McGinn: Blame for underachieving season falls on McCarthy, Thompson

[midranger]

With career altering injuries, concussions, and a growing trend of players retiring early so much can happen in 2-3 years that it's easy to justify "going all in" to open a 2 year window a little wider when you're this close. I would fully advocate that.

What would that mean 4 years from now? Don't know, don't really care. Our best players (Ridgers, Jordy, Clay) will be in the winter of their careers any way. Probably not winning the Owl regardless.

[El Duderino]

With career altering injuries, concussions, and a growing trend of players retiring early so much can happen in 2-3 years that it's easy to justify "going all in" to open a 2 year window a little wider when you're this close. I would fully advocate that.

What would that mean 4 years from now? Don't know, don't really care. Our best players (Ridgers, Jordy, Clay) will be in the winter of their careers any way. Probably not winning the Owl regardless.

At this point with Ted, i'd be happy if he just went somewhat in by not being so rigid that nearly every single player on the 53 man roster has to be someone he either drafted, signed as an undrafted free agent after the draft, or came off the practice squad.

So maybe if during training camp McGinn is writing articles about how terrible Barclay looks and then in preseason games he's either getting rag-dolled or run around like his feet are encased in cement, Ted doesn't still stick with the guy because well, it's a team philosophy to roll with whoever came through the draft and develop system, regardless if they look like crap.

As for free agents or trades, we end up under the cap every year, so it's not as if Ted was a little more active that it then will lead to the team being in some sort of cap hell going forward to where he has to start waiving multiple productive players as some foolishly run teams have had to do.

Plus, even if you lose a quality young player or two, it doesn't automatically have to mean it's a terrible thing. Take Denver. By signing Ware, Talib, and Ward to bolster the defense, they had to let athletic TE Julius Thomas walk when he hit free agency. So Elway then countered by signing Owen Daniels on the cheap to replace Thomas and Daniels was huge for them in the playoffs. Moves like this are how teams can be made better overall by using various avenues for roster construction. A Ted move would have been to simply re-sign Thomas since he came through the Packers system and not risk using that money in free agency elsewhere.

[thomchatt3rton]

"Going all-in" is the new "Coaching to win".


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[Xanadu]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

[HKPackFan]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

I wanted Peanut on the cheap as well, but TT did nail it with the two CB in the draft. I was most worried about the corner situation and ILB. I'm not sold on Barrington. I still think Jake and Barrington are not enough coming into this season.

[RRyder823]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

I wanted Peanut on the cheap as well, but TT did nail it with the two CB in the draft. I was most worried about the corner situation and ILB. I'm not sold on Barrington. I still think Jake and Barrington are not enough coming into this season.

Well TT did reportedly have an interest in Revis last season with the deciding factor being he was unwilling to fully guarantee his deal like the Jets did.

Ryan and Barrington are both fine options at one of the spots it's just you don't want them playing together. Hopefully they can get a coverage ILB to pair with them as I good with either of them against the run.

There's a few decent options in FA for an ILB, with both of Denver's hitting the market, and a TE like Green but as always it comes down to what kind of price point and how many of our OLine TT is looking to re up early.

[Xanadu]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

I wanted Peanut on the cheap as well, but TT did nail it with the two CB in the draft. I was most worried about the corner situation and ILB. I'm not sold on Barrington. I still think Jake and Barrington are not enough coming into this season.

I agree and thought almost the exact same way last year. I really wanted some depth at ILB especially a coverage type guy. But if you look around the league having any ILB cover is becoming a weakness. The thing to do would be find a big safety who can play ILB on passing downs imo. Finding a coverage LB is rare and its even rarer to find one who is solid against the run. But if a guy like Joe Thomas can improve and Barrington comes back the way I except I don't mind our prospects at ILB. Remember Clay almost always moved back outside on clear passing downs so its not like we used him in coverage all that often. But my dream would be finding a Shaq Thompson type guy late in this draft that can be brought in as a ILB on clear passing down the way Thomas was this year.

