Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take a spin around the ever-active NFL news cycle and count down the days until the NFL Draft unfolds later this month in Music City......
>>>> Click To Watch NFL Draft For FREE >>>>>
* You could almost feel the dysfunction that was on display in Green Bay the past two non-playoff seasons. But after absorbing this week’s eye-opening Bleacher Report expose about the Packers’ internal issues, it’s almost a wonder Green Bay was able to string together that eight-year streak of postseason appearances from 2009-2016 — and win a Super Bowl — in the midst of all the franchise’s problems.
>>>> Click To Watch NFL Draft For FREE >>>>>
Aaron Rodgers reportedly holding a grudge against coach Mike McCarthy dating from the 2005 draft, when McCarthy’s 49ers chose Utah quarterback Alex Smith at No. 1, over the green-room captive Rodgers? McCarthy alleged to have been more diligent about keeping his massage appointments than fixing and fine-tuning his offense? And team CEO Mark Murphy feeling it necessary to implore Rodgers to not be “the problem’’ upon the hiring of new Packers coach Matt LaFleur this offseason?
What a portrait of a multi-faceted mess the story painted, and even if you choose to believe the narrative only 80 percent accurate — and I’ll take the over — it’s a damning indictment on almost all the key figures in Green Bay this past decade-plus. And to think that McCarthy was upset that the end of his tenure with the Packers got branded with the charge he allowed “complacency’’ to set in. After this story, complacency is almost too nice of a label to describe the state of disrepair that at least recently reigned in what once was called “Titletown.’’
>>>> Click To Watch NFL Draft For FREE >>>>>
The fallout and damage to McCarthy’s coaching reputation could be substantial and it may have already cost him one head coaching opportunity. I thought it was curious that the Browns, with all their ex-Packers employees in positions of power, didn’t even really sniff McCarthy as a serious candidate to become their new head coach in January, turning instead to the relatively unproven Freddie Kitchens. But now it makes a heck of a lot more sense if the word was already out about McCarthy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he got no real interest from teams hiring a head coach in early 2020 as well.
