Did MM Sound Frustrated at TT (at least a little)?

The 2nd bolded quote is a rip on Adams and Rodgers, it was not directed at TT. Silverstein wrote a piece last night stating this as well.

I think MM was just more blunt in his season ending PC then we've seen him before. Blunt on Lacy. Blunt on who's calling playing moving forward. Blunt on where he believes CMIII needs to be. Blunt on changes are coming.

As for TT, I just hope (probably futile) he considers UFA's in addition to his draft to shore up the holes that need filling. As good as he is at drafting, simply put there are too many spots to fill IMO then a single draft can fix...I don't care how good you are.

From Ladarius Green, Dwayne Allen, Ben Watson, Coby F., Antonio Gates at TE to Brandon Marshall, Mychal Kendricks, Derrick Johnson at ILB options exist in UFA to fill critical needs and not have to wait for a rookie to develop.

Had the exact same thought when I read the comments. I can't find the actual transcript anywhere, but I believe his initial answer about needing big bodies said "a Jordy or a Jermichael." To bring up a guy that hasn't played in a few years seems odd unless you view it as a question as to why he hasn't been replaced.

Safe to say we were all expecting bigger things from the 2014 draft class and other than Clinton-Dix, all looked to regress.  Hopefully the year 2 to 3 leap becomes a reality next year.  

While I would assume that TT has the final say on a pick, I find it hard to believe he doesn't take the input from MM or the other coaches before he selects a player.  Maybe the coaching staff isn't good at determining the abilities of players either.

I think it is more that MM, ARod, CMIII, and others are all just more frustrated than ever because they were so close to the Super Bowl last year and even after the craptastic regular season this year still had a chance to make a run.  They can probably sense that the window is closing.

SteveLuke posted:

Even more interesting to me was MM's response to a question about the absence of Jordy Nelson; "“To have a successful passing game, you have to have big targets that can run through the middle of the field. When you don’t have that, you see what we saw this year."

Jordy as a big, middle of the field target? Jordy's been an outside guy who does his best work on the sideline. I interpret MM's statement to be a direct shot at the Richard Rodgers, Andrew Quarless, Justin Perillo trio at TE, especially when MM went on to say, regarding Adams & Richard Rodgers, “Both of those guys need to make a jump." 

http://www.packers.com/news-an...b0-bf52-5e56d49238b4

 

It was in response to going deep or not being able to go deep because Jordy was out. Just before this McCarthy also talked about focusing too much offense on 1 player like in 2010 when they had a lot put in for Finley. When he talked about big bodies in the middle it was a shot somewhat at R.Rodgers, but also, if I'm Janis I watch every single route Jordy runs, how he gets off the line, and how he reacts to defenses when running in the middle. Jordy caught a lot of balls in the middle.

I watched Bennett's presser & when pressed about Janis he kept going back to "it starts in practice", classroom & practice field, "that is the starting point". Message was clear, Janis was not a good student & Abby learned much faster. 

Hungry5 posted:

 

but also, if I'm Janis I watch every single route Jordy runs, how he gets off the line, and how he reacts to defenses when running in the middle. Jordy caught a lot of balls in the middle.

Don't disagree one bit. I would say this, dunno why MM didn't try running Janis! deep out of the slot throughout the season in a set-play. Would've made it less likely that 83 would've gotten bodied out of the boundary as happened a couple of times. Also, would have likely matched him up against a slot corner who tend to be small, quick types who Janis! could run right by and out jump/outmuscle. Plus deep routes from the slot have to draw safety coverage (opening up lots of other things) else risk six on any given play.

Mike and his offensive braintrust's inability to figure out ways like this to capitalize on skill sets of the players you have is by far the biggest failing and disappointment of the 2015 season for me.

n.b. Running 83 and, on his return, 87 from the slot from time to time next year's is something I hope MM considers. Look at all the damage Larry Fitzgerald has done from there. I know, our guys aren't Fitz but there have always been advantages to running big dudes from the slot on occasion. Jordy has torn it up from there in previous seasons. The success of midgets like Welker has driven too many offenses into thinking that the slot WR has to be a smaller quicker guy. It is perhaps the best way to get guys like that on the field, but it doesn't preclude playing bigger guys there either.

What Cuqui said...

cuqui posted:

Mike and his offensive braintrust's inability to figure out ways like this to capitalize on skill sets of the players you have is by far the biggest failing and disappointment of the 2015 season for me.

"Mike and his offensive braintrust's inability to figure out ways like this to capitalize on skill sets of the players you have is by far the biggest failing and disappointment of the 2015 season for me."

