GREEN BAY, Wis. — Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry said the fact that the Green Bay Packers now have eight first round draft picks on his defense doesn’t alter his expectations.

“What if we just had a roster full of seventh round draft picks?” said Barry. “Would expectations not be high? This is the greatest thing about not only the National Football League, but being at the Green Bay Packers. Expectations are high all the time. No matter what.”

Barry said he never doubted he’d be back despite some fan discontent. The Packers’ defense ranked 17th in the NFL (out of 32) last season in points allowed. The unit showed improvement in the second half of the season, allowing only 17 points per game.

“If you do go back and really critique last year, the inconsistencies were the things that really got us,” said Barry. “We played well at times. We didn’t play well at times, and that’s what you can’t do in this league.”

“We got to show up and play our best version of football, our best version of defense, and we can’t be up one week and down the next. We got to find that, that consistency and show up every single week. And we don’t have time to waste ten weeks. I definitely think we evolved last year into what worked for us. The key thing, we get to do that early, you got to do it now,” he added.

Barry is not evading responsibility for the performance of the defense either.

“It starts with me,” said Barry. “I have to do better in order for this group to play better, I have to do better. And those are things, you self-evaluate that every single year.”    

Barry is impressed by what he sees from first round draft pick Lukas Van Ness, an edge rusher from Iowa.

“When you see a guy that walks in the room and he’s 6-foot-4,  270, got length,” said Barry. “He’s got explosion. And then you look at the fact that he’s 21 years old.”

The Packers will begin their Organized Team Activities on Monday in Green Bay.