Adam SchefterVerified account @AdamSchefter
Packers brought in Mike McCarthy after the game and fired him; he was not expecting it, per source.
Long overdue.
Packers fire McCarthy
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Adam SchefterVerified account @AdamSchefter
Packers brought in Mike McCarthy after the game and fired him; he was not expecting it, per source.
Long overdue.
Apparently wasn’t expecting the Cardinals either. He got his money’s worth from 2010.
I literally laughed out loud hearing Buck and Aikman talk about how he ‘deserved better’ and ‘all he does is win’ when they mentioned it on the broadcast. Under any normal ownership structure he would have been gone long ago, they’ve underachieved for years and he’s lives off his one SB and Rodgers having his back.
Since 2015 among quarterbacks who have attempted 300+ passes, Rodgers ranks 23rd in yards per attempt and 24th in completion percentage. The fact that most people put Green Bay's offensive struggles solely on McCarthy's shoulders is a sign that Aaron is the sacredest of sacred cows in the NFL. He was insanse from 2010 to 2014, but he hasn't reached that level of performance in a while now. He still is ridiculous at avoiding interceptions, but maybe it indicates he's become gunshy and too dependent on going off script.
Or maybe it indicates they’ve never given him a decent running back and McCarthy’s play calling sucks. Either or.
Isn't the whole thing with Rodgers that he's so great and talented he could succeed anywhere, and guys like Brady and Brees need a system tailored to them? You can't rank below Andy Dalton in relevant passing categories over a 4 year stretch and tell me it's all on the coach. Dude was being nationally hailed as the GOAT a month ago.
Rodgers being overhyped and McCarthy being a shitty coach are not mutually exclusive.
Edit: that being said, better weapons and play calling would most likely bring Rodgers up closer to his perceived status.
Is his legacy different if the Packers don't make 2 totally bone headed plays at the end of that NFCCG against Seattle?
That loss is on McCarthy, though, right? With 5 minutes to go, and the Packers up by 12, Green Bay intercepted a pass and the defender slid down when he could have gained at least ten yards. Then Green Bay ran the ball three straight plays and only took 1 minute off the clock. If they get in field goal range and convert, the game is over, but instead they were more concerned with taking time off of the clock.
I assume one of the reasons they fired McCarthy now is that they have a very short list of candidates for HC
and they wanted a jump on other teams. I also assume their next HC is an OC. So McDaniels makes a lot of sense. Maybe the double pass and the flea flicker and all the end arounds in the Pats-Packers game caught the attention of the Green Bay management.
Edit: it would be a good spot for McDaniels if Rodgers wasn’t teetering on a cliff.
and they wanted a jump on other teams. I also assume their next HC is an OC. So McDaniels makes a lot of sense. Maybe the double pass and the flea flicker and all the end arounds in the Pats-Packers game caught the attention of the Green Bay management.
Edit: it would be a good spot for McDaniels if Rodgers wasn’t teetering on a cliff.
He’s a very talented and accomplished assistant with head coaching experience in a tough football market that the Patriots saw fit to pay like a head coach (how many assistants get five year deals?), and who has had by all accounts a great working relationship with Brady, who, will not Roethlisberger or Rodgers, must not be without difficulty in terms of his intensity and self-awareness that he knows a fuckton about football.
At least some teams are not gonna give a shit that he spurned the Colts to get a shot at him, especially if they are confident enough to see themselves as a destination job. I.e. the Packers.
If a team is worried about him as a flight risk or something, then I am sure Mike Munchak or someone will take the job.
I actually think Cleveland is a better spot for McDaniels to land. Either way, if he doesn't accept a head coaching role this offseason it would seem very clear that he thinks he is taking over in NE after BB leaves. I would think at this point he would stay if he thought BB was leaving within 2 years (take over in 2020), otherwise would have to take the head coach role elsewhere.
Wild Speculation Warning:
Or this might come from a report lodged in my memory somewhere...
I disagree. I think Josh has learned that stability in all facets of the team’s ownership is very, very important. I think this might be one of the lessons that BB has instilled over the years. CLE is theoretically up and coming but ownership there is a hot mess. GB is much closer to a Pittsburgh type situation. I think that might be what scared Josh away at the last minute from Indy, realizing that his boss was insane.
If it’s true that GB wants him I think he’d be crazy to turn it down. If he did it would be BB successor or bust.
Because there is no such thing as back channel conversations? If you know who you want you don’t really need an interview.
Ed: I think the gain in firing McCarthy now is that coaches may be less likely to engage in these discussions at all if the current coach is still in place.
I think he deserved to be fired and I laughed initially when Buck/Aikman said he ‘deserved better’ but thinking about it more I don’t see the point of doing it now, with four weeks left and their season gone. I have to think something was brewing. They could have axed him at finish of last game and it wouldn’t have hurt their chances with any candidates. They can still have back channel convos.
Another thing that Cleveland has as an advantage (in addition to Baker's youth) is McDaniels grew up 60 miles from Cleveland, and was born 40 miles away, where his father was a "legend" in OH football.
Didn’t know that. My ignorant, objective, outsider self thinks that’s not nearly as important as owner stability but I can easily see how that could trump all.
It could easily trump because whoever goes to the Browns and turns around that franchise will be a massive hero forever in Cleveland. They haven't been bad in the past 15 years, they have been catastrophic. 0 playoff games. Literally no win seasons. A laughingstock. GB has had tons of success over the years, with multiple super bowls. The Browns have never even made it.
That could be a huge inducement for Josh, especially considering his local connection. Plus Baker. And all the other assets that team has. They have a pretty solid roster.