[th87]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

Um, the Packers couldn't even move the ball against the Lions twice, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Cardinals. I don't see how it can be deemed a semi-success. Yes, we lost our best receiver, but that's not an excuse for the offense to become one of the WORST IN THE NFL despite having a potential GOAT at QB. We were only close against Carolina because they started playing prevent too early (like they did against Seattle, and the Colts the week prior to playing us) - that was their weakness this year. It's hard to switch back on when you switch off.

Every year of the last 5, we talk about "Oh man, some unlucky bounces." Every year. Every year there this, "Oh, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured." Guess what - next year we'll have another injury to an important player. It happens. It's on TT and MM to not let things go completely to hell if that happens.

- In 2011, the loss of Collins caused an over-reliance on Peprah, which exacerbated the slowness of Hawk and Bishop. Then we had an ineffective Walden on the other side. The result? One of the worst defenses in the Packers' history, and the most yards surrendered in NFL history.
- In 2012, we just replaced Peprah with MD Jennings, Brad Jones/DJ Smith for an injured Bishop, and Walden again. The result? An NFL record rushing performance by a QB which will likely never ever be broken.
- In 2013, more of the MD Jennings/Brad Jones/Hawk/McMillian inadequate lineup causing more Kaepernick embarrassment that we only avoided a second time because it was too cold to do anything.
- In 2014, we were mostly healthy (good thing we had Guion filling in for Raji), and finally decided to do something about our joke lineup in the middle of the field by moving Matthews in, finally benching Hawk and Jones, adding Barrington in (who worked because of Matthews' range), and drafting HHCD. This time our Achilles heel turned out to be the inability of the TE position to open things up (despite plenty of FAs available).
- In 2015, it was the trash at TE that did us in, and to an extent, the other ILB position.

All of these were preventable occurrences that could've at least been mitigated if TT was a bit more proactive in addressing them. Some injury will come up again, depleting one of our positions. If that position then is filled by some practice squad call up or some 5th rounder, and we fall short again, I will laugh (to prevent crying). And in that case, I really hope I don't hear, oh we were so close, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured.

[Xanadu]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

Um, the Packers couldn't even move the ball against the Lions twice, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Cardinals. I don't see how it can be deemed a semi-success. Yes, we lost our best receiver, but that's not an excuse for the offense to become one of the WORST IN THE NFL despite having a potential GOAT at QB. We were only close against Carolina because they started playing prevent too early (like they did against Seattle, and the Colts the week prior to playing us) - that was their weakness this year. It's hard to switch back on when you switch off.

Every year of the last 5, we talk about "Oh man, some unlucky bounces." Every year. Every year there this, "Oh, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured." Guess what - next year we'll have another injury to an important player. It happens. It's on TT and MM to not let things go completely to hell if that happens.

- In 2011, the loss of Collins caused an over-reliance on Peprah, which exacerbated the slowness of Hawk and Bishop. Then we had an ineffective Walden on the other side. The result? One of the worst defenses in the Packers' history, and the most yards surrendered in NFL history.
- In 2012, we just replaced Peprah with MD Jennings, Brad Jones/DJ Smith for an injured Bishop, and Walden again. The result? An NFL record rushing performance by a QB which will likely never ever be broken.
- In 2013, more of the MD Jennings/Brad Jones/Hawk/McMillian inadequate lineup causing more Kaepernick embarrassment that we only avoided a second time because it was too cold to do anything.
- In 2014, we were mostly healthy (good thing we had Guion filling in for Raji), and finally decided to do something about our joke lineup in the middle of the field by moving Matthews in, finally benching Hawk and Jones, adding Barrington in (who worked because of Matthews' range), and drafting HHCD. This time our Achilles heel turned out to be the inability of the TE position to open things up (despite plenty of FAs available).
- In 2015, it was the trash at TE that did us in, and to an extent, the other ILB position.

All of these were preventable occurrences that could've at least been mitigated if TT was a bit more proactive in addressing them. Some injury will come up again, depleting one of our positions. If that position then is filled by some practice squad call up or some 5th rounder, and we fall short again, I will laugh (to prevent crying). And in that case, I really hope I don't hear, oh we were so close, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured.

Not arguing that fact at all Ted and MM have been far from perfect no doubt. But its also true we have been close and they have also been far from horrible. A lot of people act like if anybody else had been running the team we would have at least 2 more super bowls for sure. But the fact is we have been successful and sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Like the Bostick mistake or the tuck rule. How about our super bowl when Bush had a interception despite blowing his assignment and leaving his guy wide open. It is not often that the best team wins the super bowl its often the hot or lucky team.
Having said that do I believe Ted has made mistakes. Absolutely, I agree he should've dipped in FA more often and MM should be more inventive with the playcalling. But these calls for their heads just seem ridiculous unless your bring Belichick to replace them.

[th87]

I jsut don't about us packer fans sometimes. If you look at the team this year I can't say anything but a semi success. Would the SB been awesome of course but looking at the injury's we dealt with from day one I am not overly disappointed. We should of beat Arizona and were imo the better team. A couple of unlucky bounces is the only reason we lost. I thought we had a chance against Carolina too. If you look back we were a field goal from tying them at their house with our defense playing abysmal. The chances we would of beat Denver are slim but who knows. Now we had a semi down year but we lost our starting ILB and star WR before the season began. I don't know about the rest of you but I was excited to see what Barrington could do. Now imagine if he played well there is no reason to move Clay inside especially with Jake's late season play. Do I wish Ted dipped in FA a little more sure but who knows if it really would've made a huge difference. For example I really wanted Tillman before the season. He had a great year to and he was on a cheap deal. But if we sign him are rookies don't get all that valuable experience. Now we look to have two young studs at CB going into next year but who knows if Tillman holds up.

Um, the Packers couldn't even move the ball against the Lions twice, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Cardinals. I don't see how it can be deemed a semi-success. Yes, we lost our best receiver, but that's not an excuse for the offense to become one of the WORST IN THE NFL despite having a potential GOAT at QB. We were only close against Carolina because they started playing prevent too early (like they did against Seattle, and the Colts the week prior to playing us) - that was their weakness this year. It's hard to switch back on when you switch off.

Every year of the last 5, we talk about "Oh man, some unlucky bounces." Every year. Every year there this, "Oh, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured." Guess what - next year we'll have another injury to an important player. It happens. It's on TT and MM to not let things go completely to hell if that happens.

- In 2011, the loss of Collins caused an over-reliance on Peprah, which exacerbated the slowness of Hawk and Bishop. Then we had an ineffective Walden on the other side. The result? One of the worst defenses in the Packers' history, and the most yards surrendered in NFL history.
- In 2012, we just replaced Peprah with MD Jennings, Brad Jones/DJ Smith for an injured Bishop, and Walden again. The result? An NFL record rushing performance by a QB which will likely never ever be broken.
- In 2013, more of the MD Jennings/Brad Jones/Hawk/McMillian inadequate lineup causing more Kaepernick embarrassment that we only avoided a second time because it was too cold to do anything.
- In 2014, we were mostly healthy (good thing we had Guion filling in for Raji), and finally decided to do something about our joke lineup in the middle of the field by moving Matthews in, finally benching Hawk and Jones, adding Barrington in (who worked because of Matthews' range), and drafting HHCD. This time our Achilles heel turned out to be the inability of the TE position to open things up (despite plenty of FAs available).
- In 2015, it was the trash at TE that did us in, and to an extent, the other ILB position.

All of these were preventable occurrences that could've at least been mitigated if TT was a bit more proactive in addressing them. Some injury will come up again, depleting one of our positions. If that position then is filled by some practice squad call up or some 5th rounder, and we fall short again, I will laugh (to prevent crying). And in that case, I really hope I don't hear, oh we were so close, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured.

