PACKERS NEED TO WEIGH RISK/REWARD WITH MCCARTHY

[Fritz]

Yes, true. But in my experience committees move about as fast as a drunken sloth.

[mraynrand]

Murphy is not like other "owners" so if he sticks with MM and the team gets worse the Executive Committee and/or Board of Directors can do something about it and relieve him of his duties as team Prez.

Sure, but Murphy has control over Stubby's fate, not Gute. At least that's what we've been led to believe.

[texaspackerbacker]

Undoubtedly Murphy and the executive committee don't see it nearly as cut and dried that McCarthy needs to go as a lot of people in here do. There are a helluva lot of teams this year - and probably every year - that don't meet expectations by a lot bigger margin than the Packers.

[Teamcheez1]

Acme Packing Company had an interesting podcast ("Is Aaron Rodgers greedy?"). Among the musings, one was the speculation that Rodgers hates the "new" changes to the offense and is purposely running it inefficiently. I think that's unlikely, but you never know.

I don't feel we are getting our $30M+ from Rodgers. I thought we were re-signing Joe Montana not Joe Flacco.

[mraynrand]

I don't feel we are getting our $30M+ from Rodgers. I thought we were re-signing Joe Montana not Joe Flacco.

Montana only played one game in his 13th season*





*OK, so I can't count. He didn't play much better in years 14 or 15 either...

[QBME]

Yes, true. But in my experience committees move about as fast as a drunken sloth.

Somewhere I read that a Committee has 16 arms, 16 legs, one stomach and no brain.

[red]

Murphy is not like other "owners" so if he sticks with MM and the team gets worse the Executive Committee and/or Board of Directors can do something about it and relieve him of his duties as team Prez.

does the board ever decide to get rid of the team president, or do they just let them retire?

the board and owners group seems to be the ultimate group of homers sucking on the koolaide teat of the team

[red]

Montana only played one game in his 13th season*





*OK, so I can't count. He didn't play much better in years 14 or 15 either...

like i said in the GDT, we may already be past a-rods window. that injury last year to his throwing arm might have had lasting effects

we're not really seeing the "holy shit" moments this year from him like we use to see a few times a game

thats not to say he's a bad QB now, just that we can no longer win solely because of his talent

[ThunderDan]

Of course in 2010 when we won the Super Bowl JMike was injured and was on IR for over half the season.

[red]

Of course in 2010 when we won the Super Bowl JMike was injured and was on IR for over half the season.

was that the year were he was dropping about 4 passes a game before finally being injured?

[Teamcheez1]

like i said in the GDT, we may already be past a-rods window. that injury last year to his throwing arm might have had lasting effects

we're not really seeing the "holy shit" moments this year from him like we use to see a few times a game

thats not to say he's a bad QB now, just that we can no longer win solely because of his talent

Being one of the highest paid players in the NFL brings certain expectations. He still has incredible talent, but it's the mental part of the game that has been troubling lately. You can't just play the scramble drill when you get older. Make the proper reads and the correct throws. That is what I think has been lacking.

[ThunderDan]

was that the year were he was dropping about 4 passes a game before finally being injured?

No, he was having a good season and had mostly gotten over the drops that had plagued him the year before.

[KYPack]

does the board ever decide to get rid of the team president, or do they just let them retire?

the board and owners group seems to be the ultimate group of homers sucking on the koolaide teat of the team

Judge Robert Parins was the first full time President of the GBP starting in '82.

He was succeeded by Bob Harlan in '88.

Harlan retired and hand picked his successor, one John Jones.

Jones was to transition to Packer Prez, but totally bungled his relationship to the Exec council prior to getting that job.

Jones was then "deconsidered" and allowed to not take the job for health reasons.

The exec council and GM TT then did their own search for the new guy and selected current President Mark Murphy.

So really everybody that has had the full time job has retired.

It would take a LOT to fire the Murphy and personally I doubt that will happen.

[pbmax]

There’s no denying that McCarthy for the last few years has suffered from a talent shortage aside from Rodgers.

Thompson did next to nothing for the roster aside from the draft, and his final five classes offered little to justify that approach. His 2013-15 picks should form the veteran core of the team, but only three players from those drafts are still on the roster (David Bakhtiari, Davante Adams and Corey Linsley).

