The Mike McCarthy-Green Bay Packers fall out has generated lots of press over the last couple of weeks. The blame has been placed from the Packers front office to the strained relationship between McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. Whoever takes the blame, the McCarthy fallout may forever leave a mark with the franchise.
From 2010-2016, McCarthy led the Packers to a Super Bowl win and seven playoff appearances. Under McCarthy, Rodgers developed into the premier quarterback in the NFL, winning two MVP's and becoming an All-Pro three times. While in those seven years only one title was produced, it didn't appear that the Packers window closed.
But in 2017 and 2018 the Packers suffered back-to-back losing seasons with an injured Rodgers, leading to McCarthy getting ousted. It appears that the Packers brass had enough of McCarthy and his shortcomings.
But what makes McCarthy's ouster a true failure is how he never evolved the team around the prodigious talents of Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers, like LeBron James and Peyton Manning, has the talent to will any team to the postseason. It was reported that Rodgers would freelance his play under McCarthy, and of course, it worked.
But only to an extent. Rodgers freelancing led to a body breakdown and a lack of championship opportunities. The Packers would rely so much on Rodgers and his talents, that they never instilled a true offensive system that would have given him the security blanket needed to succeed. There was no method to the madness. No offensive mechanical warfare. Just Rodgers being the system.
We see the same thing with LeBron James. Teams James has been employed by have relied so much on James and his unworldly talents. Once James is out of the game or teams to have tacitly game planned around his style of play, James and his teammates have a hard time adjusting. Of course, the Golden State Warriors defeated the James-led Cleveland Cavaliers the last two seasons from a talent standpoint. But also from a schematic standpoint.
From the 2011 Packers loss to the New York Giants to the 2014 Packers lost to the Seattle Seahawks, the losses caused pundits to wonder whether McCarthy was setting Rodgers up the right way schematically.
But Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry benefited most from having a team and system built around their talents. Between the three, 15 championships have been won due to their play and their coaches instilling an adequate system to support them. McCarthy's lack of self-awareness ultimately doomed Rodgers.
A talent like Rodgers only transcends a league once every five to ten years. It's important for coaches to not to rely on a gifted players talent but to also give them an offensive system that will not only enhance them as a player but their team, too. Apparently, McCarthy couldn't get out of his own way with Rodgers. It's a casualty of success: everyone wants to receive the credit instead of doing the grunt work.
But in the words of Colin Cowherd, it's more important to get it right than to be right. McCarthy chose the latter, and it ended up costing him his job.
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