On the anniversary of the hiring of former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren as their head coach, the Green Bay Packers went back to the well and made an offer to current San Francisco OC Mike McCarthy to fill the head coaching position vacated by Mike Sherman. The offer comes on the heels of general manager Ted Thompson’s furious interview schedule, where he visited several coaches over the last week and a half. McCarthy is highly regarded in Green Bay, where he served as the quarterbacks coach in 1999 before being hired as the Saints’ offensive coordinator in 2000.
This is an unorthodox move – offensive coordinators whose teams rank last in the league in total offense aren’t usually tapped for head coaching jobs. McCarthy does have a few nice items to put on his resume as he did lead the Saints to a team record 432 points in 2002. It’s unclear what this hire will mean for defensive coordinator Jim Bates, who was thought to be a frontrunner for the head job. He turned a sorry defense into a top 10 performer this season, and it would be a shame for the Packers to let him go.
The bigger question is how this move will affect Brett Favre’s decision to come back for another season. McCarthy does have a relationship with Favre (remember, he was the QB coach in ’99) and has continued to stay in touch with the future Hall of Famer since then.
The hire could be the defining decision of Thompson’s brief career with the Packers. If this backfires and the Packers don’t start winning soon, the organization will almost certainly clean house when the duo’s contracts are up.
