motife
02-15-2007, 10:09 PM
McCarthy stays the course to build winner
Super Bowl remains 'the only goal ever'
Posted: Feb. 15, 2007
Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers are a month into the off-season and a month from beginning their off-season program in preparation for the 2007 season.
The Packers finished strong in 2006 with a four-game winning streak and got great news a couple weeks ago with the announcement that quarterback Brett Favre would return for a 16th season.
While the coaching staff and the player personnel staff are hard at work already in preparing for 2007, coach Mike McCarthy took some time from his schedule to sit down with Packer Plus writer Rick Braun to discuss where the Packers are and where they're going.
Q:You had the youngest team in the league last season, yet finished barely out of the playoffs by a tie-breaker. Do you believe that the fans and the organization can expect the team to make the playoffs next year?
A: I think any time you're setting goals, No. 1 the ultimate goal here - and it will really be the only goal ever - is to win the Super Bowl. That's the target. We have made progress toward that target in a number of different areas. But I don't ever look at it as just doing this or just doing that. The ultimate goal is to win the Super Bowl, and in doing that we need to make progress. We need to make progress in our off-season program. That's really what our focus has been since the season ended. We're doing some new things in the weight room and with the relationship between the weight room and the training room. As Ted (Thompson) says all the time, we're capturing the hearts and minds of our players and giving them the best opportunity and resources to make themselves better. So I think to get to the ultimate goal you've got to keep stacking successes and keep making progress, and that's really what my focus is.
Q: When you say "stacking successes," it's kind of a step process, too, where making the playoffs is one of those steps, correct?
A: Absolutely. That's the only way you're going to get there. As you know, it's a very competitive business. You don't really luck into going to the Super Bowl. It's something that happens in steps and stages and we need to keep focused on pushing forward, and with the vision and the plan and hard work, we'll get there.
Q: Do those steps and stages come a lot faster in the NFL of today? As an example, the New England Patriots went from 5-11 in 2000 to winning three of the next four Super Bowls.
A: There are just so many different variables in our game because it's the ultimate team sport in my opinion. I think it just varies from team to team. If you look at New England's success, they had been a solid football team and then with the emergence of the quarterback they've done a really good job of getting to the pinnacle, but also of maintaining that standard. Obviously I think our course and our road to the ultimate prize is going to be a little bit different because we've started with a very young football team and we're looking to build, but we do have some selected veterans that we're very fortunate to have in our program. So I think our path is going to be a little bit different than New England's.
Q:Your offensive line was an improvement over the 2005 season and is very young with three rookies having started at least 10 games. What improvements do they need to make individually and collectively to be one of the best in the league?
A: I go back to the off-season program. They have an opportunity, because they are young, to increase their strength and their conditioning and also increase their knowledge of the offensive line and the scheme. We do a lot of work with our assistant coaches in a one-on-one format with our players. That's why the importance of the off-season program is so evident in the development of our program. Individually they need to take full advantage of (offensive line coach) James Campen and Jerry Fontenot and the structure that we've set up for them in the weight room and the training room. It's all right there for them. So really just participate in the off-season program and continue to grow as an individual.
Q:Does it help them now to have Joe Philbin, their position coach from last year, as the offensive coordinator?
A: Absolutely. I think any time you're doing things the right way, if you can maintain continuity, that's vital to success in the league. If you look at the programs in the league that have won over the long term - and ultimately our goal is to win the Super Bowl - with that we're building a program. Ted and I talk about that all the time. We're not looking for a one-year fix where you're just gearing everything up and trying to make a run for the Super Bowl. When you operate in that mind-set, you tend to take away the future of the franchise. So we're building a program. The big picture is we're building a program here to win a lot of football games over a long period of time.
Q:To what do you attribute the major change in performance by the defense over the final four games vs. the first 12?
A: I think it just comes down to the continuity and the confidence. I think you saw a group that really came together. We had some communication failures earlier in the year, and really the thing that we failed at as a defense was the explosive gains. And it's like anything where any time a negative continues to happen, it taps into your confidence. So the confidence and the continuity came into place and I thought at the end of the year we were playing as well as any defense in the National Football League.
Q:If that play carries over to 2007, can it be a championship-caliber defense?