******
I really liked this part "Mike and his offensive braintrust's inability to figure out ways...."

I was thinking that some of the more creative playcallers in the NFL, who had to make do with less (Gase, McDaniels, Mike Shula) had premier or better offensive talent than GB.  I still think Abby and Janis could have played a limited role or the O-staff creativity could been better, as cuqui pointed out.  But, Jones, Adams, Cobb and R.Rodgers weren't difference makers.  MM's loyalty to starting players is a continued fault (Bishop, Hawk, B.Jones, Adams, etc.).

Here is another series of quotes from JSOnline which I thought hinted at some frustration maybe directed up the ladder.

**McCarthy said there was enough time to recover from all the things he hoped to do to take advantage of Nelson's talents, but when it came to other injuries suffered during the season, he said not enough adjustments were made.

McCarthy was referring mostly to losing left tackle David Bakhtiari for three games and the belief he could continue to run the same offense. Bakhtiari's injury, as well as others to right tackle Bryan Bulaga and right guard T.J. Lang, played a part in quarterback Aaron Rodgers being sacked 46 times and knocked down another 50 times during the regular-season.

"The game plans, the aggressiveness and so forth, if I was going to be critical of one of the things on offense that we didn't do a good enough job of, we didn't handle the injuries — let alone Jordy, the left tackle," he said. "You have to help people at times in each and every season.

"It's part of your game-planning, it's part of your strategic makeup when you get into game planning and when we had uphill matchups, we didn't do a good job helping that individual."**

FLPACKER posted:

I watched Bennett's presser & when pressed about Janis he kept going back to "it starts in practice", classroom & practice field, "that is the starting point". Message was clear, Janis was not a good student & Abby learned much faster. 

At least that is what we're told. Maybe the issue is in player development and there is a bit too much egg on the coach's face

we didn't do a good job helping that individual

packerboi posted:

....As for TT, I just hope (probably futile) he considers UFA's in addition to his draft to shore up the holes that need filling. As good as he is at drafting, simply put there are too many spots to fill IMO then a single draft can fix...I don't care how good you are.

 

It's really hard to hold Ted responsible for anything that happened on offense with what we saw in the two games against the Cardinals.  How bad did the offense look in the regular season game?  How much better did that same group of players look in the playoff game?  Clearly there were a few weeks in the middle to end of the regular season where the coaching staff just lost it.  Didn't have a clue.

McCarthy does have a legitimate gripe with linebacker though.  Ted has done a poor job in this area.  3-4 defense but only two legit starters (Matthews/Peppers), two more contributors (Neal/Perry) and two more as the young developmental types (Elliott/Ryan).  When people like McGinn point out that Ted doesn't turn over the bottom of the roster enough...linebacker is the perfect example.  How Mulumba made it through the season is beyond me!  When Palmer proved he couldn't play and the Packers decided to go younger with Ryan...that would have been a good time to dump Palmer and bring a different player in.  And if there weren't better linebacker options out there, the Packers could have used some help along the defensive line, running back or pass catching areas.  Carl Bradford still on the practice squad.  When a linebacker spot opened up the Packers could have put Bradford on the 53 but instead picked up Joe Thomas.  That tells me one thing, Bradford can't play.  A 2014 roster spot completely wasted on him.

I think MM is going to, not so gently, ask for some new toys this off season.   I'm guessing TT will oblige him and we see a couple Vets added to the mix.   

GBP1 posted:

Here is another series of quotes from JSOnline which I thought hinted at some frustration maybe directed up the ladder.

 

**McCarthy said there was enough time to recover from all the things he hoped to do to take advantage of Nelson's talents, but when it came to other injuries suffered during the season, he said not enough adjustments were made.

McCarthy was referring mostly to losing left tackle David Bakhtiari for three games and the belief he could continue to run the same offense. Bakhtiari's injury, as well as others to right tackle Bryan Bulaga and right guard T.J. Lang, played a part in quarterback Aaron Rodgers being sacked 46 times and knocked down another 50 times during the regular-season.

"The game plans, the aggressiveness and so forth, if I was going to be critical of one of the things on offense that we didn't do a good enough job of, we didn't handle the injuries — let alone Jordy, the left tackle," he said. "You have to help people at times in each and every season.

"It's part of your game-planning, it's part of your strategic makeup when you get into game planning and when we had uphill matchups, we didn't do a good job helping that individual."**

Did you pick that up with a 3 second shot of MM on the sideline?  

I think that comment probably had more to do with Solari who was hired primarily to work with the tackles.  Barclay looked like **** and Bak wasn't exactly killing it either before he was hurt.  

