The search has begun.
The Green Bay Packers reportedly have interviewed the first two of what will probably be several candidates to replace Mike McCarthy as Head Football Coach.
McCarthy was fired hours after Green Bay lost to Arizona on December 2, dropping the team's record 4-7-1 in his 13th season as Head Coach.
Offensive coordinator Joe Philbin took over on an interim basis and has led the Packers to a pair of victories against one loss with the season finale coming Sunday against the Detroit Lions.
Team President and CEO Mark Murphy has said Philbin is a viable candidate for the full time job.
In the meantime, Murphy has met with two former NFL Head Coaches in Jim Caldwell and Chuck Pagano.
Caldwell has been a Head Coach for seven seasons, three in Indianapolis (2009-2011) and four in Detroit (2014-2017). Caldwell succeeded Tony Dungy in Indianapolis and led the Colts to an AFC best record of 14-2, reaching the Super Bowl only to lose to the New Orleans Saints 31-17. He won a second straight AFC South Division title the following year but in 2011, Peyton Manning suffered the first in a series of neck injuries and the Colts plummeted to 2-14 and he was released.
Caldwell, a native of Beloit, Wisconsin, had immediate success in his first year with the Lions, taking Detroit to the playoffs as a Wild Card with an 11-5 record in 2014. A 9-7 record in 2016 got Detroit back into the post-season but they were again eliminated on Wild Card weekend. After missing the playoffs in 2017, even with a 9-7 record, Caldwell was dismissed.
His career record at the two stops was 62-50, his playoff record is 2-4.
Pagano succeeded Caldwell in Indianapolis and led the Colts for six years, also through the 2017 season.
His career record is 56-46, which included a pair of division titles in 2013 and 2014 with three playoff appearances. The Colts were upset in the 2012 Wild Card game by Baltimore, but they reached the AFC Championship game two seasons later, falling 45-7 to the New England Patriots in Foxborough.
When Peyton Manning departed for Denver, leading the Broncos to a Super Bowl victory, the Colt fortunes turned, going 8-8 in 2016 and 4-12 in Pagano's final season when Andrew Luck missed the entire year because of an injury.
Just after his first season began, Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia and had to take a leave of absence to undergo treatment. Assistant Bruce Arians took over the team for the next 12 weeks. With Pagano in the press box for the first time since the diagnosis, he watched Arians and the Colts defeat the Green Bay Packers 30-27 on October 7. Pagano returned to the team for the final two games that year.
This season, Pagano worked as a consultant for the NFL and it's officials.
Both men coached well established, veteran quarterbacks in Manning and Matthew Stafford, a connection considered vital for the Green Bay job with Aaron Rodgers entering his 15th NFL season next year.
There will be more candidates emerging over the coming weeks as the Packers will certainly reach out to assistants on NFL teams that will be participating in post-season play and perhaps college coaches once the bowl season and playoffs have concluded.