A: If our defense plays at the level it did over the last four games, absolutely they'll be a top-three defense in the league. But the difference is that in the National Football League is what you carry over from year to year is limited. I think you can carry over momentum into an off-season program and you can carry over confidence over from an off-season program that leads you into training camp and things like that. But there's so much change in our business from year to year that really the group dynamics that develop in your football team starts in the off-season program and then the minicamps and the training camp, and then you come out of the gate every season with really a new football team. So we'll be just like everybody else. The thing we do have in our benefit right now is that right now we have more players under contract than any other NFL team. So we'll have excellent participation in the off-season program, and hopefully we'll be able to carry over as much as we can from that success we had during that four-game stretch at the end.
Q:With a year now under your belt, do you have a list of things you might do differently in Year 2?
A: A lot of little things. Matt Klein (football administration coordinator), he's my right-hand man from an administration standpoint, and as we've encountered things throughout the season in the administrative arena, we've taken notes on it and now we're going back and cleaning it up as we get ready for the year. As an example, a lot of scheduling things. We're going to schedule the off-season program a little differently. We're going to do some things a little differently as far as functional training in our off-season program in the weight room. These are all things that as we went through it last year we thought, "Well, we could do a little more of this and we can adjust this." And now we've learned as a coaching staff, and I'm using the administrative part of it as an example. I'm looking to get better, too.
Q:The organization last year seemed to avoid using the "rebuild" word. Now that you've turned over the roster as much as you did last year, what stage would you say the team is at?
A: Like I said earlier, we're building a long-term program. We're building a championship program, and we're taking steps toward that. There's a lot of positive energy and everybody's excited about the direction we're going. What that tells me is that the plan that Ted and I have in place is working. We're looking forward to the direction we want to go, so that will always be our focus.
Q:With the finish last year, do you feel like you're a little bit ahead in that plan?
A: I don't really deal in timetables because sometimes you don't really have control over your timetable. That's the reality of this business. So I just have my eye on the target. As far as where we are and where we're supposed to be, I don't really have a feel for that because you're never truly done until you accomplish your goal. And then, as we all do, once you accomplish it once you want to go back and do it again. But as far as where we are and a timetable, I really have no opinion on that.
Q:How much easier does your off-season become now that you know Brett is coming back?
A: It's a lot easier because when your getting into the planning stages, just from an offensive standpoint, you plan a little differently between Brett and another quarterback. From a philosophical standpoint, a lot of things are pretty much the same, but just as far as schematically and which way you'll lean, you can lean more one way than another. So the system of offense is intact, but within the system you can be more specific. And just from an organizational standpoint or organizing your scheme installation, it just makes it a lot easier. A big thing in coaching and your preparation is to do as much as you can in the front end so that when the players get here you're able to coach. You're not pushing paper or filling out scripts. You're not doing all the work that you can do in February, March and April if you really know who your quarterback or the key players in your offense are going to be. So just by knowing that we're able to get those types of things out of the way so that when we're around the players we're focusing more on coaching than the paper work that is a part of our job.
Q:Did you have a pretty good feel that his decision was going to go this way?
A: I'll be honest with you. I wasn't sure. I really wasn't. Last year I felt that he was coming back just based on our conversation the time we had together in Hattiesburg (Miss.) and the time we had on the phone - just the way he was asking questions. This time it was different for him. It was clearly a decision that Deanna and Brett had to make and he was talking about different things this time around. So I really didn't have a feel. I wouldn't have been surprised one way or the other. But we had a conversation about a week before that where it was really the first indication I thought that he was going to come back.
Q:What do you see as this team's biggest need going into 2007?
A: The improvement of our current players on our roster. I know everybody wants to focus on a position or on this guy or that guy through free agency, but the more I'm around this business - and it's even more apparent as a head coach, although I've always felt this way as a quarterbacks coach and an offensive coordinator - the biggest improvement we need to make is with the people we know are going to be here. Sometimes, particularly from the outside of the organization, the focus is put on who you're bringing in. But the biggest changes in your football team, in my opinion, is the development that the player makes from year 1 to Year 2 within your program. Player acquisition is an ongoing process. We're in the process of getting ready for the draft and we'll do a good job with taking the best player available there, and free agency, we're very much involved in the market right now. We're looking for fit, and if it fits, something will happen. If it doesn't, then it won't happen. But the one constant is we know the people that are under contract right now and those are the people that need to improve as we move forward for the '07 season.
