News From The Pack

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy introduced his re-shuffled offensive coaching staff on Monday, there are some old faces in new places with one fresh face on board.  Here's a collection of quotes from the assistants from a media sitdown in the Legends Room of the Lambeau Field Atrium.

The Green Bay Packers announced the completion of the new assignments for the offensive coaching staff today.   In the wake of Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin becomming the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McCarthy began juggling his remaining staff.  Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements was promoted to offensive coordinator and last week, Ben McAdoo moved from tight ends to the quarterback position.  McCarthy finished the changes with running backs coach Jerry Fontenot moving to tight ends. Fontenot was the assistant offensive line coach for four seasons before moving to running backs last year.  John Rushing will serve as an assistant offensive and special teams coach while Joel Hilgenberg will be the assistant offensive line coach.  The only newcomer to the staff is Alex Van Pelt who will succeed Fontenot as running backs coach.  Van Pelt, the former quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh, spent the past two seasons as the quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  He spent the four previous seasons with the Buffalo Bills moving from quality control, to quarterbacks and in 2009, served as offensive coordinator.  Van Pelt played nine years as a backup quarterback in Buffalo after setting school career records for passing yards and completions while at Pitt.

When Joe Philbin was named head coach of the Miami Dolphins, the musical chairs began playing at 1265 Lombardi Avenue.   Philbin pre-dated head coach Mike McCarthy in Green Bay and rose from assistant offensive line coach to offensive coordinator before getting his first head coaching job at any level with Miami.  The vacancy at Lambeau was filled quickly by McCarthy who promoted his quarterbacks coach, Tom Clements to the coordinator position and now the QB chair is being filled by tight ends coach Ben McAdoo.  McAdoo has worked with tight ends for 6 years, arriving with McCarthy in Green Bay from San Francisco where he began as an offensive quality control assistant and assitant offensive line coach.  McCarthy thought so much of McAdoo he denied Philbin and the Tampa Bay Bucaneers permission to speak to him about vacancies with those teams.   Bright and well respected by the players, McAdoo is following a similar career path as Andy Reid, about to enter his 14th season as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.  Reid joined the Packers under Mike Holmgren as a tight ends coach, replaced Steve Mariucci as QB coach with Mooch became head coach at Cal.  After working with Brett Favre for a couple of years, Reid became the head coach of the Eagles in 1999.  McAdoo will now be tutoring league MVP Aaron Rodgers who thinks the relationship will be fine.  He expressed some reservations about having a coach who never played the position.  McCarthy can bring the musical chairs game to an end by hiring a new tight ends coach.

Aaron Rodgers has reached the pinnacle in professional football.  A season after leading the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl XLV Championship in Dallas, earning the game's most valuable player award, the 28 year old is now the National Football League's Most Valuable Player.  At the Honors Show Saturday night at the Murat Theatre in downtown Indianapolis, Rodgers graciously accepted the highest individual honor after leading the Packers to the league's best regular season record in record setting fashion.  The vote was a runaway with 48 of the 50 Associated Press representatives cast ballots for Rodgers with New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees picking up the remaining two. Rodgers broke the single season passer rating record of 4 time MVP Peyton Manning, who presented the trophy to him on stage.  He finished with a rating of 122.5, setting another record of posting a rating above 100 in each of his first 11 starts, all Packer victories.  Rodgers finished with 45 touchdown passes against 6 interceptions, completing 68.3 percent of his passes for a career high 4,643 yards.  The yards and touchdowns were both Packer records, established in just 15 games as he sat out the regular season finale.  Rodgers joins Paul Hornung (1961), Jim Taylor (1962), Bart Start (1966) and Brett Favre (1995, 1996, 1997) as AP Green Bay Packer MVP's.

As expected, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy has promoted quarterbacks coach Tom Clements to the position of offensive coordinator, replacing Joe Philbin, now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.  Clements has been McCarthy's QB coach for the past six years and has been instrumental in the development of Aaron Rodgers into a Pro Bowl quarterback and the likely NFL Most Valuable Player this season.  Before joining the Packer staff, Clements coordinated the Buffalo Bills offense for two seasons in 2004-2005.  He has also been an assistant in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and his alma mater, Notre Dame.  He led the Irish to the national championship in 1973 and finished 4th in the Heisman Trophy voting the following year.  Clements never really got a shot in the NFL but went north of the border and became a star in the Canadian Football League, winning a pair of Grey Cup championships and making the All-Star squad six times.  He was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame after a 12 year career.   McCarthy could promote another assistant into Clements position, tight ends coach Ben McAdoo is a possibility.

The Oakland Raiders have asked permission from the Pack to interview secondary coach Joe Whitt for the job of defensive coordinator for new Raiders head coach Dennis Allen.  Allen was hired by former Packers personel director and Oakland's new GM Reggie McKenzie who has given his coach authority to fill out his staff.  Whitt, 33 is an up and coming coach who joined the Packers 4 years ago as a quality control defensive assistant.

Mike Holmgren, the 11th head coach in Green Bay Packers history, who led the Pack to the Super Bowl XXXI Championship and took the team to a second consecutive title game, will be inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame this summer.  He won 84 games in his 7 seasons as head coach, made the playoffs 6 straight years and helped ressurect a franchise that had gone dormant for nearly a generation.  On Tuesday, Wisconsin reporters, including myself who covered the entire Holmgren era, had a chance to visit with him about his induction and his memories of a magical time in Titletown.  Here are some of the highlights.

