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

[pbmax]

Couldn't this just be about salary?

MM probably compares himself to guys like Sean Payton or Tomlin who continue to make significantly more money. His contract is finally up and its his turn to get a record deal but he's not going to do it after a turd of a season.

It could be. But that just means the status quo is still 'hot seat'.

M3 might be convinced he is getting a big ticket extension, though it seems very unlikely it happens this offseason (already did one year deal, very new front office and structure will want time to make decisions). He may figure that with Rodgers healthy, his odds are good after another season.

But think of the factors possibly aligned against him. New GM might want total control. Russ Ball also reports to Murphy and what if ol' Russ believes McCarthy cock blocked him from a GM position? Murphy did not bring McCarthy in. Thompson is still there but the new regime helped show Ted the door to a smaller office in Athens, Texas with dial-up access.

Who will want to hitch their wagon to this guy for four more years at any price? I don't think any are eager yet.

So it puts him on the hot seat for next year. If he doesn't deliver big and thinks he should be rewarded big, then he's probably gone.

I still think he is a Top 5 coach. But he is in danger of permanently giving up that ranking. His offense has stagnated and he has not self corrected to defenses figuring it out and for personnel changes at WR. He sticks with horrible performers as coaches for way too long without much success in developing solutions.

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.

Its a bit unfair to lay the entirety of Thompson/Capers refusal to acknowledge or willful blindness to their methods incompatibility at his feet. But he did have control over half of it and he did very little. Same with reshuffling the deck chairs on the ST Titanic for a decade. Even Zook has only got them to average.

I tend to think McCarthy and Ted are undervalued in fans' minds. But on a basic level (and most recent evidence) it looks like Rodgers is the driver of playoff appearances. To get a new deal, McCarthy will have to beat expectations.

And as hard as it might be to predict, I think expectations are the playoffs. So Mike will need another Championship game appearance or a Super Bowl visit to get a big new deal.

[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.