Q:Is Koren Robinson in the plans for 2007?
A: You have to look at him through the policies of the NFL and you really can't deal with that until he clears his situation up with the NFL. That's our stand as an organization.
Q:Seeing how you played in Chicago at the end of the season and knowing the Bears went to the Super Bowl, can you use that as an impetus to show the players how close they are to reaching the goals?
A: I think you can. First of all, when you break down a season for any NFL football team, you first need to win in your division, second you obviously want to win your conference games and third you want the best overall record. So if you're looking for a progression of who to beat as you set forth in your plan, I think we definitely accomplished the first part. We were 5-1 in our division and actually tied with the Bears for division record. We were tied with the Giants when we went to the tie-breaker with the NFC record, and we need to improve that. Our overall record, particularly against the AFC, we didn't do very well this year. But if you want to really break it down, that's a very logical way of looking at it. The first step of winning your division games, including Chicago at Chicago, those are all positive steps in the right direction when you talk about making progress that we can look to improve on.
Q:With the season behind you, what were some of the biggest surprises to you?
A: Well, losing is always hard in our business and it seems like it gets harder. But you never really know the pain you feel as a head coach. People tell you, but you always think as an assistant, "I hurt, too." And I did. I don't feel that the players and assistant coaches don't hurt after a loss. But it is different when you are the head coach because you have to deal with it longer. The losses on Sunday carry over so much longer on Monday. You have to answer more questions, you have potential issues that come up out of the game whether it be with players or coaches. So the loss stays with you much longer. You're not able to move onto the next game as quickly as you were as an assistant coach. And that's hard, because in pro football you're so systematic in that on Monday you do this, on Tuesday you do this. And all of a sudden someone throws you out of your routine and you're spending two or three or four more hours on one issue that you usually don't, and now you're playing catch-up the rest of the week. So that's the biggest thing if you talk to other head coaches. The losses definitely sting a lot more.
Q:What was your most memorable moment of 2006? Getting the job? Something else?
A: That's a great question. I think we need to break that down. I think personally, getting the job was exciting and the first game. When I think of personal proudest moments, I think of my family. To have my daughter there the day I got the job and the time we were able to spend together after the press conference, that was very unique. That will never happen again. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it's a once-in-a-lifetime day that I don't think will ever be repeated. Professionally, walking off the field after that Chicago game felt pretty good. The Miami game kind of sticks out in my mind because I've never been more proud of a group of men than I was in that locker room afterward. I probably didn't communicate it as well as I could have. That was an important game for us. We were 1-4 coming off the bye week and they worked hard through the bye week and stayed the course and went down and won that game in extraordinary circumstances. It was extremely hot, and just the way that game unfolded with them throwing the ball on every play and our defense was out there fighting like crazy at the end. That game kind of stands out. Chad (Clifton) was sick and you tell your rookie left guard (Daryn Colledge) that he's playing left tackle an hour before the game. So we had all those different things and they hung in there and played tough.
Q: You talked earlier about building a program and not looking for quick fixes. There is a significant amount of salary-cap room right now. Do you have to fight the urge to be overly aggressive in maximizing the time Brett has left?
A: I think that's natural to have that thought process, but when you do that you're making emotional decisions and getting outside of operating what's best for the organization. What's best for the organization is to stay the course and build a football team the right way, the Packer way. Sometimes when you reach, you're decision making is not as clear as it should be. Hey, everybody here would love to see Brett ride off on the white horse. Nobody deserves it more in the NFL than him, and we'll do everything we can. But you need to trust your core beliefs as far as evaluating talent and evaluating the character of an individual and how they fit into your program and adhere to that. And you know something? We'll have a very good team next year. I believe that in my heart. Everybody's dealt a team year-in and year-out, and it's the responsibility of the coaching staff to develop that group of personnel and format it into a football team and take it out there when the season starts and win as many games as you can and get into the playoffs and try to win a championship. If that's with three more playmakers on offense, then great. But if you get out there and start chasing your tail a little bit, that's when you don't make the best decisions.
Q:There's a lot of talk out there about Randy Moss and the Packers. Any thoughts on that?
A: You can take this as dodging the question, but players that are under contract with other teams . . . I don't have a fantasy football team. I'm fortunate. I get to coach the Green Bay Packers. He's under contract with the Oakland Raiders. That's really the only thing I have to say on him right now.
