HarveyWallbangers
11-17-2007, 11:50 PM
Interesting article.
McCarthy, GM Thompson work well together
By TOM SILVERSTEIN, JSO
Green Bay - With the possible exception of Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, the architects of the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 1990s, there probably weren't two more confident, head-strong and forceful individuals leading a National Football League team at the time than Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren.
They were wired to be bosses.
Wolf was gruff and opinionated, and though willing to admit his mistakes, he never really believed he'd make another one. Holmgren was dictatorial and intimidating and more than able to hold his own in a discussion on almost any subject.
Despite their electrically charged personalities, they were philosophically connected on how to build the Green Bay Packers into a championship football team, and were able to suppress their prejudices and egos just enough to make it happen.
Fifteen years after their partnership began, a similar dynamic has taken shape at the helm of the Packers and it may very well be the reason the team is off to an 8-1 start and has won 12 of its last 13 games heading into a Lambeau Field matchup today with the Carolina Panthers.
General manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy couldn't have less in common if they were from different planets, yet they have forged an alliance that has the Packers moving forward faster than Wolf and Holmgren did in the early '90s. When he sought a replacement for fired coach Mike Sherman, Thompson looked for someone with whom he could have strong chemistry, and it appears he has found him in McCarthy.
"I believe this now even more than when I started that you're not hiring the coach or the Xs and Os or the system, you're hiring the person, especially in a place like Green Bay where the general manager and the head coach have to have that sort of relationship," Thompson said. "It doesn't mean you have to be alike, you don't have to like the same music, but you have to have the same core beliefs, and I think Mike and I get along very well."
A false start with Sherman
Thompson thought that potential existed with Sherman, the coach he inherited after being named general manager in 2005. In fact, he gave Sherman a contract extension later that season, because he came to the conclusion he could work with him.
What he failed to see was that Sherman couldn't get past having the general manager's position stripped from him by president Bob Harlan. The two talked about football matters, but there was no bond between them and thus their working relationship was affected. Sherman's coolness created tension in the entire building, which is one of the primary reasons Thompson decided to make a change.
"We were on a plane ride home and Ted got up and went over to sit by Mike McCarthy and the two of them were talking and laughing about the game," Harlan said. "When Ted got back to his seat I told him that I hadn't ever seen him do that kind of thing with Mike Sherman and he said, 'I never felt welcomed.'
"I thought Ted was the perfect guy to work with Mike Sherman. He was not going to get in his way. But Mike Sherman became a totally different person after Ted came in."
When he hired McCarthy, Thompson saw someone who saw the game of football the same way he did. He knew that McCarthy had gotten a taste of how things had worked under Wolf when he had served as quarterbacks coach in 1999 and he felt assured that his focus was on building the team together.
Staying on the same page
Today, Thompson and McCarthy speak almost daily, even though Thompson is on the road scouting college players during the week. Both make a concerted effort to drop by their respective offices - the personnel and coaching departments are in different parts of the building - for short visits whenever they can.
"Ted was looking to build a partnership; he said it over and over and over again," McCarthy said. "That's something I've never lost sight of. It's something I talk about a lot. I thought that was a key component of what makes this place go. I can't speak for him, but that's something I'm conscious of on a daily basis."
During his tenure, Wolf always sat in on the coaches' Monday personnel meetings, in which players were analyzed and potential lineup changes were discussed. Wolf was a strong presence there and wasn't afraid to express his opinion, although he claimed he never forced Holmgren to take a player he didn't want or play someone Holmgren didn't want to play.
Thompson isn't as omnipresent as Wolf and tends to allow the coaches the freedom to discuss the team on their own. But McCarthy welcomes Thompson in the room and tries to keep the lines of communication open between the entire coaching staff and the personnel department so there are no misunderstandings about the direction the team is going.
"He's welcome in those meetings," McCarthy said. "He'll come down and knock on the door and I'm like, 'Geez, c'mon in.' I've been in places where there are walls between coaches and personnel. I don't want that. I want everything upfront, the good and the bad.
"I believe conflict is good. You deal with your issues. I think the tough moments that we've had we've gone behind closed doors and we've talked them out and you move on. I think we're definitely off to an excellent start."
When they do meet together, Thompson and McCarthy usually end up talking about personnel, although it may take some time to get there. Thompson has a depth chart in the draft room as well as a list of available free agents and the two will get into discussions about their comfort with the current roster.
On Fridays, McCarthy informs Thompson of whom he's planning to de-activate for that week's game and Thompson will express his opinion. Often times the decisions will come down to special teams, which is an area Thompson takes a special interest in, given how much of it he played during his career with the Houston Oilers.