That said, Josh would be a great hire for Cleveland, which leads me to believe they won't hire him because they are idiots.
Also Dorsey adds a ton of credibility in Cleveland, and hopefully could keep the owners at bay.
This is an odd thing to say. It doesn't really say anything positive about the Browns in any way whatsoever.
In 2007, how many playoff games did they win that year? Further, how many playoff games did they play? If the best you can say about a franchise over the past 15 years is that they went 10-6 once and didn't make the playoffs, that's a catastrophic run.
edit - the Browns have 71 wins in the past 16 seasons, less than FIVE per year. The Pats have more in the past 6 seasons. I stand by my catastrophic assertion and it's not debatable.
Mike Florio was on Pardon My Take today and he thinks the odds on favorite for the next Packers head coach is Bruce Arians. Florio acknowledged that Arians has been mentioned as the Browns potential hire but thinks that the Green Bay situation is a better fit. For whatever any of that is worth.
Half a year younger than Bill Belichick. GFIN guy rather than a long termer?
From Josh POV...
Unmentioned advantage to the GB job is that he won’t have to face the Pats for 3 more years. This might help in having BB remain as mentor not rival.
Unmentioned advantage to the CLE job is that it’s not hard to suggest that the AFC North could be wide open very soon (assuming Big Ben isnt around much longer).
Unmentioned advantage to the GB job is that he won’t have to face the Pats for 3 more years. This might help in having BB remain as mentor not rival.
Unmentioned advantage to the CLE job is that it’s not hard to suggest that the AFC North could be wide open very soon (assuming Big Ben isnt around much longer).
If Josh leaves this offseason, any chance that Kliff Kingsbury is brought in to be the Off Cord?
That’s former Pats draft pick and SuperBowl Champ Kliff btw.
That’s former Pats draft pick and SuperBowl Champ Kliff btw.
Pats generally promote coordinators from within, among the existing coaches. I don't think there's ever been a coordinator they hired from outside.
Patricia obviously was a defensive assistant coach for years before DC
Brian Daboll went from Chiefs OC to Patriots "assistant coach"
Bill O'Brien came from Duke and worked his way up for 5 years from Offensive Assistant
Dean Pees was HC at Kent State, then Linebackers coach here for 2 years before making DC
Mangini came over from the Jets and was defensive backs coach for 5 years before making DC (and then immediate went back to the Jets after 1 year)
Weis and Crennel had been with Belichick since forever, through both the Jets years and the Parcells Patriots years; Crennel pre-dated even Parcells on the NY Giants (1981).
No, I think it'd be shocking for Belichick to do anything other than promote one of Chad O'Shea or Ivan Fears, and hire 1-2 offensive assistant coaches to backfill.
Patricia obviously was a defensive assistant coach for years before DC
Brian Daboll went from Chiefs OC to Patriots "assistant coach"
Bill O'Brien came from Duke and worked his way up for 5 years from Offensive Assistant
Dean Pees was HC at Kent State, then Linebackers coach here for 2 years before making DC
Mangini came over from the Jets and was defensive backs coach for 5 years before making DC (and then immediate went back to the Jets after 1 year)
Weis and Crennel had been with Belichick since forever, through both the Jets years and the Parcells Patriots years; Crennel pre-dated even Parcells on the NY Giants (1981).
No, I think it'd be shocking for Belichick to do anything other than promote one of Chad O'Shea or Ivan Fears, and hire 1-2 offensive assistant coaches to backfill.
There's kind of an OC pecking order where it usually goes to the QB coach. Where it gets complicated is that technically McDaniels is the QB coach in addition to being the offensive coordinator. I don't think Fears is a serious candidate; he's coached RBs since 2002 and at 64, is probably nearing retirement. O'Shea has coached WR since 2009, so he was passed over for OC when McDaniels returned in late 2011. He's been a WR coach for more than a decade now. My understanding is that positional coaches have to, to some degree, be well-versed in X's and O's and in the technical nuances of their position, but some guys are more in one camp than the other. Obviously the former are the ones who get groomed for coordinator / head coach positions. Scarnecchia and Fears are the latter, clearly. Bill O'Brien was the former, even though he coached WR for a year (and RB/WR in a couple college stops), he always got promoted to an OC job fairly quickly (Georgia Tech in '01-'02, Duke in '05-'06). O'Shea has pretty much always been a positional guy, so I suspect he's in the Scar / Fears camp, though maybe I'm wrong.
The internal front-runner to me would by Assistant QB Coach Jerry Schuplinski. I think if McDaniels left, he gets promoted to QB coach and given playcalling duties but not the OC title for a year or two (which is the same thing they did with McDaniels, O'Brien, Patricia ,and Flores). One consideration is that Schuplinski was going to follow McDaniels to Indy and might follow him to another prospective gig. TE coach Nick Caley is a dark horse candidate.
O'Shea does all of the red zone game planning, so he is more than just technical...
Yes, that's why I wrote that they all have to have some X's and O's. Every coach has some additional duties like this:
O'Shea is definitely the "next man up" in terms of seniority, but the Patriots don't seem to care about that. Flores is 37, Patricia was 35 when he became de facto DC, O'Brien was 39 (and had only been in the org / NFL two years), McDaniels was just 29. Heck, O'Shea at 45 is older than McDaniels is now.
Ariana says he has no interest in Green Bay, only Cleveland.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/12/04/bruce-arians-not-interested-in-packers-job/
At least Florio throws in a mea culpa in that article. It is interesting that a 66 year old Arians would pass over Rodgers and the Packers in favor of Mayfield and the Browns if only because the latter may entail more time to mold into a team that can actually make the playoffs.
