Bretsky
04-14-2007, 04:45 PM
McCarthy faces most challenging season
Posted: April 13, 2007
Bud Lea
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The big question Packers fans have this coming season revolves around Mike McCarthy.
How much better will he coach this year?
Is he ready for the next step?
Can he coach the Packers into the playoffs?
The 43-year-old McCarthy doesn't have enough of a résumé to indicate that he's a winning coach. He has been a head coach in the NFL for one season. His team lost to the Chicago Bears, the New England Patriots, and the New York Jets by the combined score of 99-10. It edged the slumping Minnesota Vikings, 9-7, on a 44-yard field goal by rookie kicker Dave Rayner on a cold and rainy night in December at Lambeau Field.
The Packers finished 8-8 after demolishing the Bears, who had wrapped up the division title and had absolutely nothing at stake in the final regular-season game against Green Bay at Soldier Field. How much did that count?
For what it's worth, the Packers leaped from fourth to second place in the weak NFC North, finishing with a four-game winning streak. But the Bears ran away with the division, posting a 13-3 record.
Two things happen to people who are asked to take more on. They shrink or they expand. They become more than you thought they were, or they prove to be less than you thought they were.
So McCarthy is facing the most important and the most challenging season as an NFL head coach. The Packers are this/close to breaking through and getting into the playoffs. And they are this/close to breaking up should aging Brett Favre suffer a serious injury and the young Packers become just another NFL team.
If Favre goes down, McCarthy most likely will force the untested Aaron Rodgers to take over. The rarely-used Rodgers has a two-year career completion percentage of 48.4%, a career passer rating of 43.9, zero touchdowns and 1 interception. If that isn't scary enough, he also is coming off a broken foot.
Since winning the NFC North in 2004 with a 10-6 record, the Packers have won just 12 of 32 games. Players have aged or departed, among them one-time Pro Bowl selections Ahman Green, Javon Walker, Mike Flanagan, William Henderson and Ryan Longwell.
The Packers have not been active on the free-agent market, but they do have nine picks in the draft. They have holes to fill, holes that once were filled with players of stature, and they will start with less-experienced talent.
How important a decision for playoff-contending teams is finding the right coach? After quarterback, I'm not so sure there's a more important piece to a championship puzzle than the head coach.
This off-season alone, the league has lost four coaches with at least 100 career victories: Bill Parcells, Dennis Green, Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer - the guy who coached the Chargers to go 14-2, but flamed out in the playoffs. So much for experience.
Entering the 2006 season, there were seven first-time head coaches: Minnesota's Brad Childress, Houston's Gary Kubiak, St. Louis's Scott Linehan, the New York Jets' Eric Mangini, Detroit's Rod Marinelli, New Orleans' Sean Payton, and McCarthy.
Payton, whose NFL résumé included stints with Jim Fassel, John Gruden and Bill Parcells, turned out to do the best job. He took over the 3-13 Saints, won a tough division with a 10-6 record, beat Philadelphia in the playoffs before losing to the Bears in the NFC Championship Game. Mangini's Jets were a wild-card team. McCarthy started off 1-4, took his lumps in November before turning things around in the last four games.
The much ballyhooed Childress was a huge disappointment at Minnesota as the Vikings finished 6-10, and Marinelli's Lions won only three games. Only the Oakland Raiders (2-14) had a poorer season, the worst in the NFL.
Entering the 2007 season, there will be five first-time coaches: Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt, Atlanta's Bobby Petrino, Miami's Cam Cameron, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Oakland's Lane Kiffin.
Petrino was hired away from Louisville, where he compiled a 41-9 record and replaced Jim Mora, who was fired after a 26-22 mark in three seasons with the Falcons. Kiffin, the son of Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, becomes the youngest head coach in the NFL at 31. He has been at USC since 2001, spending the last two years as offensive coordinator.
The thing about hiring college coaches is that they are pushed in only three, maybe four games all year. The NFL is 16 big games, not four.
