the Packers' offense and special teams.
The 2007 second-round draft pick played four seasons in Green Bay before finishing his NFL career in Cleveland. He scored a touchdown during the Packers' 2010 playoff run on a screen pass at Philadelphia in the wild-card round.
Bush was a defensive back and special-teams standout with the Packers for nine seasons (2006-14), originally coming to Green Bay on waivers from Carolina. He'll assist the Packers on defense and special teams.
Bush intercepted a Ben Roethlisberger pass in Super Bowl XLV. He recently finished his pro career in the Canadian Football League with Calgary and is looking to get into coaching.
So is Barnett, the Packers' first-round draft pick in 2003 who played eight seasons at linebacker for Green Bay. He was named second-team All-Pro in 2007.
Unfortunately, Barnett's career with the Packers ended due to a knee injury after four games in 2010, landing him on injured reserve. Barnett went on to play three more seasons in the NFL, two with Buffalo and one with Washington. He will assist with the Packers' defense.
James, who will help with Green Bay's special teams, is a former defensive lineman from the University of Illinois, where he played for Packers special teams coordinator Ron Zook. James is in his third year on the coaching staff at Morgan State University, where he's currently serving as co-defensive coordinator, co-special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach.
Hayes will serve as a defensive consultant. He coached the defensive line for the Cincinnati Bengals (2003-15) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2016-17) after breaking into the NFL as a special teams coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1999-2001) and Minnesota Vikings (2002). Hayes also coached in the college ranks for 11 years with Notre Dame, California and Wisconsin.
