New and Welcomed changes in Green Bay signal great things are ahead.
Green Bay’s 2017 season started off great with the team winning four of their first five games. Then on October 15th in Minnesota, Packers starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone. That’s when the season subsequently went down with him. Green Bay won three of their next eight games and finished the season at 7-9.
That was only the third time in the Rodgers’ era that Green Bay finished with eight or less wins. The first was 2008, Aaron Rodgers’ first year as starter, the next was 2013 when they went 8-7-1. That speaks volumes about how valuable Aaron Rodgers is to Green Bay. He is the cornerstone of the franchise.
After the whirlwind of a season ended, fans in Green Bay were clamoring for something to change in the front office to make sure this wouldn’t happen again. Green Bay is titletown for a reason but having not won one in seven years obviously can touch some nerves if you’re a fan of Green Bay. Well, the team took notice of what fans were clamoring for; change and change NOW. They ended up doing just that and more.
Green Bay first let go of long time defensive coordinator Dom Capers whom the Packers had on the staff since 2007. This was a much needed change as Capers 3-4 schemes just weren’t working anymore on defense. Granted, it won them a title in 2010 but after that season, it lacked the same pizzaz and fire it had back in 2010.
Another reason why Green Bay ended up taking a turn for the worst ever since their Super Bowl winning season was the offense. From 2008-’11, Green Bay was coordinated on offense under Joe Philbin. In those four seasons, Green Bay was top ten in scoring offense: 8th, 6th, 9th, and 3rd. From 2012-’17, Green Bay ranked 13th, 3rd, 6th, 23rd, 8th, and 26th. Quite a drop off only being top ten three of those six years.
Next was the defense. Under Capers from 2009-’17, Green Bay ranked 2nd, 5th, 32nd, 11th, 25th, 15th, 15th, 22nd, and 22nd. Green Bay’s defense took the biggest drop off from 2010-’17. From 2nd to 22nd. Capers’ schemes only work so well for so long.
I’m not discrediting his schemes by saying they weren’t good because they were, at the time. Offenses change over time and it’s obvious that Capers’ schemes never changed along with them to beat certain offensive schemes and it certainly has shown over the past five seasons.
To remedy the situation, Green Bay ended up hiring former Browns head coach Mike Pettine as defensive coordinator. Now, this didn’t go over well at first with Green Bay fans and probably will take a while to warm up to him. The reason being is that fans will say it’s a bad hire because he “failed” as head coach in Cleveland. Now that is true as a head coach.
As defensive coordinator, that’s a completely different story. Defense ranks with Pettine as defensive coordinator: Jets: 2009: 1st, 2010: 3rd, 2011: 5th, 2012: 8th with Bills in 2013: 10th.
Mike Pettine has coached defenses on teams with Mark Sanchez, Greg McElroy, Tim Tebow, EJ Manuel, Thad Lewis, Jeff Tuel, Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw, Josh McCown and Austin Davis under center.
Now, he gets Aaron Rodgers. Someone who has elite offensive ability. Only time will tell how this relationship will go, but I think it’s in pretty good shape.
Green Bay once again turned the tables in the off-season by moving General Manager Ted Thompson from that position to a Senior Advisor role. This meant a new face in Green Bay as the GM. They ended up interviewing both internal and external candidates. It came down to Seahawks GM John Schneider, Packers director of football operations Eliot Wolf, and Packers personnel executive Brian Gutekunst.
Most fans wanted Eliot Wolf because of the family last name and the lineage of it. I thought they would go that route as well. They ended up going with Gutekunst as GM which I was also fine with. Sources within the NFL and Packers say he’s going to be more aggressive in free agency than his predecessor Ted Thompson, which I’m completely in agreement with.
Wolf ended up leaving Green Bay to pursue an assistant GM job with the Browns which is expected. He’s not going to wait around for Green Bay to put him in a role with the team if he can find a better higher paying role somewhere else.
With all that has happened in Green Bay over the past year, these are some much needed, long-time coming, and very welcomed changes. Green Bay fans should be very happy and excited about them. Things are finally trending in the right direction and I cannot wait to see it all come together in September. Enjoy the off-season, it’s going to be a good one!! Go Pack!!
#DHPF @DieHardPackrFan #ParkerMoes @ParkerMoes
