-- While sitting at home in January is an anomaly for Mike Daniels, the Green Bay Packers defensive lineman wasn't too fond of the concept after his team missed the postseason for the first time in his six-year NFL career.

"It sucked. I'm not going to lie to you, it sucked bad," Daniels said in an appearance on NFL Network on Friday. "And to know that we were a direct cause of that - the defensive side of the ball - we've got to do a lot better." 

The Packers finished with a 7-9 record by the end of the season after rolling through the first five weeks of the season 4-1 and hoisting themselves as one of the most lethal teams in the NFC. However, quarterback Aaron Rodgers' broken collarbone suffered on Oct. 15 drastically altered the destined path for the rest of the season.

As a result of the shortcomings, the Packers moved then-general manager Ted Thompson into the role of senior advisor to football operations, promoted Brian Gutekunst to G.M. and hired Mike Pettine to replace Dom Capers as the Packers' defensive coordinator -- a move that Daniels has been undoubtedly in support of.

"We got coach Pettine now. That's a huge change, and I know he's going to do some amazing things with us because we definitely have the guys. I know everybody's hurting just like I am -- at least they should be -- for missing those playoffs. It sucked, man, it really did.

"I have a lot of confidence in coach, I know the guys are going to come back ready to go. It's going to be a fun year, it really is."

Consider it a bittersweet consolation for Daniels, who lost his defensive line coach, Mike Trgovac, this offseason. Trgovac now resides with the Oakland Raiders as a member of Jon Gruden's staff after working with Daniels -- among others -- for six of his nine seasons in Green Bay.

In the Packers' final season under Capers, they finished 26th in points allowed per game and 22nd in yards allowed per game. It was the second season in a row that they finished 21st-or-above in both categories. They also finished tied for 17th in sacks and tied for 13th in takeaways.

2017 saw more communication breakdowns more than any other in the Capers era. Players were out of position on a weekly basis, confused with pre-snap adjustments and unsure of what their assignment is. Whether or not that falls on the shoulders of the player not executing his job or the coach not properly implementing his remains to be seen, as Pettine will be inheriting -- for the most part -- a similar defensive roster to what Capers had a season ago.

No player will outright oust Capers, but it wasn't a secret: change needed to be made if this team wanted to compete with the best of foes.

"I think it's an accumulation of things over the years. I don't know how much of the [other] teams really respected us on the defensive side of the ball. I know some teams flat out didn't, and that's our fault; we've got to do better. We're the only ones that can fix that.

"With coach Pettine coming in, I know that's one thing he's big on, is the accountability. He's not afraid to hurt anybody's feelings, I'm really looking forward to that. It should make for some interesting meeting times. ... It's just different. It's going to be a culture change -- a needed culture change. It's just going to be a lot more attitude and it's going to be coming from the coach, so I'm not going to be the only one saying it."

Despite the Packers' glaring problems defensively, Daniels made 2017 his fifth consecutive season with four-or-more sacks and earned his first career trip to the Pro Bowl, replacing Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald.