McCarthy: No timeline to hire defensive coordinator

M

Mark Eckel

Guest
By MARK ECKEL

Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy feels no urgency to fill his open defensive coordinator spot.

McCarthy, in his end-of-year press conference Thursday, said he had no timeline to replace the fired Dom Capers, who served as his defensive coordinator for the past nine seasons.

Capers is one of three defensive coaches who were let go at the end of the Packers’ 7-9 season. Defensive line coach Mike Trgovac and inside linebackers coach Scott McCurly were also fired.

Tim McGarrigle, the first-year quality control coach, left to to become a defensive position coach at Northwestern, his alma mater. He was regarded as a replacement candidate for McCurly.

Offensively, McCarthy is looking for an offensive coordinator to replace Edger Bennett, a quarterback coach to replace Alex Van Pelt and a wide receivers coach to replace Luke Getsy.

McCarthy said he is still in conversation with Bennett, the former Packers running back, which means he could fill one of the assistant roles. Van Pelt will seek an offensive coordinator’s job elsewhere in the league and Getsy left to become offensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

With six teams looking to fill head coaching vacancies, and the Baltimore Ravens also looking for a defensive coordinator, the Packers have competition.

“ Don’t have a timeline,’’ McCarthy said. “I think my schedule is a little different than probably expected. I’m just going to keep grinding through it. I don’t have a timeline.’’

McCarthy said three of the defensive coaches still on staff — Joe Whitt, Darren Perry and Winston Moss — will all be considered for the position along with external candidates. Moss also interviewed for the vacant Detroit Lions head coaching vacancy Thursday.

Perry, the safeties coach, has been with the Packers since 2009. He previously coached defensive backs in Cincinnati (2002), Pittsburgh (2003-06) and Oakland (2007-08). He played nine years for the Steelers.

Whitt, the secondary/cornerbacks coach, joined the Packers in 2008 as a defensive quality control coach and became the secondary coach the following season. Prior to coming to Green Bay, he coached at Auburn (2000-01), The Citadel (2002), Louisville (2003-06) and with the Atlanta Falcons (2007).

McCarthy added it wasn’t imperative for the next coordinator to run the same 3-4 scheme Capers ran in Green Bay since 2009.

“Well, the 3-4 scheme, I don’t know how many times we’re going to continue to talk about this,’’ McCarthy said. “The game is — we’ve been 80 percent sub defense, 80-plus percent sub defense for over 10 years now. We’ve played in our base, how we communicate and structure player acquisition, whether it’s particularly through the draft and fitted to our defense, that’s really my focal point, how can we improve in that area.’’

The Packers defense this season finished 22nd in yards allowed (348.9 per game) and 26th in points allowed (24.0 per game) so there is certainly room for improvement.

“Each and every season, you evaluate what you’ve done,’’ McCarthy said when asked why the change in coordinators. “There’s history to what you’ve done, you come up with continuing education, there’s different development exercises that we’ve done as a staff. I’ve always tried to grow from within. We’ve done unique things within our staff structure as far as giving coaches different opportunities across the halls, the way we’ve had a number of things that we’ve done and I’ve always felt it’s improved us, given us the path, the education to put us down that road. As I’ve just stated, this year I feel I have to go outside and add external resources.



“The direction you have to be honest, you have to evaluate even if you win the NFC championship game or you win the Super Bowl, you have to be real honest. The fact of the matter, there’s always an area to improve, nothing ever stays the same. That’s the National Football League, I think that’s as true a statement as I can give you. Just because what you did yesterday, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen today, that’s how competitive it is. You have to look for the opportunities, the method, the education, the application, how to have continued success. That’s the biggest challenge, so this is really a reflection of, this is the course that I’m taking that I feel gives us the chance to be successful.’’

McCarthy also said the fact that the Packers are also in the midst of a search for a general manager is not hurting the process of finding coordinators.

“I’m not finding that to be the case,’’ he said.

The post McCarthy: No timeline to hire defensive coordinator appeared first on Bob McGinn Football.

Continue reading...
 
If he has no timeline that tells me he is hiring the D Coordinator from within. You cannot wait and have no timeline if you are looking outside the organization.

Welcome to no changes on D.
 
If he has no timeline that tells me he is hiring the D Coordinator from within. You cannot wait and have no timeline if you are looking outside the organization.

Welcome to no changes on D.

Or it could be that he wants someone who is on a playoff team and can not interview them right now.
 
That's a great point! I just have trouble believing MM can be that subtle.

I didn't even think of that way either. Then again, TT did hire MM for his Pittsburgh Macho so that could be where the subtleness is coming from.
 
Bingo...enter Mike Nolan.

Another thought, maybe not plausible, but what if MM is waiting for some of these other staffs to get their HC in place? Maybe those HC's then release their Coordinators. I know it's a long shot but maybe Fangio gets let out of his contract if the new HC wants a different DC. Same thing in Detroit and so on.
 
You may have this one nailed down. Never thought of it that way. What are your thoughts on Nolan?
he's had some great defensive teams and some really bad one. Give him the right personal he'll give you a top ten defense. He plays more combination coverage than Capers and his scheme is a lot more vanilla.
 
Another thought, maybe not plausible, but what if MM is waiting for some of these other staffs to get their HC in place? Maybe those HC's then release their Coordinators. I know it's a long shot but maybe Fangio gets let out of his contract if the new HC wants a different DC. Same thing in Detroit and so on.
That is also a factor... the best coaches are still playing.
 
Back
Top