Ex-Packers coach Mike McCarthy eyes NFL return in 2020
DE PERE, Wis. — Mike McCarthy’s right thumb bounces back and forth on the remote as he sits in his outsized mancave, controlling the video that plays on a TV in the corner while debate ensues around him about how to cover one NFL team after another’s version of the deep cross.
When a clip comes up of Aaron Rodgers and the 2019 Packers, McCarthy’s expression doesn’t change, though he admits later it can be emotional watching his old team at times. Right now, McCarthy’s watching like a coach. Studying. Analyzing. Comparing what the Packers are doing now to how he did things the previous 13 years in Green Bay, before an unceremonious in-season dismissal last December.
“If you truly want to learn about yourself, you probably need to look at your last opportunity and keep an eye on it, because you have to be transparent,” McCarthy told me. “You have to be honest about, how can you do things better? And it’s all part of this process. Once you get past the emotion — the negative emotion of it all — it’s a great opportunity to shine a bright light on it and grow.”
Yes, McCarthy fully intends to be an NFL head coach again in 2020. And by any objective measure, his resume alone should make him a top candidate in any search. He won over 61% of his games with the Packers, who reached the playoffs nine times (including eight in a row) in 13 seasons, with four NFC title game appearances and a triumph over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. He has an excellent reputation within the league for his work with quarterbacks, including two Packers legends. Practically the entire history of the West Coast offense lives in tapes and binders at Packers Hall of Fame Inc. (a donation McCarthy made years ago), as well as his garage and the upstairs office of the barn behind his house outside Green Bay, where he chose to spend the first year out of football in his adult life with the family that has never lived anyplace else.
Someday, McCarthy sees himself retiring here. But at age 56, he’s not looking for a cushy gig or one last payday. The theme of his year away has been self-improvement, in every area, and thus was born The McCarthy Project — a collaboration with fellow coaches Jim Haslett, Frank Cignetti Jr. and Scott McCurley that McCarthy says has made him “definitely a better coach” than ever before. Together, they’ve spent months preparing as if they’re the NFL’s 33rd coaching staff, from studying league trends and rebuilding playbooks to deep dives on analytics and mapping out a calendar for practices and meetings all the way through training camp. McCarthy also did a deep dive on himself, going through boxes dating to his early days as an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh and with the Kansas City Chiefs to study how his philosophies have evolved over the past 30 years and where he needs to go from here.
During a wide-ranging recent interview, McCarthy touched on numerous topics, including the bitter moments after his Packers firing, his relationship with Rodgers, the deeply personal meaning to his family of returning to the sidelines and how he intends to go about building another perennial contender.
“To do it right and to be in position to win it every year, that’s what I’m looking for,” McCarthy said. “So that’s the opportunity, that’s who I want to be paired with. And I’m not trying to just go win one, I’m trying to win them all. And I’ve always taken that approach. That’s always been my outlook. And every decision that’s ever been made towards the football team, it was A, number one, what’s best for the locker room? And it’s about moving that locker room forward, ’cause nothing ever stays the same. You’re either getting better or you’re going the other way. And that’s in life and in football.”
Better, not bitter
To understand how a coach who won more games with the Packers than Vince Lombardi (and everyone else except Curly Lambeau) could have his tenure end the way McCarthy’s did, you have to go back to Green Bay’s last playoff season in 2016 — the year Rodgers famously said an injury-depleted team could “run the table” to make the playoffs after starting 4-6, setting the stage for an eight-game winning streak.
“I thought that was clearly the best coaching job that I was part of, in maybe my whole career,” McCarthy says, steering his truck through the dark on the way home from an early-morning coffee run. “The players were tremendous. We just couldn’t stay healthy. That first half of the season was one of the worst stretches that we had, and the team just gutted it out. We got to the NFC Championship Game (a 44-21 loss at Atlanta). That was a very difficult year. And then ’17, we were getting hurt up there in Minnesota, and so it kind of spilled into that year.”
After a 4-1 start in 2017, Rodgers broke his collarbone on a hit by Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr, sending the team spiraling to a 7-9 finish and its first non-playoff season since Rodgers’ first year as the starter in 2008. Longtime general manager Ted Thompson — who for years had almost entirely dismissed free agency and trades in favor of a strict draft-and-develop approach, lumping pressure on Rodgers to cover up the Packers’ weaknesses and coaches to play young players — had been in declining health and stepped down after the season. Then Rodgers suffered a significant knee injury in Week 1 last season, requiring him to wear a brace for weeks and changing the way the Packers could play offense for much of the year. They were 4-7-1 at the time of McCarthy’s dismissal.
The red-faced coach captured so many times by TV cameras yelling at officials in frustration the past few years looked like a different person than who McCarthy had been throughout his tenure.
“I agree with you,” McCarthy said. “There was a lot more going on within our organization that I didn’t experience the first 10 years. And I think that’s a product of being successful. It’s part of that challenge. Failure comes more in that arena than any other. (But) we’re all fighters. You don’t make it in this business if you don’t have that part of your DNA.”
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