The LaFleur Era Has Begun or Has It Really?

It took 1 year, but the refurbishing of the Green Bay Packers is finally taking place. Like I said before the Packers move like a glacier under the leadership (or lack there of) of Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No. Evil CEO Mark Murphy and in the case of Head Honcho Ted Thompson and Head Coach Mike McCarthy, it took over seven years for him to recognize the deliberate deterioration of the Packers budding 3rd Dynasty.

After the 2017 season, which was no worse than the previous six seasons because of the Aaron Rodgers injury, for some reason Murphy decided a change needed and I’m guessing it came from Thompson himself. My theory is is Thompson got tired of coming into the office every day during the official season from mini-camp to the playoffs and during April for the draft. He then was off from February to April and from May to July. Good work if you can get it. So after missing the 2017 playoffs Thompson got a taste of what it was like to not have to work after January 1st and being basically a lazy person Thompson made his play.

So, as my theory goes, Thompson goes to his boss (what a joke, Thompson was Murphy’s boss no matter what the organization flow chart said) and said he wanted to give up his daily duties, which didn’t include talking to the media and the fans, except for Fan Day and that usually lasted just a few minutes with nothing actually being said, so he could concentrate on the thing Murphy and his hand-picked successor Brian Gutekunst has stated many times building a championship roster. What a joke). So Murphy raised up after bending over and spreading them and said, “Yes, sir. I will do that sir.” So Thompson was promoted to Head Honcho Emeritus, so he could continue to be paid his salary and his assistant Gutekunst would take over his daily duties.

Now I think that is ironic because one of the hallmarks of Thompson’s philosophy was to save money whenever possible, cutting All-Pros in favor of undrafted free agents and filling the roster with such undrafted free agents instead of veterans, and yet he felt it was right and proper to continue to receive his salary when he wasn’t doing any work anymore - well not officially doing any work except giving advice to Gute. Another thing about this is we don’t know what his salary is because that is classified as TOP SECRET. How in the bloody hell is that allowed by a public entity, but in the case of Ted Thompson’s Packers that is standard operating procedure. Just asking.

Anyway after making the big change, but retaining the other half of the problem Head Coach Mike “Stuck In His Ways” McCarthy, Murphy thought he did a great job while not actually doing anything to right the great ship Packers for the 2018 season. We can see how that worked out? Aaron Rodgers had his worse season after Thompson signed Rodgers to the greatest contract ever. The 2018 season of rebirth turned out to be a total disaster ending with the Packers firing a head coach during the season for the 1st time in its 100-year old history. The Packers missed the playoffs for the 2nd straight season and only the 3rd during Rodgers time as starting quarterback. The Packers were 6-10 his first year and 7-9 in 2017 (4-3 when Rodgers started and 3-6 when Brett Hundley started-remember Thompson drafted Hundley as the heir apparent and that was a total disaster) and the Packers were 6-9-1 this past season with Rodgers starting every game.

So Murphy after some epiphany or some pressure from above (so Thompson could blame McCarthy for the continuing disaster and it was not his terrible personnel decisions) fired McCarthy with 4 games to go and a week later fired Associate Head Coach Winston Moss for making disparaging comments.

So after the season ended with a major thud (31-0 loss to the terrible Lions at Lambeau Field where the faithful booed the team before halftime) Murphy declared that the entire defensive staff, which ended up ranked 22nd in the NFL, was going to be retained before he hired a new head coach, thusly taking the hiring of assistant coaches out of the hands of new head coach. It makes me wonder what kind of backbone Matt LeFleur has if he took the job knowing he could only hire offensive assistants. He is only 39 and has never been a head coach before at any level. I wonder.

It was announced yesterday that secondary coach (or whatever stupid title he was given last season when McCarthy made BIG changes to his coaching staff when he changed their titles - McCarthy's version of rearranging the chairs on the Titanic) Joe Whitt has been fired. However, it was indicated that Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine made the decision and not LaFleur because Whitt was not his hire when he took over for Dom Capers last year (once again the head coach or defensive coordinator is not allowed to hire his own assistants. The Packers organization is operating differently than every other NFL team and it isn't working).

So it is now Saturday 6 days into the New Era, Part 2 and so far what we have is Ted Thompson still in charge (I guess since we don’t k now a damn thing about what Thompson has done or is still doing), Ted Thompson’s hand-picked successors are still in charge, CEO Mark Murphy is large and in charge after being just a figure head during the Thompson Era, Matt LaFleur is the new head coach, Mike Pettine is still the Defensive Coordinator, and the secondary coach Joe Whitt was fired.

It is reported James Campen, who has been the Packers offensive line coach for 100 years (actually for 11 years-he was offensive line coach and run game coordinator under the new titles last year-how did that work out?), is interviewing with the Browns. Beyond that not much more news has been forthcoming.

I hope things work out better than they did under the New Era, Part 1, but I find putting restrictions on the new head coach as far as hiring his assistants can’t be a good thing.

Once again I want Gregg Williams as Defensive Coordinator and he is available, but not for the Packers. Hamstringing LaFleur to hiring just offensive assistants is just delaying the recovery for another season when the New Era, Part 3 will begin when Pettine is fired next season, so the Packers can actually have a fresh start, on the field, but not in the front office, this season and not having to waste another year of Aaron Rodgers’ career like Murphy did last year by not firing McCarthy after 2017. Rodgers is 35 years old and coming off a terrible season, which either is the beginning of him declining or it was McCarthy. Even if it was McCarthy the Packers powers that be must realize that urgency is needed.

Urgency, urgency, but the glacier known as the Green Bay Packers continues to move slowly without the capability of responding to urgency, despite the firing of McCarthy, and that seems to be just an aberration.