Super Bowl remains 'the only goal ever'
Posted: Feb. 15, 2007
Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers are a month into the off-season and a month from beginning their off-season program in preparation for the 2007 season.
The Packers finished strong in 2006 with a four-game winning streak and got great news a couple weeks ago with the announcement that quarterback Brett Favre would return for a 16th season.
While the coaching staff and the player personnel staff are hard at work already in preparing for 2007, coach Mike McCarthy took some time from his schedule to sit down with Packer Plus writer Rick Braun to discuss where the Packers are and where they're going.
Q:You had the youngest team in the league last season, yet finished barely out of the playoffs by a tie-breaker. Do you believe that the fans and the organization can expect the team to make the playoffs next year?
A: I think any time you're setting goals, No. 1 the ultimate goal here - and it will really be the only goal ever - is to win the Super Bowl. That's the target. We have made progress toward that target in a number of different areas. But I don't ever look at it as just doing this or just doing that. The ultimate goal is to win the Super Bowl, and in doing that we need to make progress. We need to make progress in our off-season program. That's really what our focus has been since the season ended. We're doing some new things in the weight room and with the relationship between the weight room and the training room. As Ted (Thompson) says all the time, we're capturing the hearts and minds of our players and giving them the best opportunity and resources to make themselves better. So I think to get to the ultimate goal you've got to keep stacking successes and keep making progress, and that's really what my focus is.
Q: When you say "stacking successes," it's kind of a step process, too, where making the playoffs is one of those steps, correct?
A: Absolutely. That's the only way you're going to get there. As you know, it's a very competitive business. You don't really luck into going to the Super Bowl. It's something that happens in steps and stages and we need to keep focused on pushing forward, and with the vision and the plan and hard work, we'll get there.
Q: Do those steps and stages come a lot faster in the NFL of today? As an example, the New England Patriots went from 5-11 in 2000 to winning three of the next four Super Bowls.
A: There are just so many different variables in our game because it's the ultimate team sport in my opinion. I think it just varies from team to team. If you look at New England's success, they had been a solid football team and then with the emergence of the quarterback they've done a really good job of getting to the pinnacle, but also of maintaining that standard. Obviously I think our course and our road to the ultimate prize is going to be a little bit different because we've started with a very young football team and we're looking to build, but we do have some selected veterans that we're very fortunate to have in our program. So I think our path is going to be a little bit different than New England's.
Q:Your offensive line was an improvement over the 2005 season and is very young with three rookies having started at least 10 games. What improvements do they need to make individually and collectively to be one of the best in the league?
A: I go back to the off-season program. They have an opportunity, because they are young, to increase their strength and their conditioning and also increase their knowledge of the offensive line and the scheme. We do a lot of work with our assistant coaches in a one-on-one format with our players. That's why the importance of the off-season program is so evident in the development of our program. Individually they need to take full advantage of (offensive line coach) James Campen and Jerry Fontenot and the structure that we've set up for them in the weight room and the training room. It's all right there for them. So really just participate in the off-season program and continue to grow as an individual.
Q:Does it help them now to have Joe Philbin, their position coach from last year, as the offensive coordinator?
A: Absolutely. I think any time you're doing things the right way, if you can maintain continuity, that's vital to success in the league. If you look at the programs in the league that have won over the long term - and ultimately our goal is to win the Super Bowl - with that we're building a program. Ted and I talk about that all the time. We're not looking for a one-year fix where you're just gearing everything up and trying to make a run for the Super Bowl. When you operate in that mind-set, you tend to take away the future of the franchise. So we're building a program. The big picture is we're building a program here to win a lot of football games over a long period of time.
Q:To what do you attribute the major change in performance by the defense over the final four games vs. the first 12?
A: I think it just comes down to the continuity and the confidence. I think you saw a group that really came together. We had some communication failures earlier in the year, and really the thing that we failed at as a defense was the explosive gains. And it's like anything where any time a negative continues to happen, it taps into your confidence. So the confidence and the continuity came into place and I thought at the end of the year we were playing as well as any defense in the National Football League.
Q:If that play carries over to 2007, can it be a championship-caliber defense?