A FEW FUN FACTS WITHIN CONTEXT, RATHER THAN BLAMING THE PLAYER ACQUISITION APPROACH WHILE TRYING TO EXONERATE M3

1. The dismissed Adams draft pick is the second best player on the offense and is a Top 5 WR in the NFL. Think about what that sentence means.
2. Corey Linsley is an Pro Bowl level center.
3. David Bach is an All-Pro level LT, though he is not having his best year.
4. Aaron Jones is a Pro Bowl level RB who McCarthy took 6 weeks to make his full time starter. I had toddlers at Halloween ask me what was going at RB while they were trick or treating. All I could do was give them a full size peanut butter cup to encourage asking good questions.
5. Ty Montgomery was the 3rd best RB and kept getting starters reps in key situations. When push came to shove and he blew a gasket, this key component was traded. Who masterminded this? The guy who kept giving him key reps or the GM who saw Jones on the bench?

With All-Pro/Pro Bowl level talent at three skill positions (QB, WR, RB) and two very good starters on the line, what has the personnel delivered?

The 9th ranked GB offense (Football Outsiders), which is not bad. But they are the 13th ranked scoring per game unit. It could be a Top 5 unit if McCarthy actually cared to make his players job easier than he makes his job. He is losing his QB, and that is flat unforgivable.

You'll have to trust me on this: teams that claim a lot of four quarter comebacks are terribly mediocre teams.The Falcons and Ryan, the Browns Kardiac Kids, Romo and the Cowboys, Magic and the 89 Packers. The list is impressive. The best comeback QB of the 80s was not Montana, but Elway and his teams were often mediocre. Montana and Brady are impressive exceptions. But I take the recent comebacks from Rodgers to be warning signs of the team using two different game plans. Its like a Klaxon going off.

He needs to change his base Offense to use the plays he sparingly puts into his 15 play script. But he keeps the core playbook and the 2nd and 3rd quarters of uninspired offensive football it produces each week is proof positive that he is too stubborn for his own good at times.

M3 needs to decide: more important to demonstrate where his offensive talent falls below previous levels (RT, other 2 starting WR) and his expectations, or adapt and win more games.

Is anyone sitting around moaning about the talent level of the Pittsburgh offense? No.

Stop blaming people who aren't here. McCarthy needs to deliver an offense commensurate with his actual talent level or he should be fired before the end of the season so they can bring in someone who isn't more devoted to their playbook than winning.

[pbmax]

That said, the more basic thrust of Lombardi, who is an idiot that cannot remain employed in the NFL, is sound.

McCarthy is an above average head coach. His offense is good, not great, he can scheme with the best of them when he desires to deviate from his book, but he normally is very tied to his book, which can hamper the talent on hand.

His ability to keep the players focused and ready is profound. In any other hands, the Super Bowl bye week picture fiasco in 2010 is the start of four days of the Packers melting down under scrutiny of the biggest game. McCarthy snuffed it out in 6 hours. He was brilliant in this moment.

He was the only steadying presence during Favre-A-Palooza. Everyone took a dive except for him. If McCarthy had not been there, Favre would have been QB-Coach-GM-CEO at the start of 2008.

He doesn't torch players or coaches publicly, which keeps everyone pushing in the same direction. He mostly leaves the DC alone, though he does love to give them tasks in the offseason which occasionally backfire (NASCAR, personnel groups on D) and sometimes preview a sea change in defense (nickel all the time for 3 WR sets 2010 to 11). He takes too long to make coaching changes, looking for the cover of a poor season.

You want to blame Rodgers for making drafting tough? OK. But a healthy veteran Rodgers made it impossible for McCarthy to change coaches on the D side when he needed to. That is inexcusable.

His game management is poor. His challenge strategy is weird and emotional, but somehow it works better than it should. He generally has a challenge left at the end of a game which is good, but those challenges often outnumber his remaining timeouts, which is bad.

The only personnel problem that has persisted is his distrust of smaller backs. He trusted Lacy, but refused for too long to trust Jones. The only personnel problem that he seems incapably of fixing is his relationship to his QB.

The odds are better that the Packers next coach will be worse than McCarthy. But M3 seems almost unwilling to change and I am not sure he would listen to Murphy or Gute. Ted seems to have refused to meddle in coaching like the Steelers/Rooney's do. If that is the case, he needs to go.