Aaron Rodgers Doesn’t Need To Be Involved In Coach Search
Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy and general manager Brian Gutekunst say quarterback Aaron Rodgers won’t have input in the team’s coaching search. Rodgers had to answer questions about his interest in being involved on Monday.
He says he doesn’t need to be involved.
“I’m obviously an older player in the league, I still have a number of years on my contract, would love to still play to 40, and I think there’s an interest on who the next guy would be,” Rodgers said, “but Mark [Murphy] and Brian [Gutekunst] and I have always had good lines of communication. Their offices like they say are always open . . . . I’m not needing to be involved in that process.”
It’s coming out that Rodgers was very often frustrated with the dispatched Mike McCarthy. Still, Rodgers maintains, as he always has, that he wants to be coached.
“I enjoy being coached,” Rodgers said. “I think any player does. You love the conversations, the feedback, and I think any great player holds himself to really high standards so first you have to be very critical of your own performance, but it’s always nice having a voice in there that’s gonna hold you accountable. I think any player, especially an older player, you want that, you want that feedback, somebody holding you accountable, someone coaching you up.”
Even if Rodgers isn’t directly involved in the coaching search, despite what the powers that be say, he will certainly have sway in the decision. The Packers aren’t going to hire someone they don’t think will mesh with Rodgers. That likely means another offensive-minded coach, as McCarthy was.
There has already been speculation about Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Interim coach Joe Philbin will get at least a passing glance. Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley would be a home run. Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo has to be in the conversation.
No doubt this will be interesting.
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Murphy will use head hunters to indentify candidates. The same firm that got him the gig with the Packers. Based on that I assume the head hunters will come back and say Mike McCarthy is the best canidate.
Let the GM run football operations. Murphy needs to stay out of this.
Do you guys want an offensive coordinator/ playcaller like the team has had for the last several years or a head coach? I want an experienced head coach that understands all phases of the game and then hires the three coordinators/ play callers. I want a head coach that spends his weeks and game days overseeing the entire team and coaching staff, and making those adjustments his experience deems necessary to assist the ENTIRE team in winning on game day, not just the offense.
To me MM wasn’t fired because of his play calling he was fired because he was a bad head coach that lost his team. MM didn’t hire or retain coaches and coordinators around him that could do their jobs properly, because MM was to busy trying to be an offensive coordinator/play caller during the week and on game day instead of being a full time head coach.
Cmon guys start looking at head coaches not offensive coordinators/playcallers. A great head coach will select the right coordinators to call the plays and manage their phase of the team.
Howard is correct, what’s new amirite?
But i’m not layin all the blame for this team being in this position on McCarthy, not even the majority. McCarthy has his faults as a head coach, but lets keep it real, we could have done worse. He was good enough to win with Rodgers, provided he was given the talent like having the 5th rated defense back in 2010. McCarthy was a problem at times no doubt, but he was the smaller problem.
The real problem was the talent pool and so many young players. Young players make mistakes in the NFL. If you constantly have one of the youngest teams, you will have the problems associated with that. Sure, it’s a more manageable payroll, but at what cost?
The majority of the blame lies in talent acquisition. As i’ve noted in the past quite a few times dating back to 2011, these drafts, in the big picture, yielding almost next to nothing. Sure he plucked a handful of players, some that got payed and ended up hurting your salary cap and not performing, i don’t have to name them all. Others were kept, until their 2nd contract came up, then cut….start over, another draft, another herd of UDFA’s. But they sit rotting away on your roster without contributing, instead of cutting bait and finding players who could play, we all know i could write a long, long list of those players.
McCarthy yes, deserves his share of the blame, he didn’t help himself with coaching personnel, and he didn’t evolve…at all.
But…..Ted brings the players in. he failed for years and years and years. All the while…his “boss” didn’t seem to care, and let it continue until he was told to…..do his job.
Ted did the most damage. But….Murphy takes the brunt of the responsibility because….he sat by and watched him, and did…nothing.
Good post. I agree. I dont expect to have perfect drafts. Hell, a good draft is hitting on maybe half of the picks.
TT 2005-2010 (draft and FA acquisitions) Aaron Rodgers, Nick Collins, Clay Matthew’s, Ryan Pickett, Bryan Bulaga, Tramon William’s, Sam Shields, Charles Woodson, TJ Lang, Josh Sitton, James Jones, Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley, and I would throw BJ Raji in the mix because he was a key player for a few years. Post 2010? Casey Hayward (left in FA), Micah Hyde (left in FA), David Bahktiari, Corey Linsley, Davante Adams, Mike Daniel’s, Julius Peppers. HHCD is an honorable mention as he was a decent starting safety, but not a player worthy of his draft status. I am not including anyone from his last draft yet, want to wait and see there.
PF4L, this response isn’t really directed at you, but is more of a general post related to your thought of Murphy not doing his fucking job. It is hard for a good coach to win with terrible talent acquisition over a 6-7 year period, much less an average one like McCarthy. TT had his misses in his golden period like Brohm, Pat Lee, and Justin Harrell, but that is the nature of the draft and you are going to miss on picks, even high ones. But he more than made up for it by hitting a few homeruns, particularly in the middle rounds.
Thanks PF4L. Agree with you on TT and Murphy.
Anytime my friend. Although a couple others were hot on your tail, lately you’ve separated yourself from them and you now solidified your standing as the clear #2 commenter on this site once again.
Enjoy…you’ve earned it!
The first sentence, on it’s face, is a lie. At best the writer just doesn’t understand, or didn’t watch the news conference.
