Source: Packers fire running backs coach Sam Gash And TE Coach

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Apparently Mike McCarthy was dissatisfied with the progress of a second position group on his offense, as another assistant coach was fired on Tuesday.

The house cleaning on the Green Bay Packers coaching staff appears to be far from over. Earlier today, running backs coach Sam Gash was let go, and now reports are in that head coach Mike McCarthy is letting another of his offensive position coaches to.

This time it is Tight Ends coach Jerry Fontenot:


#Packers have also fired TEs coach Jerry Fontenot, according to a pair of sources. He and Sam Gash are only changes so far.

— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) January 19, 2016​


To be sure, the Packers have not had a game-breaking receiving tight end since Jermichael Finley's retirement. However, second-year pro Richard Rodgers took a step forward this year, more than doubling his receiving stats from last year in most categories by contributing over 500 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns.

However, advanced stats did not like Rodgers' performance, and his blocking continued to be suspect. Meanwhile, Andrew Quarless missed much of this season with an injury, and neither Justin Perillo nor Kennard Backman showed much in his place.

Fontenot had been the Packers' tight ends coach for the past four seasons, and prior to that spent a year as Green Bay's running backs coach. He also worked as an assistant offensive line coach during his ten-year tenure in Green Bay. That came after a 16-year career as a center in the NFL, most of which he spent as a member of the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.

Stay tuned to see if more changes are on the way.

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[BCOLOR=rgb(233, 240, 245)]Had more to do with the fact that he couldn't get control of his guys off the field then the way they performed on the field IMO. The Packers were/are clearly unhappy with Eddie's weight problems and also the fact that he wasn't the only back on the team who appeared to have discipline problems. Remember, we cut Alonzo Harris seemingly because he was Lacy's wingman. Seems like Gash couldn't get control of his guys. Maybe he was too buddy buddy with them. Should be interesting to see what kind of guy they bring in, and whether or not he's a disciplinarian.[/BCOLOR]
 
kingkoopa said:
[BCOLOR=#e9f0f5]Had more to do with the fact that he couldn't get control of his guys off the field then the way they performed on the field IMO. The Packers were/are clearly unhappy with Eddie's weight problems and also the fact that he wasn't the only back on the team who appeared to have discipline problems. Remember, we cut Alonzo Harris seemingly because he was Lacy's wingman. Seems like Gash couldn't get control of his guys. Maybe he was too buddy buddy with them. Should be interesting to see what kind of guy they bring in, and whether or not he's a disciplinarian.[/BCOLOR]
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King !!! Long time no see ! Welcome !! br)
 
Yah, this "looks" like scapegoating but maybe it's time to send some messages. Agree with some above that Gash being gone had less to do with production and more to do with both Lacy and Harris being pretty damn undisciplined. Maybe inside the 4 walls it was known that Gash didn't confront these guys about late nights, poor diets and lack of conditioning. The position coach has to be part buddy and part bad-ass and maybe Gash didn't take care of part 2. I don't know the story, so to me it's unfair to say he's a scapegoat.

Fontenot I don't have a problem with either. Most of his time was as the assistant o-line coach. Seems to me he was just handed the TE coach job a few years ago to keep things in-house, when they really needed to hire an experienced TE coach for a young group of guys. A little new blood wouldn't hurt this staff at all. Kind of an in-bred group.

Now they need to re-assign Van Pelt and get a real WR coach. Also hope Clements is smart enough to take another job.
 
kingkoopa said:
[BCOLOR=#e9f0f5]Had more to do with the fact that he couldn't get control of his guys off the field then the way they performed on the field IMO. The Packers were/are clearly unhappy with Eddie's weight problems and also the fact that he wasn't the only back on the team who appeared to have discipline problems. Remember, we cut Alonzo Harris seemingly because he was Lacy's wingman. Seems like Gash couldn't get control of his guys. Maybe he was too buddy buddy with them. Should be interesting to see what kind of guy they bring in, and whether or not he's a disciplinarian.[/BCOLOR]
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Welcome back King!

These guys are professional athletes. If they need a coach to babysit them to make sure they do simple things like stay in shape and make curfew then they shouldn't be in the NFL. The position coach shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that. They should be worried about technique and teaching game plans.
 
Lookig back on it, if you want to know why Gash was canned, think about MMs obsession with turnover ratio, and then look at these fumble numbers for the backs:

Gash - 2 seasons - 13 fumbles
AVP - 2 seasons - 10 fumbles
Jerry Fontenot - 1 season - 5 fumbles
Bennett - 5 seasons - 20 fumbles

Bennett clearly the best of the bunch. That 20 over 5 years includes MM's first year when there were 8. The backs only fumbled twice in 3 of the other 4 years.

Then throw in the conditioning issues with Lacy and discipline issues with Harris and I can kind of see why MM didn't like what was going on there.

As for Fontenot, I think 57packer hit on something above. We see him get fired and it looks like a long term employee getting ruthlessly dumped, but MM has also - rightly - been criticized for constant promotion from within rather than brining in fresh blood or experienced blood. Fontenot is the poster boy for this. Coached OL, RBs, and TEs, never sticking with one position for long. TE group has clearly been underperforming with distinct issues with route running and blocking fundamentals. Richard Rodgers likes to block by lunging his shoulder at people, which is horrible. It was Fontenots job to break that habit and he showed no improvement.

The obvious caveat to the TE group is that talent level was poor and depth non-existent, and to that end we know TT needs to give the coaches better players to work with. The ultimate accountability for a player is losing playing time, and you can't do that when there is no one else on the roster to credibly do the job.

So for now these moves get an incomplete grade. If we see more lackey promotion from within and no new influx of talent, then yeah, bash these moves as scapegoating. But if they're part of a broader overhaul of the groups , and we get some good experienced coaches there plus new talent, I'm OK with them.
 
Finally! Now Ted and McCarthy can go ahead and lead the Packers to several Super Bowl victories over the coming years! CLP)

Good grief. Why don't you two do us all a favor and fire yourselves. rt(
 
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