Quote Originally Posted by pbmax View Post
The changes that were made by Murphy, including extending McCarthy and Thompson one year, all seem to be designed to ease the way to sign Rodgers to an extension.

So McCarthy did have that leverage by proxy.

But coaches who are not in a precarious position do not sign one year deals. It could be that Murphy talked them both into this in order to ease the transition to a new GM, so they could attract good candidates with the promise of total authority. McCarthy might believe he is months away from a big extension himself.

But a one year extension is just one year. How many coaches do you remember doing a one year deal after a long tenure and surviving? He is far more likely to be pushed overboard now than before. The only thing he survived was the initial wave this year.
A one-year extension means "prove it, and prove it now, buddy." Jim Caldwell got a one-year extension last year, with the expectation that he had to get the Lions in the playoffs AND win a game, or at least be super competitive against what would have been perceived as a better team. An 8-8 record thus did not cut it.

So I think Mikey-Mike IS on the hot seat, and in my estimation he should be. His firing of the DC (with which I agree), but especially the cleaning out and re-arranging of his offensive staff, plus his whining for better talent, amounts to throwing everyone else under the bus. So now that Baby Mikey has gotten all he wanted, he better not have another disappointing season. Do they need to get to the NFC Championship game? Depends. If the team's big guns stay relativelty healthy and the team health overall is decent, then yes. But if big names go down and some position group gets decimated, but Mike sneaks them into the playoffs with a 10-6 but gets beat right away, he might be able to keep his gig.