Mike McCarthy Should Be on the Hot Seat Now

The Packers sleepwalked through the first 3+ quarters of a home game against the Colts, have lost three of their last four games, and are 4-4 now. The defense has failed to come up with late stops two weeks in a row. The offense flourishes in spurts, but has been broken more often than not for over a year. Yes, there have been key injuries, but every team in the league suffers those.

Aaron Rodgers is a historically great talent who still makes many miraculous throws, but for reasons attributable to himself, play-calling, and his supporting cast is not orchestrating a cohesive offense right now.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but the amount of time now that the team has not been performing up to admittedly lofty standards is a sample size that demands accountability.

The Packers are 167-109 in 10+ years with McCarthy as head coach, and they’ve won a Super Bowl. You can quibble with clock management, his demeanor, and failure of late to make schematic adjustments, but his tenure has been, in aggregate, a major success.

McCarthy and Ted Thompson are regularly heralded for choosing Rodgers over Brett Favre in 2008. However, McCarthy’s coaching of Rodgers for the three years he was sitting behind Favre deserve more credit than is anecdotally given when discussing the quarterback’s legacy. Rodgers was not a can’t miss prospect out of Cal, and anything said or written otherwise is revisionist history.

Nevertheless, there comes a time when a coach’s message grows stale, and it’s very conceivable that this has arrived with McCarthy in Green Bay. The Rodgers/McCarthy marriage is not thriving. If one man has to go between a star quarterback and the head coach, it must be McCarthy.

It would be premature to advocate for a midseason firing. As unlikely as it may seem with how the team has performed of late, this year is salvageable. The Packers are just one game behind the vulnerable Vikings, and a half-game back from the Lions. They still have a game apiece against Minnesota and Detroit. Get healthier late in the year, make the playoffs, and anything can happen when you’ve got arguably the greatest quarterback on the planet.

Fair or not, the Packers have a standard in this window where it is disappointing if they don’t win the Super Bowl, or at least reach it. If they don’t get there this season, it is my opinion that it’s time to shuffle the deck with the coaching staff.