"He could probably be a hell of a special teams coach," McCarthy said. "He watches the film. We watch it separate and then we'll talk about the game, 'How'd you think so and so played?' "
Personnel is where Thompson has tried hard to keep McCarthy and his coaches involved. He has total authority on player decisions, but it rarely comes to him making an independent decision, because he and his top personnel men, Reggie McKenzie, John Schneider and John Dorsey, communicate regularly with McCarthy about players they like.
Shared thoughts
"We don't do anything behind closed doors," Thompson said. "We do it in the open. We have long discussions about it. I suppose if I wanted to I have the authority to say we're going to go with this guy and this guy and this guy and you don't have anything to say about it. I could do that but it wouldn't make any sense."
A year ago, McCarthy didn't know a lot about cornerback Jarrett Bush, safety Charlie Peprah and guard Tony Palmer, but Thompson brought McCarthy in near the end of training camp and had him watch tape of them. The Packers claimed all three on waivers and added them to their 53-man roster after they were cut from their respective teams.
This past season, Schneider and McKenzie had told McCarthy about their interest in New York Giants running backs Ryan Grant and Derrick Ward and Pittsburgh fullback John Kuhn. When Grant and Kuhn became available, McCarthy and running backs coach Edgar Bennett already knew enough about them to be on board.
"They brought Ryan Grant's name up to me in training camp, same with the other kid, Ward," McCarthy said. "They had them targeted all along. Kuhn, we talked about him last year, my first year. Ted had all the college grades behind it, but I was able to watch the pre-season games.
"He told me in the interview process that he would never force a player on me. We disagree on what we think of guys, but you can't have enough good football players. If you're worth your salt as a coach, you make guys fit."
McCarthy, a Pittsburgh city kid, and Thompson, a country Texan, don't have a lot in common personally, and when the day is done they generally go their separate ways. But they have come to appreciate their differences and they enjoy the time they spend together, even if it's time that could be better spent elsewhere.
"Ted isn't the most talkative guy," McCarthy said. "You get me going, I'll (expletive) with you all day. He can get done what he needs to get done in 10 minutes, but it's going to take me an hour because we're going to tell a couple of stories. But once you get to know him, he has a tremendous sense of humor. Has a lot of personality. He's a true Texan. Those guys have more one-liners than anybody you've heard of.
"I've really gotten to know him since I've been. I don't think you'll find a higher quality person as far as every decision is in the best interest of the Green Bay Packers. All the tough ones he'll go home and sleep on it. He is true to this place and it's been great to be part of that."
McCarthy, GM Thompson work well together
By TOM SILVERSTEIN, JSO
Green Bay - With the possible exception of Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, the architects of the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 1990s, there probably weren't two more confident, head-strong and forceful individuals leading a National Football League team at the time than Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren.
They were wired to be bosses.
Wolf was gruff and opinionated, and though willing to admit his mistakes, he never really believed he'd make another one. Holmgren was dictatorial and intimidating and more than able to hold his own in a discussion on almost any subject.
Despite their electrically charged personalities, they were philosophically connected on how to build the Green Bay Packers into a championship football team, and were able to suppress their prejudices and egos just enough to make it happen.
Fifteen years after their partnership began, a similar dynamic has taken shape at the helm of the Packers and it may very well be the reason the team is off to an 8-1 start and has won 12 of its last 13 games heading into a Lambeau Field matchup today with the Carolina Panthers.
General manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy couldn't have less in common if they were from different planets, yet they have forged an alliance that has the Packers moving forward faster than Wolf and Holmgren did in the early '90s. When he sought a replacement for fired coach Mike Sherman, Thompson looked for someone with whom he could have strong chemistry, and it appears he has found him in McCarthy.
"I believe this now even more than when I started that you're not hiring the coach or the Xs and Os or the system, you're hiring the person, especially in a place like Green Bay where the general manager and the head coach have to have that sort of relationship," Thompson said. "It doesn't mean you have to be alike, you don't have to like the same music, but you have to have the same core beliefs, and I think Mike and I get along very well."
A false start with Sherman
Thompson thought that potential existed with Sherman, the coach he inherited after being named general manager in 2005. In fact, he gave Sherman a contract extension later that season, because he came to the conclusion he could work with him.
What he failed to see was that Sherman couldn't get past having the general manager's position stripped from him by president Bob Harlan. The two talked about football matters, but there was no bond between them and thus their working relationship was affected. Sherman's coolness created tension in the entire building, which is one of the primary reasons Thompson decided to make a change.
"We were on a plane ride home and Ted got up and went over to sit by Mike McCarthy and the two of them were talking and laughing about the game," Harlan said. "When Ted got back to his seat I told him that I hadn't ever seen him do that kind of thing with Mike Sherman and he said, 'I never felt welcomed.'