No Packers coach, other than Scooter McLean, ever began his career at Green Bay with less fanfare or with fewer expectations than McCarthy. He wasn't viewed as a savior or a genius, just a football coach inheriting a mess.
Fans today view McCarthy as brainier and better than Childress and Marinelli. This was a perfect time for him to inherit the 4-12 Packers.
McCarthy will only be as good as Favre is healthy and he finds a running back to replace Ahman Green and other offensive playmakers. That's how it works.
But it can work the other way around, too. Baltimore's Brian Billick, an offensive genius, won a Super Bowl because of his defense. Jimmy Johnson, a defensive genius, won a couple because of his offense. How did Barry Switzer do it? He inherited a bundle of proven talent at Dallas.
And then there's Lovie Smith of the Bears. He was a 46-year-old defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams when he was named head coach at Chicago in 2004. The Bears were 5-11 in Lovie's first year, reversed the digits the next year and made it all the way to the Super Bowl before losing a disappointing 29-17 decision to the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. They just weren't quite ready for the big show and proved that Rex Grossman isn't the answer at quarterback.
The Bears were not embarrassed that Smith was the lowest-paid head coach in the league last season at $1.35 million. To the contrary, when he got them to the Super Bowl, that's called very good business, getting the most bang for the buck.
But the Bears had to dig up $22 million to keep him for the next four years.
What have the Packers, Vikings and Lions done to overtake the Bears? Not much.
The Packers' 301 points scored last season were the second-fewest in the Favre era. They need a running back, tight end, a wide receiver. But even moreso, they need a great player.
All is takes is one Drew Brees story to get fans excited before minicamps and training camps begin. Brees signed with the Saints last year and promptly joined two of the early free-agent success stories, Reggie White and Deion Sanders, as a player who made an immediate and significant difference.
McCarthy stood up to the fire last season. Until he gets some better talent, though, he must sail on, against the current, and with full faith in his 8-8 vessel.
Posted: April 13, 2007
Bud Lea
The big question Packers fans have this coming season revolves around Mike McCarthy.
How much better will he coach this year?
Is he ready for the next step?
Can he coach the Packers into the playoffs?
The 43-year-old McCarthy doesn't have enough of a résumé to indicate that he's a winning coach. He has been a head coach in the NFL for one season. His team lost to the Chicago Bears, the New England Patriots, and the New York Jets by the combined score of 99-10. It edged the slumping Minnesota Vikings, 9-7, on a 44-yard field goal by rookie kicker Dave Rayner on a cold and rainy night in December at Lambeau Field.
The Packers finished 8-8 after demolishing the Bears, who had wrapped up the division title and had absolutely nothing at stake in the final regular-season game against Green Bay at Soldier Field. How much did that count?
For what it's worth, the Packers leaped from fourth to second place in the weak NFC North, finishing with a four-game winning streak. But the Bears ran away with the division, posting a 13-3 record.
Two things happen to people who are asked to take more on. They shrink or they expand. They become more than you thought they were, or they prove to be less than you thought they were.
So McCarthy is facing the most important and the most challenging season as an NFL head coach. The Packers are this/close to breaking through and getting into the playoffs. And they are this/close to breaking up should aging Brett Favre suffer a serious injury and the young Packers become just another NFL team.
If Favre goes down, McCarthy most likely will force the untested Aaron Rodgers to take over. The rarely-used Rodgers has a two-year career completion percentage of 48.4%, a career passer rating of 43.9, zero touchdowns and 1 interception. If that isn't scary enough, he also is coming off a broken foot.
Since winning the NFC North in 2004 with a 10-6 record, the Packers have won just 12 of 32 games. Players have aged or departed, among them one-time Pro Bowl selections Ahman Green, Javon Walker, Mike Flanagan, William Henderson and Ryan Longwell.