A: If our defense plays at the level it did over the last four games, absolutely they'll be a top-three defense in the league. But the difference is that in the National Football League is what you carry over from year to year is limited. I think you can carry over momentum into an off-season program and you can carry over confidence over from an off-season program that leads you into training camp and things like that. But there's so much change in our business from year to year that really the group dynamics that develop in your football team starts in the off-season program and then the minicamps and the training camp, and then you come out of the gate every season with really a new football team. So we'll be just like everybody else. The thing we do have in our benefit right now is that right now we have more players under contract than any other NFL team. So we'll have excellent participation in the off-season program, and hopefully we'll be able to carry over as much as we can from that success we had during that four-game stretch at the end.
Q:With a year now under your belt, do you have a list of things you might do differently in Year 2?
A: A lot of little things. Matt Klein (football administration coordinator), he's my right-hand man from an administration standpoint, and as we've encountered things throughout the season in the administrative arena, we've taken notes on it and now we're going back and cleaning it up as we get ready for the year. As an example, a lot of scheduling things. We're going to schedule the off-season program a little differently. We're going to do some things a little differently as far as functional training in our off-season program in the weight room. These are all things that as we went through it last year we thought, "Well, we could do a little more of this and we can adjust this." And now we've learned as a coaching staff, and I'm using the administrative part of it as an example. I'm looking to get better, too.
Q:The organization last year seemed to avoid using the "rebuild" word. Now that you've turned over the roster as much as you did last year, what stage would you say the team is at?
A: Like I said earlier, we're building a long-term program. We're building a championship program, and we're taking steps toward that. There's a lot of positive energy and everybody's excited about the direction we're going. What that tells me is that the plan that Ted and I have in place is working. We're looking forward to the direction we want to go, so that will always be our focus.
Q:With the finish last year, do you feel like you're a little bit ahead in that plan?
A: I don't really deal in timetables because sometimes you don't really have control over your timetable. That's the reality of this business. So I just have my eye on the target. As far as where we are and where we're supposed to be, I don't really have a feel for that because you're never truly done until you accomplish your goal. And then, as we all do, once you accomplish it once you want to go back and do it again. But as far as where we are and a timetable, I really have no opinion on that.
Q:How much easier does your off-season become now that you know Brett is coming back?
A: It's a lot easier because when your getting into the planning stages, just from an offensive standpoint, you plan a little differently between Brett and another quarterback. From a philosophical standpoint, a lot of things are pretty much the same, but just as far as schematically and which way you'll lean, you can lean more one way than another. So the system of offense is intact, but within the system you can be more specific. And just from an organizational standpoint or organizing your scheme installation, it just makes it a lot easier. A big thing in coaching and your preparation is to do as much as you can in the front end so that when the players get here you're able to coach. You're not pushing paper or filling out scripts. You're not doing all the work that you can do in February, March and April if you really know who your quarterback or the key players in your offense are going to be. So just by knowing that we're able to get those types of things out of the way so that when we're around the players we're focusing more on coaching than the paper work that is a part of our job.
Q:Did you have a pretty good feel that his decision was going to go this way?
A: I'll be honest with you. I wasn't sure. I really wasn't. Last year I felt that he was coming back just based on our conversation the time we had together in Hattiesburg (Miss.) and the time we had on the phone - just the way he was asking questions. This time it was different for him. It was clearly a decision that Deanna and Brett had to make and he was talking about different things this time around. So I really didn't have a feel. I wouldn't have been surprised one way or the other. But we had a conversation about a week before that where it was really the first indication I thought that he was going to come back.
Q:What do you see as this team's biggest need going into 2007?
A: The improvement of our current players on our roster. I know everybody wants to focus on a position or on this guy or that guy through free agency, but the more I'm around this business - and it's even more apparent as a head coach, although I've always felt this way as a quarterbacks coach and an offensive coordinator - the biggest improvement we need to make is with the people we know are going to be here. Sometimes, particularly from the outside of the organization, the focus is put on who you're bringing in. But the biggest changes in your football team, in my opinion, is the development that the player makes from year 1 to Year 2 within your program. Player acquisition is an ongoing process. We're in the process of getting ready for the draft and we'll do a good job with taking the best player available there, and free agency, we're very much involved in the market right now. We're looking for fit, and if it fits, something will happen. If it doesn't, then it won't happen. But the one constant is we know the people that are under contract right now and those are the people that need to improve as we move forward for the '07 season.
Q:Is Koren Robinson in the plans for 2007?