Once again, hire Tretter's sister as oline coach.

BrainDed posted:

I think MM is going to, not so gently, ask for some new toys this off season.   I'm guessing TT will oblige him and we see a couple Vets added to the mix.   

It's the proverbial shell game knowing you're going to have some holes.  The investments in other areas are supposed to help cover up the weaknesses but after a series of near misses because that weak spot gets exploited at the worst times it's hard to argue that looking at even mid tier guys wouldn't be prudent.  Need to cycle in a few more Howard Greens to go along with the young guys developing and see if that combo of sticks and mud makes a better wall.

He's apparently expressed some frustration to somebody about TT's FA approach. 

According to McGinn's "sources". Lazy journalism.

It has been reported that in his most recent podcast Wilde says the same thing. Frustration in the building.

So what if he is, who hasn't ben at odds with a boss once in a while.

Mountain out of a molehill. 

TT & MM stick around as long as Rodgers is here. Once Rodgers retires anything can happen.

At some level, there should be some healthy tension between the GM and head coach. It's the head coach's job to focus on winning now. It's the GM's role to look at the longer term picture. It makes things like the Mike McKenzie holdout back in 2002 or so less likely. 

Now, I would agree that TT should be more willing to supplement the roster with a few low to medium salary veterans with experience, but I don't think this is a crisis - unless MM starts to think "he should be able to buy the groceries that he has to cook with" to paraphrase Bill Parcells. 

if Wolf-Holmgren can do it with an HOF QB, then I suppose TT and MM can as well. I'm hoping MM lets TT know that it is OK to get players through FA.

Where there is smoke, there's fire. But sometimes it really is much ado about nothing.

Rodgers not seeing eye-to-eye with McCarthy, McCarthy a little frustrated with the depth Thompson has provided. Whoopty-freakin'-do. I'd more be surprised if they all got along just fine. 

I think it is Super Bowl or bust for MM next season.  If no NFC Central Crown and eliminated early in the playoffs, he is gone.  TT may then resign.  The Packers hire John Schneider away from Seattle.  My guess is he has a clause in his contract that will allow him to leave Seattle for Green Bay.  If TT does not resign, then he works until his contract is up and Eliot Wolf takes over.  Either way, Mike McCarthy has one year left to get it done right.

ChilliJon posted:

What is this thing?

After the season this team had, I fully expect there to be a lot of frustration in the building. Players frustrated with the coaching staff, and the coaches/MM frustrated with the GM. They choked away a SB appearance last year and then regressed this season. This team, as long as they have Rodgers, are competing for SB's.

I really do hope that MM can convince TT to be a bit more open on the FA market. Draft/Develop is how what keeps this engine going but you can only plug so many holes with late round rookie picks, UDFA, or practice squad guys. Finding a mid-tier FA or 2 on a short term deal isn't a bad thing. The team has built its core through the draft, now use FA to compliment things. TE and ILB are 2 gaping holes on this roster....would love to see them address at least one of them in FA. Adding another vet to the DL rotation wouldn't hurt either

Panthers currently in the SB and they made quite a few big FA pickups for their roster this year and the Broncos defense has been mostly entirely made up of FA pickups. We've seen how big of an impact Seattle adding Michael Bennett was for that DL

I don't want to see TT change his philosophy, but I think they need to bring in the best possible ILB. He may lose two contributors at OLB (Neal and Perry), so moving Clay back to OLB is a priority. 

Nice to watch the Panthers D with two excellent ILBs....

I was telling my Grandmother, who is a huge Packer fan. That we should tape the Bronco and Panther defences, show them to Capers and tell him that's how a defence should look.

I personally think that there is nothing to see here and we can move on.  If anything maybe it was frustration all around on how the season ended.  It has to hurt losing like that 2 years in a row.

Anyhow, I think MM is correct Clay should be playing outside where he belongs and in my opinion  TT has to address the ILB position (pssst Ted did you watch the Panthers)?, as well as OL depth, and a TE who can run faster than "cement shoes" Rodgers. 

As for Free Agency I would love to see TT do something with it.  I am not saying I want him to be the George Steinbrenner of the NFL but you have to try and fill some wholes.

The Heckler posted:

....
a TE who can run faster than "cement shoes" Rodgers. 

*Clyde*

Interesting wording from McGinn on this "sources" comment.

According to several sources, McCarthy is fed up with his boss' unwillingness to take a chance and reinforce the roster with veteran players that might be unknown to the Packers but have the talent to contribute.

No reference to "sources close to the situation" or "sources with knowledge of the relationship", etc...