The Packers have not been active on the free-agent market, but they do have nine picks in the draft. They have holes to fill, holes that once were filled with players of stature, and they will start with less-experienced talent.
How important a decision for playoff-contending teams is finding the right coach? After quarterback, I'm not so sure there's a more important piece to a championship puzzle than the head coach.
This off-season alone, the league has lost four coaches with at least 100 career victories: Bill Parcells, Dennis Green, Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer - the guy who coached the Chargers to go 14-2, but flamed out in the playoffs. So much for experience.
Entering the 2006 season, there were seven first-time head coaches: Minnesota's Brad Childress, Houston's Gary Kubiak, St. Louis's Scott Linehan, the New York Jets' Eric Mangini, Detroit's Rod Marinelli, New Orleans' Sean Payton, and McCarthy.
Payton, whose NFL résumé included stints with Jim Fassel, John Gruden and Bill Parcells, turned out to do the best job. He took over the 3-13 Saints, won a tough division with a 10-6 record, beat Philadelphia in the playoffs before losing to the Bears in the NFC Championship Game. Mangini's Jets were a wild-card team. McCarthy started off 1-4, took his lumps in November before turning things around in the last four games.
The much ballyhooed Childress was a huge disappointment at Minnesota as the Vikings finished 6-10, and Marinelli's Lions won only three games. Only the Oakland Raiders (2-14) had a poorer season, the worst in the NFL.
Entering the 2007 season, there will be five first-time coaches: Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt, Atlanta's Bobby Petrino, Miami's Cam Cameron, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Oakland's Lane Kiffin.
Petrino was hired away from Louisville, where he compiled a 41-9 record and replaced Jim Mora, who was fired after a 26-22 mark in three seasons with the Falcons. Kiffin, the son of Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, becomes the youngest head coach in the NFL at 31. He has been at USC since 2001, spending the last two years as offensive coordinator.
The thing about hiring college coaches is that they are pushed in only three, maybe four games all year. The NFL is 16 big games, not four.
No Packers coach, other than Scooter McLean, ever began his career at Green Bay with less fanfare or with fewer expectations than McCarthy. He wasn't viewed as a savior or a genius, just a football coach inheriting a mess.
Fans today view McCarthy as brainier and better than Childress and Marinelli. This was a perfect time for him to inherit the 4-12 Packers.
McCarthy will only be as good as Favre is healthy and he finds a running back to replace Ahman Green and other offensive playmakers. That's how it works.
But it can work the other way around, too. Baltimore's Brian Billick, an offensive genius, won a Super Bowl because of his defense. Jimmy Johnson, a defensive genius, won a couple because of his offense. How did Barry Switzer do it? He inherited a bundle of proven talent at Dallas.
And then there's Lovie Smith of the Bears. He was a 46-year-old defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams when he was named head coach at Chicago in 2004. The Bears were 5-11 in Lovie's first year, reversed the digits the next year and made it all the way to the Super Bowl before losing a disappointing 29-17 decision to the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. They just weren't quite ready for the big show and proved that Rex Grossman isn't the answer at quarterback.
The Bears were not embarrassed that Smith was the lowest-paid head coach in the league last season at $1.35 million. To the contrary, when he got them to the Super Bowl, that's called very good business, getting the most bang for the buck.
But the Bears had to dig up $22 million to keep him for the next four years.
What have the Packers, Vikings and Lions done to overtake the Bears? Not much.
The Packers' 301 points scored last season were the second-fewest in the Favre era. They need a running back, tight end, a wide receiver. But even moreso, they need a great player.
All is takes is one Drew Brees story to get fans excited before minicamps and training camps begin. Brees signed with the Saints last year and promptly joined two of the early free-agent success stories, Reggie White and Deion Sanders, as a player who made an immediate and significant difference.
McCarthy stood up to the fire last season. Until he gets some better talent, though, he must sail on, against the current, and with full faith in his 8-8 vessel.