"I thought Ted was the perfect guy to work with Mike Sherman. He was not going to get in his way. But Mike Sherman became a totally different person after Ted came in."
When he hired McCarthy, Thompson saw someone who saw the game of football the same way he did. He knew that McCarthy had gotten a taste of how things had worked under Wolf when he had served as quarterbacks coach in 1999 and he felt assured that his focus was on building the team together.
Staying on the same page
Today, Thompson and McCarthy speak almost daily, even though Thompson is on the road scouting college players during the week. Both make a concerted effort to drop by their respective offices - the personnel and coaching departments are in different parts of the building - for short visits whenever they can.
"Ted was looking to build a partnership; he said it over and over and over again," McCarthy said. "That's something I've never lost sight of. It's something I talk about a lot. I thought that was a key component of what makes this place go. I can't speak for him, but that's something I'm conscious of on a daily basis."
During his tenure, Wolf always sat in on the coaches' Monday personnel meetings, in which players were analyzed and potential lineup changes were discussed. Wolf was a strong presence there and wasn't afraid to express his opinion, although he claimed he never forced Holmgren to take a player he didn't want or play someone Holmgren didn't want to play.
Thompson isn't as omnipresent as Wolf and tends to allow the coaches the freedom to discuss the team on their own. But McCarthy welcomes Thompson in the room and tries to keep the lines of communication open between the entire coaching staff and the personnel department so there are no misunderstandings about the direction the team is going.
"He's welcome in those meetings," McCarthy said. "He'll come down and knock on the door and I'm like, 'Geez, c'mon in.' I've been in places where there are walls between coaches and personnel. I don't want that. I want everything upfront, the good and the bad.
"I believe conflict is good. You deal with your issues. I think the tough moments that we've had we've gone behind closed doors and we've talked them out and you move on. I think we're definitely off to an excellent start."
When they do meet together, Thompson and McCarthy usually end up talking about personnel, although it may take some time to get there. Thompson has a depth chart in the draft room as well as a list of available free agents and the two will get into discussions about their comfort with the current roster.
On Fridays, McCarthy informs Thompson of whom he's planning to de-activate for that week's game and Thompson will express his opinion. Often times the decisions will come down to special teams, which is an area Thompson takes a special interest in, given how much of it he played during his career with the Houston Oilers.
"He could probably be a hell of a special teams coach," McCarthy said. "He watches the film. We watch it separate and then we'll talk about the game, 'How'd you think so and so played?' "
Personnel is where Thompson has tried hard to keep McCarthy and his coaches involved. He has total authority on player decisions, but it rarely comes to him making an independent decision, because he and his top personnel men, Reggie McKenzie, John Schneider and John Dorsey, communicate regularly with McCarthy about players they like.
Shared thoughts
"We don't do anything behind closed doors," Thompson said. "We do it in the open. We have long discussions about it. I suppose if I wanted to I have the authority to say we're going to go with this guy and this guy and this guy and you don't have anything to say about it. I could do that but it wouldn't make any sense."
A year ago, McCarthy didn't know a lot about cornerback Jarrett Bush, safety Charlie Peprah and guard Tony Palmer, but Thompson brought McCarthy in near the end of training camp and had him watch tape of them. The Packers claimed all three on waivers and added them to their 53-man roster after they were cut from their respective teams.
This past season, Schneider and McKenzie had told McCarthy about their interest in New York Giants running backs Ryan Grant and Derrick Ward and Pittsburgh fullback John Kuhn. When Grant and Kuhn became available, McCarthy and running backs coach Edgar Bennett already knew enough about them to be on board.
"They brought Ryan Grant's name up to me in training camp, same with the other kid, Ward," McCarthy said. "They had them targeted all along. Kuhn, we talked about him last year, my first year. Ted had all the college grades behind it, but I was able to watch the pre-season games.
"He told me in the interview process that he would never force a player on me. We disagree on what we think of guys, but you can't have enough good football players. If you're worth your salt as a coach, you make guys fit."
McCarthy, a Pittsburgh city kid, and Thompson, a country Texan, don't have a lot in common personally, and when the day is done they generally go their separate ways. But they have come to appreciate their differences and they enjoy the time they spend together, even if it's time that could be better spent elsewhere.
"Ted isn't the most talkative guy," McCarthy said. "You get me going, I'll (expletive) with you all day. He can get done what he needs to get done in 10 minutes, but it's going to take me an hour because we're going to tell a couple of stories. But once you get to know him, he has a tremendous sense of humor. Has a lot of personality. He's a true Texan. Those guys have more one-liners than anybody you've heard of.
"I've really gotten to know him since I've been. I don't think you'll find a higher quality person as far as every decision is in the best interest of the Green Bay Packers. All the tough ones he'll go home and sleep on it. He is true to this place and it's been great to be part of that."