What Does McCarthy Have to Do Next Year to Get A Contract Extension?

[3irty1]

My biggest complaint about McCarthy is his inability to self correct his system and staff. He used to be an innovator, but now he seems more like Jeff Fisher, stuck in a mold.

This is my biggest complaint too, but he's much quicker to adjust his system rather than his staff. And I still see him as an innovator. There is less practice than ever, simple offenses are more popular than ever, yet MM runs one of the few truly multiple offenses out there and its not a mess of penalties and miscommunication. I think the difference is that he used to go on about matchups but these days he has nobody left who is particularly big or fast. He's still managed to make mismatches out of versatility. Crafting an offense that is hell to substitute against. His protections get pretty creative too. He's not a sexy college offense full of trick plays but I don't think he's stale. Our offense usually looks pretty different by the end of a season and usually better.

[pbmax]

This is my biggest complaint too, but he's much quicker to adjust his system rather than his staff. And I still see him as an innovator. There is less practice than ever, simple offenses are more popular than ever, yet MM runs one of the few truly multiple offenses out there and its not a mess of penalties and miscommunication. I think the difference is that he used to go on about matchups but these days he has nobody left who is particularly big or fast. He's still managed to make mismatches out of versatility. Crafting an offense that is hell to substitute against. His protections get pretty creative too. He's not a sexy college offense full of trick plays but I don't think he's stale. Our offense usually looks pretty different by the end of a season and usually better.

I do agree that the offensive players execute an offense that is big on number of plays and that is not easy to do these days. His installs in the offseason are fantastic. He also gets rookies involved (even O line) and somehow doesn't lose the thread like the defense does with young starters. All to his credit.

But I think he has been hurt by the practice and age of players too. He scales down what he wants to call in a game to very few plays and you see a lot of repeat. That is a repeated critique of the internet X and O community. If you dominate physically, you can do this. If you have Rodgers, you can do this. If you don't have younger James Jones and Jordy Nelson and rookie Randall Cobb, then it looks like the Rodgers offense too much and puts him in physical jeopardy.

I suspect his offensive redo will be to do fewer concepts and greater variation, we'll see. Its eminently doable, for Dilfer's sake Nick Foles and Nelson Agholor just started and won a Super Bowl.

But the bolded part of your post, while true, is also a problem. His adjustments to his system have been giving him fewer returns. Leaning on deep throws to Nelson and Jones and throwing short to Cobb was great in 2011. No huddle/tempo was great in 2013 and 2014. But neither produces lately like they did previously and the short throwing game (behind LOS to WR) was not terribly effective last year. The one bright spot was the RB screen game. That should be a cornerstone of next years offense.

He is good enough that I will not predict a flat offensive year next year. Its just the trend I don't like.