The Green Bay Packers finish another season without going to the Super Bowl, which by their standards is a disappointment. The latest one might have opened up some inner-club issues between head coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson regarding the team’s involvement in the free agency market.
While the Packers have had great success with players like Charles Woodson and Julius Peppers when they did actually dive into the free agency market, Thompson is known to rely on the draft and re-signing the team’s pending free agents, preferring familiarity when he spends big on a player than taking a risk which explodes in one’s face a lot of the time as some of the league’s less successful franchises know so well.
But McCarthy, according to the rumors, thinks that the Packers are playing with one hand tied behind their back. Yes, it’s always about building a team around Aaron Rodgers which takes up a bulk of the cap space which always makes it difficult to make big signings, but McCarthy, despite the talent he has at his disposal, would like to see the Packers go after some of the bigger names out there when they have the money available to make such an effort, which is mostly against the Thompson philosophy.
When it comes down to changing or staying the way they are, one has to look at the last five seasons and see why the Packers haven’t been able to go back to the Super Bowl since winning it nearly five years ago. Is it not having a good enough team? Or might it have something to do with McCarthy himself, often criticized for standing in the way of Rodgers and the Packers offense instead of helping it.
Right now, this is more about musings and leaks in local papers than anything else, but with the Packers failing to win the NFC North this season and struggling offensively in a lot of their games this season, there might be more to their problems than just missing Jordy Nelson and Eddie Lacy eating too much.