There was plenty to talk about on Monday's 5th Quarter Show at Stadium View in Green Bay after an embarrassing home loss to Arizona and the dismissal of Mike McCarthy, including the current leadership structure and how it will affect a head coach hire.
Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy did the firing and will have the final say on the hiring with input from GM Brian Gutekunst. "This structure thing has me nervous," said Mark Daniels on the show. Given Daniels' 40 years of covering the team, old memories were dredged up of hiring failures. Specifically, failures when the hire was made by the team President rather than the General Manager.
The situation is compounded by a talent drought. Says Daniels, "They've got tons of cap money lined up on Rodgers, they've spent money unwisely on Randall Cobb and Nick Perry, they're not getting anything out of those two guys. And then the money they didn't spend to keep guys that would be very valuable in the season. I was fine with making the move (with Jordy Nelson), but now In hindsight, it looks like they really could have used Jordy, and probably Aaron could have on the whole chemistry thing in the passing game because you're relying on two rookies who don't know what they're doing yet. They have talent, yes, but they don't know what they are doing (yet)."
Daniels continues, "And in the secondary, they could have kept Micah Hyde. Could have kept Casey Hayward, but they tried drafting DB's two by two for those last few years and none of them have panned out. This is a talent drought that's going to set back the Packers not just one rebuilding year with a new head coach and a lot of energy. But we're talking two, three, maybe four years in a row. And if it doesn't work out, and Rodgers is 39, you've got to hit the motherlode on a hall of fame first ballot Quarterback for the third time in a row. That is not going to happen."
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