The biggest thing to come out of Green Bay Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy’s press conference about his new coaching staff was this one. He’s rebuilding the damn playbook.
“We’ve taken a back-to-basics approach on offense. We’re going back and building a playbook like you would with a first year as a staff,” McCarthy said.
I don’t know if I like the term back-to-basics, as if the Packers are going to run some basic offense, but I do like the idea.
We — and many others — have criticized the Packers’ offense in recent years for becoming stale and predictable. Was that McCarthy’s fault? Was it Tom Clements’ fault? Was it Edgar Bennett’s fault?
We don’t really know who does what in terms of the offensive coaches, so who knows? We just know McCarthy calls the plays, except for the brief period when Clements did.
What we do know is the Packers won a Super Bowl when Joe Philbin was offensive coordinator. Joe Philbin is once again offensive coordinator.
And that means nothing unless the Packers start innovating on offense again.
Remember 2014, when the Packers beat the New England Patriots? After the game, Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick shared some words with McCarthy during the postgame handshake. Our assumption has always been that he told McCarthy what a great game he called. And McCarthy did, for once, call a great game. McCarthy would only say that Belichick was very gracious.
Has McCarthy called a great game since? Has his playbook evolved since?
I don’t know about the game, but the playbook pretty much seems to be the same one the Packers have had year after year. There’s nothing innovative. McCarthy just thinks he can outsmart the defense with his brilliant call.
So yes, it’s about damn time you rebuild that the damn playbook!