At what point does Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy finally realize that his head coach and general manager really AREN’T smarter than everyone else? Although they carry themselves with an air of superiority, with the former turning red and cutting off reporters when he gets a question he doesn’t like to the latter feeling so smug and superior that he has the audacity to not address or answer to the only publicly owned franchise in all of sports, these two men are NOT getting it done and HAVE NOT been getting it done for TOO LONG.
The Packers were in a prime position to take T.J. Watt in this year’s draft at the end of round one. Now I know… who would want the younger brother of one of the greatest defensive players to lace them up, especially when almost every measurable favored T.J.? Granted T.J. is a little smaller, but you know he’ll magically put on 20 pounds like every college kid coming into the NFL.
The planets aligned for Thompson and the Packers to draft the successor and understudy to Clay Matthews, much like Aaron Rodgers fell in their lap 13 years earlier. But this time, Ted Thompson couldn’t take the obvious pick that fell right in his lap. He couldn’t take the local kid who would immediately bring excitement and anticipation to the fan base and provide a much-needed boost to an ailing pass rush, a definite position of need.
As we have seen time and time again, Ted Thompson just wants to show you how brilliant he is: drafting linemen to be linebackers, linebackers to be linemen, safeties to be corners, corners to be safeties, overvaluing guys and drafting them ROUNDS too early and in some cases even trading up to take these bonafide busts. Like Jason Spriggs for example, who looks to be one of the biggest misses in Ted’s tenure, after he moved up in the second round to take that turnstile.
And the head coach is no better.
Facing the No. 2-rated passing defense in the league in the Baltimore Ravens with his backup quarterback, who had been mostly bad to that point, Mike McCarthy came out throwing the ball. Now granted, after the first three plays of this game, we were ecstatic with this approach, but then Hundley threw a pick that was SO fitting to the situation one can’t help but blame the head coach for putting his backup quarterback in that position.
In this week’s Total Packers podcast, Shawn does a brilliant job of breaking down this play and why it was such an egregious error by McCarthy. One of the biggest points was, and I’m paraphrasing, “In a game where you KNOW 13 points might be enough to win it, you’ve got to tighten it up in the red zone there with Hundley. You’ve got to protect against a colossal mistake and come away with points and get the lead.”
You don’t throw the ball on 2nd-and-5 inside the 10 with a shaky backup quarterback unless you’re Mike McCarthy… who is smarter than everyone else.
And he’s getting off easy here. This is the same head coach who in a 15-1 season refused to run the ball against a Chiefs defense that couldn’t stop it. This is the same coach who was a major contributor to the biggest debacle in NFL history when he decided that “I came in here to run the damn ball,” versus the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC title game. Brilliant, considering the Seahawks were only ONE OF THE GREATEST DEFENSES AGAINST THE RUN IN NFL HISTORY!!!!
I am sick and tired of this team and its leadership. I’m sick of the inconsistent effort the players give. I’m sick of the coach saying they practiced well all week, but it didn’t show up on Sunday. I’m sick of this general manager hiding out and not answering to this team’s fan base, the only team in sports that deserves that courtesy, by the way. I’m sick of Mark Murphy counting money in the back room and not giving two shits about the level of complacency going on here.
And I am tired of wasting my Sundays putting my trust in these men who had success nearly a decade ago. I am done. I’m doing something better with my Sundays until this changes. Feel free to join me on Sunday, as the last time I watch this team this year.
I hope T.J. Watt has the game of his life and Brett Hundley has the worst game of his. It will be the perfect stage on a national broadcast to show what an embarrassment this team has become behind the leadership of the “brilliant” GM Ted Thompson and “highly-successful coach” Mike McCarthy.