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Kind of cool that McCarthy is now tied for first in W/L percentage amongst the coaches that took over last year. According to many experts, the job he got wasn't the most appealing of the positions available. I agree with the sentiment that it's too early to judge either way, but I've always had a good feeling about Coach Mac--since I watched him run Training Camp on the NFL Channel last year.
McCarthy bashers strangely silent
Remember back to last season when the Packers were stumbling and bumbling to a 4-8 record? There were cries for Mike McCarthy's head, as some impatient fans were loudly questioning GM Ted Thompson's choice for a head coach. In numerous chats, I remember repeatedly having to tell fans to give McCarthy a chance, that you cannot judge a coach based on a partial season.
I'm not ready to say "I told you so." I'm not ready to proclaim McCarthy as the next coaching genius. As a matter of fact, it's still too early, just 18 games into his tenure, to judge the job McCarthy has done.
I will repeat, for the benefit of impatient followers of the Packers, that building a team takes time. It goes for McCarthy as well as Thompson. While I have questioned moves (or non-moves) made by Thompson over the off-season, I never swayed from the attitude that both men deserve an adequate amount of time to roll out their program.
How much time is needed to judge them? I would say by the end of the 2008 season we will have a good idea on both of them.
But let's take a look at how McCarthy and the six other NFL coaches who were hired in 2006 are doing. As it stand, McCarthy has moved into a tie for the best record among those seven coaches. Here are the 18-game track records, with this year's records in parenthesis:
Mike McCarthy, Packers 10-8 (2-0)
Eric Mangini, Jets 10-8 (0-2)
Sean Payton, Saints 10-8 (0-2)
Scott Linehan, Rams 8-10 (0-2)
Gary Kubiak, Texans 8-10 (2-0)
Brad Childress, Vikings 7-11 (1-1)
Rod Marinelli, Lions 5-13 (2-0)
Remember everyone who fell in love with Payton last year, and those labeling the Jets' coach "Manginius"? Both coaches have stumbled out of the gates in 2007.
The point here is not to say McCarthy is the best of the bunch. The jury is still out on all these coaches. But anyone who was ready to throw McCarthy under the bus in the middle of last season clearly was making a premature assessment.
Remember back to last season when the Packers were stumbling and bumbling to a 4-8 record? There were cries for Mike McCarthy's head, as some impatient fans were loudly questioning GM Ted Thompson's choice for a head coach. In numerous chats, I remember repeatedly having to tell fans to give McCarthy a chance, that you cannot judge a coach based on a partial season.
I'm not ready to say "I told you so." I'm not ready to proclaim McCarthy as the next coaching genius. As a matter of fact, it's still too early, just 18 games into his tenure, to judge the job McCarthy has done.
I will repeat, for the benefit of impatient followers of the Packers, that building a team takes time. It goes for McCarthy as well as Thompson. While I have questioned moves (or non-moves) made by Thompson over the off-season, I never swayed from the attitude that both men deserve an adequate amount of time to roll out their program.
How much time is needed to judge them? I would say by the end of the 2008 season we will have a good idea on both of them.
But let's take a look at how McCarthy and the six other NFL coaches who were hired in 2006 are doing. As it stand, McCarthy has moved into a tie for the best record among those seven coaches. Here are the 18-game track records, with this year's records in parenthesis:
Mike McCarthy, Packers 10-8 (2-0)
Eric Mangini, Jets 10-8 (0-2)
Sean Payton, Saints 10-8 (0-2)
Scott Linehan, Rams 8-10 (0-2)
Gary Kubiak, Texans 8-10 (2-0)
Brad Childress, Vikings 7-11 (1-1)
Rod Marinelli, Lions 5-13 (2-0)
Remember everyone who fell in love with Payton last year, and those labeling the Jets' coach "Manginius"? Both coaches have stumbled out of the gates in 2007.
The point here is not to say McCarthy is the best of the bunch. The jury is still out on all these coaches. But anyone who was ready to throw McCarthy under the bus in the middle of last season clearly was making a premature assessment.
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