Spinning, Spinning, Spinning: Ted's the Scapegoat, Mike's the Tough Guy in Charge
I am probably not starting anything new, but I have noticed we're all so focused on who the next GM will be that we don't seem to have a thread that looks at the meta-story in all this. Partly because TT's so quiet (nobody's heard a word from the guy, I don't think), it's been easy for the JSO schlock jocks to fall back into their simplistic analysis.
Not only have we gone back to the "Ted never signed free agents" motif (this cropped up in a recent Silverstein or Daugherty article), now Ted is being painted as, minimally, aged by the job, and by those more enthusiastic posters, as a doddering, demented, blank-eyed shell.
Certainly this 7 - 9 season has revealed major flaws in the team and perhaps the organization. It does seem that the Vikes have done a better job drafting defensive talent than TT has the last few years. Without Rodgers, this team sure looked and played like a 3 - 8 unit. It was apparent there was no effective pass rush, and that the team lacked depth at the corner position. The receiver group lacks speed. (Though most fans liked the running backs TT drafted last year.)
However, coaching may also have played a role; thus Capers's demise. When players like Josh Jones and Montravius Adams are raved about for their natural ability in training camp, and then neither one seems to make any progress on the field, they're either way immature or not well-coached. Why Clinton-Dix seemed to lose his head in his ass is a complete mystery; none the writers seem to have investigated the reasons for this at all. How does a young player nearing a contract year go from All-Pro or near All-Pro to uninterested schlump? Then there's the infamous "communication issues" that have plagued this defense for years, particularly on the back end (that's why so many of us are nervous that Whitt or Perry might be hired as DC).
On the offensive side, heads, too, have rolled. Bennett, Van Pelt, Getsy leaving for another job, and probably I'm forgetting a couple.
And here I'll channel Woody: What about 'the head coach'?? Mike McCarthy is being painted as demanding, wanting more out of the next GM, sitting in on interviews, firing coaches, telling Damarious Randall to 'shut it,' and on and on.
But isn't this guy supposed to be the quarterback whisperer? Sure, he can claim credit for developing Aaron Rodgers, but hasn't he failed miserably with Hundley? That guy had the opportunity to watch and learn and practice and grow for two years - two years, a lifetime in the NFL! - and he wasn't simply "meh" or mediocre, he was lousy. Lousy. After being developed for two years by the head coach, the QB guru.
It was sad to see how much this team appears to have been a one-man show for some time now. Since McGinn's not-prophetic article a few years ago about how the Packers were built to survive a Rodgers injury (those of you with short memories can predict what happened anyway: Rodges proceeded to get hurt, and the Packers proceeded to suck), it's becoming worse and worse. This team was flat-out awful.
So even though I've been an ardent TT supporter, I agree it's time for a change there. But this scapegoating of him seems ridiculous. The writer of the aforementioned TT piece mentioned Taysom Hill as an example of Ted's failure. Seriously? The one article I read about the guy is that he was playing special teams for the Saints. If you have a future as an NFL QB, you're not playing special teams. What an idiotic example. all in all, Thompson was a very good GM. It's not easy to keep success going. Yes, he seemed to have faltered the last few years, but he wasn't some Cleveland Browns numbnut or Matt Millen clone.
I also think MM is getting out of all this too easy. He wants more from a GM, and he fires a bunch of assistant coaches, but where's his accountability? He trained Hundley for over two years, insisted Hundley was the guy, and came out with wildly inconsistent game plans for a quarterback he's supposed to know by now. First he's going to just run and run and run, then suddenly in one game he wants Hundley to come out throwing. And then after the season Hundley says he should have been better prepared??? Hmmm. Who's in charge of that, I wonder?
If you are a member of the Green Bay Packers organization, and you're anywhere near Mike McCarthy and you see a bus coming down the street, you'd better run the hell away from Mike.