A: You have to look at him through the policies of the NFL and you really can't deal with that until he clears his situation up with the NFL. That's our stand as an organization.
Q:Seeing how you played in Chicago at the end of the season and knowing the Bears went to the Super Bowl, can you use that as an impetus to show the players how close they are to reaching the goals?
A: I think you can. First of all, when you break down a season for any NFL football team, you first need to win in your division, second you obviously want to win your conference games and third you want the best overall record. So if you're looking for a progression of who to beat as you set forth in your plan, I think we definitely accomplished the first part. We were 5-1 in our division and actually tied with the Bears for division record. We were tied with the Giants when we went to the tie-breaker with the NFC record, and we need to improve that. Our overall record, particularly against the AFC, we didn't do very well this year. But if you want to really break it down, that's a very logical way of looking at it. The first step of winning your division games, including Chicago at Chicago, those are all positive steps in the right direction when you talk about making progress that we can look to improve on.
Q:With the season behind you, what were some of the biggest surprises to you?
A: Well, losing is always hard in our business and it seems like it gets harder. But you never really know the pain you feel as a head coach. People tell you, but you always think as an assistant, "I hurt, too." And I did. I don't feel that the players and assistant coaches don't hurt after a loss. But it is different when you are the head coach because you have to deal with it longer. The losses on Sunday carry over so much longer on Monday. You have to answer more questions, you have potential issues that come up out of the game whether it be with players or coaches. So the loss stays with you much longer. You're not able to move onto the next game as quickly as you were as an assistant coach. And that's hard, because in pro football you're so systematic in that on Monday you do this, on Tuesday you do this. And all of a sudden someone throws you out of your routine and you're spending two or three or four more hours on one issue that you usually don't, and now you're playing catch-up the rest of the week. So that's the biggest thing if you talk to other head coaches. The losses definitely sting a lot more.
Q:What was your most memorable moment of 2006? Getting the job? Something else?
A: That's a great question. I think we need to break that down. I think personally, getting the job was exciting and the first game. When I think of personal proudest moments, I think of my family. To have my daughter there the day I got the job and the time we were able to spend together after the press conference, that was very unique. That will never happen again. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it's a once-in-a-lifetime day that I don't think will ever be repeated. Professionally, walking off the field after that Chicago game felt pretty good. The Miami game kind of sticks out in my mind because I've never been more proud of a group of men than I was in that locker room afterward. I probably didn't communicate it as well as I could have. That was an important game for us. We were 1-4 coming off the bye week and they worked hard through the bye week and stayed the course and went down and won that game in extraordinary circumstances. It was extremely hot, and just the way that game unfolded with them throwing the ball on every play and our defense was out there fighting like crazy at the end. That game kind of stands out. Chad (Clifton) was sick and you tell your rookie left guard (Daryn Colledge) that he's playing left tackle an hour before the game. So we had all those different things and they hung in there and played tough.
Q: You talked earlier about building a program and not looking for quick fixes. There is a significant amount of salary-cap room right now. Do you have to fight the urge to be overly aggressive in maximizing the time Brett has left?
A: I think that's natural to have that thought process, but when you do that you're making emotional decisions and getting outside of operating what's best for the organization. What's best for the organization is to stay the course and build a football team the right way, the Packer way. Sometimes when you reach, you're decision making is not as clear as it should be. Hey, everybody here would love to see Brett ride off on the white horse. Nobody deserves it more in the NFL than him, and we'll do everything we can. But you need to trust your core beliefs as far as evaluating talent and evaluating the character of an individual and how they fit into your program and adhere to that. And you know something? We'll have a very good team next year. I believe that in my heart. Everybody's dealt a team year-in and year-out, and it's the responsibility of the coaching staff to develop that group of personnel and format it into a football team and take it out there when the season starts and win as many games as you can and get into the playoffs and try to win a championship. If that's with three more playmakers on offense, then great. But if you get out there and start chasing your tail a little bit, that's when you don't make the best decisions.
Q:There's a lot of talk out there about Randy Moss and the Packers. Any thoughts on that?
A: You can take this as dodging the question, but players that are under contract with other teams . . . I don't have a fantasy football team. I'm fortunate. I get to coach the Green Bay Packers. He's under contract with the Oakland Raiders. That's really the only thing I have to say on him right now.