I think McCarthy should take his time and make the right decision. I think Williams will end up in New Orleans. I think the new DC will be either McDermott or Butler of Pittsburgh. I don’t think Moss is ready yet for DC. He couldn’t even handle the linebackers last year when Barnett went down. Until Haslett is hired by the Rams as HC, then he’s still a candidate. Was Fassel a DC or OC? I can’t remember. I thought it was DC. If he was a DC, then he should be in the mix, too. McCarthy also could look to the Titans defense for a DC as well. There are options, and there is no reason to panic. In fact, the further into the playoffs the coordinators get that he’s considering, gives him all the more reason to wait and be patient until the right guy comes available. I have a feeling the Eagles will be done at the end of this week.

I think they should just peruse these boards for the next candidate. There’s a lot of guys who post here who think they are more than qualified. : )

I am hoping MM has talked to several candidates and not limited to the 3 Al listed. In this case, MM can’t afford to make the wrong decision. Give him all the time he needs.

I forgot one other important factor: MM has been on the job 3 years. He has one winning year. He may have an extended contract, but any coordinator coming in may think this gig is only going to be for one or two years if things fall flat. You’ like to think the “candidates” would have some enthusiasm for the core of the defense. But when you look at aging corners, so-so backers, and a terrible D-Line, they may have the word “overhaul” on their minds.

This regime is good at dragging things out. Ryan Grant,Greg Jennings The TE trade that didnt happen and now this. It took a week to fire Bob Sanders. I thought he had his guy lined up already. I am starting to believe that Moss is the guy and these are fake interviews to satisfy the public.

Yes Matt, I remember them. Do you remember Reggie White? Santana Dotson, Sean Jones. Grady Jackson? Yes there are busts, but there are also successes. You can’t just look at one or the other. Look around the league last year at D lineman. Jared Allen, success. Jenkins in NY success. Rogers in Cleve. success. Abraham in Atl. success. If you just want to look at failures then nobody should ever draft in the first round again, its full of them. To me, that is a “I don’t want to be wrong”, rather than “this could catapult this team” mentality, which would fit this ” coaching not to lose philosophy we already have.

I just hope it’s a Buddy Ryan type. Someone willing to speak up when things go wrong. We’ve seen what happens when the defensive coaches are a bunch of “yes” men (and that includes Moss).

It seems like every good defensive coach speaks his mind and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

Hopefully there aren’t too many teams still looking for d-coordinators.

Still conducting autopsy on bodies of previous Packers defensive coaches, finding arrows in backs with TT initialed on shafts.

The baseball analogy is flawed because you have explain the Tampa Rays and Minnesota Twins. 2 of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Drafting with the proper mix of Free agents still works. The parity in the NFL allows for very quick turn arounds. Look at the Cards and Ravens.

I agree with you totally JeffN, and yes, we are screwed if there is an uncapped era again. Notice though that I included several names from just last year who are successes. My whole point is that, yes it is a gamble, so is the draft, but that doesn’t mean you avoid it almost entirely. There are still good players to be had and if Tt is as godd a talent evaluator as he thinks he is, then he should make some bigger moves. You do have to overpay, but that is better than just being an unproductive team, especially when they are this far under a cap that we do still have. Besides, they could sign some people now that would still be signed if the cap goes away for a year or two. Another point is that if they don’t sign people and remain an average team, their own players that TT wants to keep will know they can get more on the open market and bail.

What free agents did the Cardinals, Eagles, Steelers and Ravens sign last year that made a difference for them this year? Who did they bring in and how much did they spend?

You are probably right about that.

Nice research Pete. So no one would be opposed to having Matt Birk join the Packers?

If we had an extra DT and an extra DE that could play full time ball we would be in the playoffs and saying the same things about Woodson, and Picket. Bigby but he was hurt all year and I guess Grant was a trade. Point being there has been some movement in FA but not as much as people would like, I can see that point.

…and I know we don’t have an extra DT and extra DE so we are not in the play offs so the brass needs to make damn certain they get that D-Line shored up. Ok I’m not going to get started on my soap box about the D-Line again.

Pete H – thanks. It looks like 1 or 2 on each team who actually make a difference. What does everyone think? We got Woodson, Pickett, and Chillar. How has TT compared to the 4 playoff teams this year in FA?

I would also like to say that teams can miss on a guy in FA and still be successful. The Eagles paid an assload for Kearse and he didn’t do much, and yet here they are. I mean, they could have had a 12 million dollar a year guy who blew the last two seasons and it wouldn’t have destroyed the future of the franchise.

Williams signed with New Orleans

I guess the bright side is it’s safe to say we will get someone better than Sanders. It’s anybodys guess who it will be now.

