Hired April 18, 2022, John Donovan begins his first season as a senior analyst for the Packers. He possesses four seasons of NFL experience with the Jacksonville Jaguars and 21 years of collegiate coaching experience.
Donovan spent the last two seasons (2020-21) as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the University of Washington. In 2020, Donovan took over an offense that returned just four starters and during a COVID-shortened season, helped lead the team to a 3-1 record and an average of 30.2 points per game. Washington turned the ball over just three times and was second in the Pac-12 in third-down conversions.
Prior to his time with the Huskies, Donovan was an offensive assistant with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2016-19, working with the tight ends in 2016, the quarterbacks in 2017-18 and the running backs in 2019. In 2019, he helped Leonard Fournette to a career-high 1,152 rushing yards and also a career-best 76 receptions for 522 yards (6.9 avg.), the most catches by a running back in team history. Donovan worked with QB Blake Bortles, who set a single-season team record with three games with 375-plus passing yards in 2018, and in 2017, the Jaguars won the AFC South crown and advanced to the AFC title game.
Donovan served as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Penn State (2014-15), where he worked with future NFL tight ends Jesse James and Mike Gesicki as well as RB Saquon Barkley. In 2015, Barkley rushed for 1,076 yards, No. 2 in the nation among true freshmen, and seven TDs.
Prior to Penn State, Donovan served three seasons (2011-13) as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Vanderbilt. The Commodores went 24-15 over that span, easily the best three-year stretch in modern Vanderbilt football history, including 9-4 records and bowl-game wins in both 2012 and 2013 as they finished in The Associated Press top 25 poll both of those two years. In three years, Donovan led the Vandy offense to three of the top four total-yardage marks to that point in school history, capped by a then-school-record 4,936 yards in 2012. That year, the Commodores (30.0 ppg) became the first team in school history to average 30-plus points per game and then averaged 30.1 points per game in 2013.
Donovan spent a total of 10 seasons at the University of Maryland, starting as a recruiting coordinator (2001-04) before taking over as running backs coach in 2005. He spent 2006-07 as quarterbacks coach before working with the running backs again for the 2008-10 seasons. Donovan was a part of teams that finished in the top 20 of the final AP poll in three straight seasons (2001-03) with 10-plus wins in each of those seasons.
After a brief internship with the Carolina Panthers, Donovan began his coaching career as an assistant defensive backs coach at Villanova in 1997. After that, he spent the next three seasons as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech (1998-2000).
Donovan played defensive back at Johns Hopkins (1993-96), where he finished his career with 12 interceptions, still tied for No. 7 in school history. He earned first-team All-Centennial Conference honors in 1996 after posting seven INTs, one shy of the single-season school record, and second-team honors in 1995.
Donovan, a native of River Edge, N.J., earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Johns Hopkins and a master's in economics from Georgia Tech. He and his wife, Stacey, have three children, son John Patrick and daughters Cate and Shea.