Not arguing that fact at all Ted and MM have been far from perfect no doubt. But its also true we have been close and they have also been far from horrible. A lot of people act like if anybody else had been running the team we would have at least 2 more super bowls for sure. But the fact is we have been successful and sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Like the Bostick mistake or the tuck rule. How about our super bowl when Bush had a interception despite blowing his assignment and leaving his guy wide open. It is not often that the best team wins the super bowl its often the hot or lucky team.
Having said that do I believe Ted has made mistakes. Absolutely, I agree he should've dipped in FA more often and MM should be more inventive with the playcalling. But these calls for their heads just seem ridiculous unless your bring Belichick to replace them.

They've done a good job, and nobody else should be running the team. But I don't think they've done enough to make their own luck (i.e. mitigate their weaknesses). If we have a better TE, maybe it doesn't come down to Bostick's mistake.

[Xanadu]

Um, the Packers couldn't even move the ball against the Lions twice, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Cardinals. I don't see how it can be deemed a semi-success. Yes, we lost our best receiver, but that's not an excuse for the offense to become one of the WORST IN THE NFL despite having a potential GOAT at QB. We were only close against Carolina because they started playing prevent too early (like they did against Seattle, and the Colts the week prior to playing us) - that was their weakness this year. It's hard to switch back on when you switch off.

Every year of the last 5, we talk about "Oh man, some unlucky bounces." Every year. Every year there this, "Oh, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured." Guess what - next year we'll have another injury to an important player. It happens. It's on TT and MM to not let things go completely to hell if that happens.

- In 2011, the loss of Collins caused an over-reliance on Peprah, which exacerbated the slowness of Hawk and Bishop. Then we had an ineffective Walden on the other side. The result? One of the worst defenses in the Packers' history, and the most yards surrendered in NFL history.
- In 2012, we just replaced Peprah with MD Jennings, Brad Jones/DJ Smith for an injured Bishop, and Walden again. The result? An NFL record rushing performance by a QB which will likely never ever be broken.
- In 2013, more of the MD Jennings/Brad Jones/Hawk/McMillian inadequate lineup causing more Kaepernick embarrassment that we only avoided a second time because it was too cold to do anything.
- In 2014, we were mostly healthy (good thing we had Guion filling in for Raji), and finally decided to do something about our joke lineup in the middle of the field by moving Matthews in, finally benching Hawk and Jones, adding Barrington in (who worked because of Matthews' range), and drafting HHCD. This time our Achilles heel turned out to be the inability of the TE position to open things up (despite plenty of FAs available).
- In 2015, it was the trash at TE that did us in, and to an extent, the other ILB position.

All of these were preventable occurrences that could've at least been mitigated if TT was a bit more proactive in addressing them. Some injury will come up again, depleting one of our positions. If that position then is filled by some practice squad call up or some 5th rounder, and we fall short again, I will laugh (to prevent crying). And in that case, I really hope I don't hear, oh we were so close, if only so and so hadn't gotten injured.

Not arguing that fact at all Ted and MM have been far from perfect no doubt. But its also true we have been close and they have also been far from horrible. A lot of people act like if anybody else had been running the team we would have at least 2 more super bowls for sure. But the fact is we have been successful and sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. Like the Bostick mistake or the tuck rule. How about our super bowl when Bush had a interception despite blowing his assignment and leaving his guy wide open. It is not often that the best team wins the super bowl its often the hot or lucky team.
Having said that do I believe Ted has made mistakes. Absolutely, I agree he should've dipped in FA more often and MM should be more inventive with the playcalling. But these calls for their heads just seem ridiculous unless your bring Belichick to replace them.

They've done a good job, and nobody else should be running the team. But I don't think they've done enough to make their own luck (i.e. mitigate their weaknesses). If we have a better TE, maybe it doesn't come down to Bostick's mistake.

I see we basically agree. Which is good no doubt Ted needs to be more aggresive signing vets this year and in the trade market. The trade market especially is one I think we should try and be more active in.