Ok whatever Pack4life, I think it’s pretty normal to inverview multiple candidates and not find a good fit on both sides right away. I sense a lot of disrespect to the Packers organization in your post. I have a lot of respect for the Packers organization and MM and if you don’t then why do you visit this site and why are you a Packer fan?

Teams generally interview several candidates before deciding. Thats not to say that some of them aren’t refusing offers the Packers have made, but I’m not throwing in the towel and saying we are headed to the 80′s type banishment yet.

From what I’ve heard, they did. I did hear an excellent interview with the Jacksonville Jaguar’s Play-by-Play announcer. He had some choice words to say about Williams. The point behind his words was that you need Talent in order to be able to blitz and this announcer felt that both the Packers and the Saints didn’t have it. He also felt that the Saints had a better offense so that the Saints could better draft for Defense.

One of the problems with Williams and the Jaguars was that they didn’t have the talent to blitz so Williams had them play Cover 2 a lot. Del Rio wanted more blitzing but Williams knew that they wouldn’t get there and wouldn’t do it.

McCarthy wants a blitzing defense. Unfortunately, at the present time the Packers don’t have the horses for it. I think that TT will be working toward that end, but it’s going to take time. I don’t think that you can have both an excellent offense and defense.

Regarding Special Teams, I think that Mike Stock took the fall for it. Whether he recommended Frost or not…

I see Thompson going heavy on the Defensive and Offensive Lines with a Safety and/or Corner. Will he be a player in Free Agency? Time will tell.

Pack4life makes a good point: Passing the smell test. You gotta think that Nolan and Williams both know if things don’t work out well…read if TT doesn’t supply the necessary defensive talent…this DC gig is a one year deal. Maybe Nolan know McCarthy too well and Williams is smart enough to see what is wrong. Of course, all the coaches that were asked to leave are still being paid next year I believe, so how that affects the pay scale, only TT knows and the two MMs know.

I fully agree.

Cecil once appeard on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the head line “Too Tough For The NFL” that was pretty sweet. Although, some of that reason was because he speared a lot and yes spearing is cheap.

My guess is the new D-coordinator will be someone who is not currently a D-coordinator or a head coach and never has been either. It’s going to be a promotion of some sort kind of like MM was a promotion from O-coordinator to head coach. I’m not even going to try and guess who it will be tho.

What seems chilling to me is the sense that a head coach who fires coordinators probably isn’t going anywhere himself.
As Bob McGinn noted: “Do you know how many coordinators Bill Belichick has fired in nine years in New England? None. He has quietly released half a dozen assistants.

Guess how many assistants Holmgren fired in his first 11 seasons as a head coach? None. When Holmgren was the 49ers’ offensive coordinator in 1990, he and George Seifert let go assistant Al Lavan. Years later, Holmgren told me he still felt sick about it.

One of Holmgren’s disciples, Andy Reid, hasn’t fired anyone in his decade in Philadelphia. Both of them believe that if they were going to uproot a coach’s family and the hire gave his all, they would take it as a personal challenge to coach the coach and, if his work wasn’t up to par, tutor him until it was.

Some coaches, such as Jim Mora Sr. in Indianapolis (2002), Wade Phillips in Buffalo (2001), Bobby Ross in San Diego (1997) and Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland (1989), refused management’s demands to can coaches and walked the plank.

With head coaches’ salaries skyrocketing, the number of head coaches taking the moral high ground has diminished. Sadly, more and more assistants are becoming scapegoats, pawns in a profession overrun with hypocrites.”

As McGinn noted he wasn’t upset with the firings as much as why McCarthy hired these guys in the first place. They ended up being middle of the pack coaches…average. Apparently MM did not do his due diligence and suffered the consequences. As McGinn also noted, unlike Sherman who showed up the next day to face the reporters heat after firing his DC, MM went undercover. This certainly is not a good sign. I am trying to think of a situation where a head coach fired his entire defensive crew and was successful. I have drawn a blank. Anyone?

Nope. I’m just suggesting that a coach who makes bad decisions, may continue to make the same type of ill advised decisions. You have to question the thought process of a coach who goes forth with a system of defense without the driving force, Jim Bates. In my own personal experience, I admire people who take the heat for decisions instead of making scapegoats of others. Unfortunately, MM made a significant hiring mistake and couldn’t mask it. The successful head coaches make absolutely certain the guys they hire are going to stick. The same type of questions have to be asked about axing a conditioning coach. I can remember the rave reviews that Rock got when he came onboard. What happened? Did he deviate from the overall philosophy MM has, or did MM change the philosophy? I’m fine with MM taking time to get it right this time. I only wish he would have taken the same time when he hired Sanders instead of more qualified candidates.