Well
nothing like the Green Bay Packers effectively getting eliminated from the
playoff picture before Thanksgiving to get me to post something for the first
time in over a year and a half. It only seems fitting that the Packers
see that happen at CenturyLink Field against the Seattle Seahawks because that stadium has been a
house of horrors for the Packers given that they haven't won there since 2008 and have gone 0-4, including the infamous Fail Mary game on Monday Night Football in
2012 that effectively put an end to the use of replacement NFL referees
followed a few years later by the 2015 NFC Championship Game where the Packers snatched defeat
out of the jaws of victory in one of the most painful losses in franchise
history.
Honestly
the crossroad that the Packers organization are at right now can be drawn directly back to
that 2015 NFC Championship Game because that is the day that Packers quarterback Aaron
Rodgers, whether he will ever admit or not, lost faith in head coach Mike
McCarthy because of how conservative McCarthy got with his in-game decisions when the Packers had a great chance to go to the Super Bowl. Since then Rodgers has gotten into a number of sideline
disagreements with McCarthy and taken a number of not so thinly veiled shots at
McCarthy in press conferences. Don't get me wrong, Rodgers hasn't been perfect over the last few years but just look how the Packers have fared without Rodgers over that same time frame. If McCarthy is in fact an offensive genius, he wouldn't have gone 3-6 with Brett Hundley under center in 2017. Juxtapose that with the Philadelphia Eagles that won the Super Bowl last season without their franchise quarterback. I understand that is not a completely fair comparison but seeing how last season played out for the Packers and Eagles shows you how dependent the Packers are on Rodgers.
With that as a backdrop, last
off-season the Packers rightly moved on from general manager Ted Thompson. The modern NFL had passed Thompson by given that he continued to rely solely
on the draft as his means for building The 53. It would be one thing if
Thompson continued to nail more draft picks than not like he did earlier in his
tenure but the last couple drafts have been littered with more misses than hits so the
fact that Thompson continually refused to dip into free agency to add talent to
The 53 meant that it was time to go in a new direction.
Packers
President Mark Murphy had three very viable internal options to replace Thompson in Brian
Gutekunst, Russ Ball, and Elliot Wolf. Ultimately Murphy went with
Gutekunst and "elevated" Ball to keep him in the organization despite passing him over for the job of general manager, which
lead to Wolf leaving the Packers for the Cleveland Browns where he joined a number of former Packer front office folks to try to turn around the fortunes
of one of the most tortured NFL franchises. It is way too early to say
that Murphy made the wrong choice in picking Gutekunst over Ball and
Wolf. That said, the day Gutekunst was named general manager, it was also
announced that Gutekunst, Ball, and McCarthy would all report directly to
Murphy. If the 2015 NFC Championship Game was the beginning of the end
for McCarthy and Rodgers, Murphy's decision to come up with a three-headed
monster that report to him might be the beginning of the end for Murphy as
well. In almost everyone's eyes besides Murphy and Thompson, McCarthy
should have been replaced years ago. Instead of giving Gutekunst power
over that decision, Murphy held onto that power and put McCarthy on the same level of the organizational chart as Gutekunst and Ball for some unknown reason.
With
all of that as background, the clear next step is that McCarthy has to go and I
mean before this Thanksgiving. Yes, I know McCarthy has been with the
Packers for a long time and won a Super Bowl but McCarthy's offense is
Blockbuster-esque in how innovative it is and the Packers clearly need a Netflix-esque
innovation on offense because the clock is ticking on Rodgers's tenure in Green
Bay despite fact that he is under contract through 2023. Don't get me wrong,
Rodgers hasn't played up to his lofty standards in 2018 but one has nothing to do with the other. While this might seem like a complicated
decision on its face, the Packers committed to Rodgers with the richest contract in NFL history so I understand that the general rule
is that management doesn't want players to run the team but there are
exceptions to the rule and Rodgers has earned that right in more ways than one to be that exception. When it comes down to it, if I had to choose Rodgers or McCarthy, I would choose Rodgers 100 times out of a 100 and not think twice about it.
I
hate to say it but the night that the Packers won Super Bowl XLV, my mind
immediately went to worrying that Rodgers would only win one Super Bowl in Green
Bay just like Brett Favre did. You can argue about where Favre and Rodgers
rank all-time but there is no doubt that they are two of the ten best
quarterback in NFL history so it is downright shocking that they might only
have one Super Bowl each when it is all said and done. Hell, Rodgers
hasn't even gotten back to a Super Bowl since winning Super Bowl XLV.
Honestly, with how things look on The 53 right now, I am not sure that the
Packers will have a chance to put the proper pieces around Rodgers to get back there but you still have to try to do everything in your power to at least get back to the Super Bow.
That
is why Murphy needs to push in his chips right now to right the wrong he made
this off-season to tame the three-headed monster. Step one is to fire McCarthy and start looking for his
replacement immediately. Step two is to come to an understanding that Ball
reports to Gutekunst and if Ball doesn't like that then show him the door
too. Step three is for Murphy and Gutekunst to identify the right young,
offensive mind that will help the Packers get the most out of Rodgers and company.
If I had to rank the candidates right now there are three offensive minds that
I would focus on: University of Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, Minnesota
Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, and New England Patriots
offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Sure you can nitpick each candidate
but there is no doubt that each helps bring the Packers offensive out of the 20th century and into the 21st
century.
The NFL is just like all other pro sports in that it is a results oriented, win-now business and it is high time that the Packers treat it like that instead of running away from making any changes by letting everyone rest on their laurels. The Milwaukee Bucks have a once in a generation talent in The Greek Freak. Instead of sticking with perpetually disappointing head coach Jason Kidd, they moved on to Mike Budenholzer and look like one of the best teams in the NBA despite no major changes to The 15. Sure there is a chance that replacing McCarthy blows up in Murphy's face and the franchise goes into a tailspin but it is clear that the Packers aren't winning a Super Bowl with their current set-up and that should be their sole focus given that they have a once in a generation talent on The 53 in Rodgers.
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