Murphy did not say Rodgers wouldn’t have input, quite the contrary. He said his door and Gutes were always open and he welcomes his input. All he said was that Rodgers wouldn’t be involved in the final decision.
Now with that said. Rodgers is the Golden Goose here, Not Murphy, not Gute…Rodgers. Nothings changed, this team will still rise or fall on the arm of Rodgers. With that noted, and the investment therein, Muphy and Gute would be fools not to include Rodgers and his thoughts. I’m not saying the decision or the interview process, i’m saying in the discussions.
Personally I’d rather us take a look at some defensive minded head coaches. Chicago’s Vic Fangio is a guy I think would definitely command the respect of the locker room and get that side of the ball working well. I know some are fans of Mike Pettine and I liked him at times this year but I still see a lot of the same issues we’ve been having defensively. Pass rush completely disappears, and we can’t get off the field on third down. Fangio has been a phenomenal defensive mind for the 49ers and completely turned the bears defense around from the atrocious Trestman era defense.
As far as an offensive coordinator is concerned on fangio’s staff, I have one name I think would be a huge hit for us. Alex Van Pelt. Out of any offensive coach in the league he’s probably the one that knows Rodgers best and is definitely a guy Rodgers loves to work with. Fangio would be more than happy to focus most of his attention on the defense, and let Rodgers have his shot to build an offense with a coach he loves and see how that goes.
I definitely think we have a ton of young talent on defense when you look at guys like Kenny Clark, Jaire Alexander, Blake Martinez, and we’ll see what we have in Josh Jackson as time passes as well, he’s a guy I’m looking at to take a big second year leap. Also really like what we’ve seen from Antonio Morrison this year too. But I’d definitely like a defensive minded head coach to maximize the young talent we have there. Assuming the offensive coordinator is someone like van pelt that Rodgers respects and works well with I have no doubt that we’ll be vastly improved on that side of the ball next year.
Would Vic Fangio call plays on defense if he was HC? I dont know a lot about defense, I am more versed with offense as far as football goes, do Pettine and Fangio run similar schemes? Maybe Pettine would still stay on in some capacity? Ultimately that has to be up to the head coach. They should have final say in their coaching staffs.
Interesting. I kind of like the Vic Fangio/Alex Van Pelt idea.
Just as long as there is a new coach, I don’t care if they dig up Curly and ask his opinion. Call Lynn Dickey and ask what he thinks, maybe even Randy Wright. Jim Zorn always seemed like a cool guy ask him too. Hell call P4FL, at least he cares. Maybe they should have a raffle and a fan gets to name the new coach. Just so it is someone other than Mike McCarthy. I do know whoever it is there is a person that posts on this site that will say it is the most idiotic decision any team has ever made. Let’s just get that over with now.
PF4L… I mean. Sorry.
Me thinks the team should kick the tires on Kelvin Benjamin. Could be a bargain, he was a high draft pick. Packers need a veteran at WR besides Adams next season. My guess is Benjamin will be cheap. Big bodied receiver, has some speed. It’s not like he has been in a favorable situation
Well that was quick firing Winston Moss. I guess that must mean Moss will not be on the Packers interview list for a new head coach?
Tip of the day- don’t talk about the Packers lack of leadership on twitter if your employer happens to be the Packers.
Cheese..i’m not so sure he didn’t do that on purpose, knowing what would probably happen.
Very possible
If he interviews anything like he does press conferences, it could be one hell of an interesting interview.
A fail, but interesting…
So, why are we waiting on Ron Zook? I would have bounced him long before McCarthy.
It was McCarthys job to bounce coaches including Zook, that’s his domain.
His choice to keep Zook around, is one of the many reasons he was fired, imo.
Unlike the rest of you, after Ted Thompson-who is Murphy’s fault, no one did more damage to this team than McCarthy.
Year after year, McCarthy would not fire lousy assistant coaches such as Dom Capers. Just for that, McCarthy was absolutely horrible.
As far as coaching up young talent, the mainstay of the draft and develop philosophy, McCarthy was as bad as it gets. How many high draft picks completely failed in their pro careers in Green Bay, only to succeed on other teams, AND, make All Pro? Does anyone really think Hundley outplayed Taysom Hill after being groomed for 3 seasons as a pro under McCarthy? Hundley looked just as good, if not better, in preseason his rookie year.
And how many other Backup QBs have become starters in the NFL, unlike under Holmgren?
McCarthy could never coach a rynning game. He could never coach running lanes after the NFL made his mainstay ChopBlocking illegal.
Finally, how about Packer practices you have seen, open to the public. I have always been in awe how little intensity and physicality I have seen during McCarthy’s time there.
Turnovers. Do the Packers ever create them? They did the yr they won tue suoerbowl. Mike had to make that a number one priority of his squads. If he did teach stripping the ball, he never held his d-coaches accountable.
Oh, and always deferring stsrtung fiest with the ball. Holmgren didnt think that way either. Neither do I.
And as far as charismatic, i give him a negative 10 out of a 1 to 10 scale
It ain’t rocket science. Finding the next HC is really very simple. He has to have proven offensive schemes. A proven ability to adjust in games. A proven ability to hire a good teaching staff around him. Yep Riley checks all those boxes, but so do several other college coaches. This concept of hiring NFL retreads is getting old and it’s stupid. McDaniels proved he sucks as a HC so how on earth is this bum a viable candidate? There are some very stupid people writing articles.
I don’t think it’s that simple. An offensive coordinator will take at least several years to learn his job and get to a Super Bowl. And that’s assuming Rodgers buys into a new scheme or is able to relearn a new scheme.