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy held his season ending news conference this afternoon at the Lambeau Field Media Auditorium.  It lasted about 30 minutes and covered just about every topic imaginable.  Some of the more minor details included JohnKuhn suffering a knee sprain that will keep the fullback out of his first Pro Bowl unfortunately. Greg Jennings suffered a rib sprain against the Giants in the NFC Divisional Playoff but he should be able to play in Hawaii, along with Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson and Scott Wells.  McCarthy and his staff will coach the NFC squad in Honolulu on January 29.  Mike spent Monday and Tuesday conducting exit interviews with every player, Wednesday he reviewed all aspects of the defense with coordinator Dom Capers, he'll do the same with special teams and Shaun Slocum Thursday and finally Joe Philbin and the offense on Friday.  Philbin interviewed with the Miami Dolphins for a second time and is among the three finalists for the job.  There's also a report quarterback coach Tom Clements will interview for the Tampa Bay head coaching position.  McCarthy said he has a quality staff and there will be opportunities for some in the coming weeks.  There was also plenty of big picture questioning and to hear the highlights, click on the link below.  It was odd leaving the stadium today after grinding through another campaign that began in July and carried to the post-season, with such a suddenly disappointing finish.  Time for the team, the fans and yes, the media to decompress a little bit before the cycle starts over with free agency, the draft, the mini-camps, organized team activities, training camp and...can't wait 'till next year!

The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame announced today it will induct Mike Holmgren into the hall this summer.  The Super Bowl winning coach will be the only member of the Class of 2012 when the Hall of Fame holds the induction banquet at the Lambeau Field Atrium on Saturday July 21.  Holmgren was hired by General Manager Ron Wolf in 1992 and led the resurgence of the Packers culminating with the 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.  The former San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator began the turnaround immediately, going 9-7 in his first season, a five game improvement from the previous season.  It started a run of 7 straight winning seasons and club record-six consecutive playoff appearances.   In 1993 and 1994, the Packers under Holmgren earned Wild Card berths and defeated the Detroit Lions only to fall to the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round.  In 1995, the Packers won the NFC Central Title for the first time since 1972, defeated Atlanta in the opening round and then broke through with a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park, before bowing out in the NFC Championship game, again, against the Cowboys in Dallas.  Not to be denied, in Holmgren's 5th year, the Packers produced the NFC's best record at 13-3 and defeated the 49ers and hosted the NFC Title game against Carolina, winning 30-13 to reach the Super Bowl in New Orleans.   Led by Brett Favre, Reggie White and Super Bowl MVP Desmond Howard, the Packers defeated the Patriots to capture their third Super Bowl title and 12th NFL Championship.  Holmgren led the Packers to a second straight Super Bowl in 1997, only to be denied back to back titles by the upset minded Denver Broncos.  In Holmgren's final year, the Pack again reached the post-season with an 11-5 record but were knocked out of the Wild Card round by the 49ers at Candlestick 30-27 when Terrell Owens caught a Steve Young touchdown in the closing seconds.   Holmgren's career record of 84-42 included a regular season mark of 75-37 and 9-5 in the playoffs.  It's third on the franchise victory list behind Curley Lambeau and Vince Lombardi and only Lombardi had a higher winning percentage.  Under Holmgren, the Packers went 47-5 at Lambeau Field and reeled off a club record 25 straight victories, second longest home winning streak in NFL history.  Holmgren went on to become head coach and general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, leading that team to a Super Bowl berth and after a year in retirement, returned to the NFL as president of the Cleveland Browns.  Holmgren and his wife Kathy have three daughters.

Tickets for the banquet which begins with a cash bar reception at 4:30 with a dinner and program following at 7:00 PM, are $135.00 each and can be purchased by calling Gwen Borga at (920) 965-6984.

The Green Bay Packers spent Monday attending one final team meeting and then one by one, visited with head coach Mike McCarthy for a little exit meeting.   The plan was to do all this in another couple of weeks but that was derailed by the New York Giants who came to Lambeau Field Sunday night and eliminated the 15-1 Packers 37-20 in the NFC Divisional Round.   The Packers became the 6th consecutive Super Bowl champion that failed to win a post-season game the year after their title.  It was an understandably quiet locker room when the players broke from the team meeting around 9:00 AM to clean out the lockers, stuff boxes or garbage bags full of shoes, toiletries and photos of the wife and kids.  The locker room was open to the media for about an hour but several players avoided the press ready with more questions about what happened Sunday and what are your off-season plans?  Clay Matthews came down the hall from the meeting room, took one look at the assembled media corps, turned and headed for cover in the trainer's room.  With a crowd surrounding his locker, Matt Flynn strolled in but was quickly grabbed by guard Josh Sitton who escorted him to the player's lounge, off-limits to the press.  If only Aaron Rodgers had that kind of protection Sunday!  Flynn is among a group of unrestricted free agents who's contract expires in March.  He will be sought after by several teams.  Third stringer Graham Harrell thinks Flynn will be an excellent starter and he's anxious for his first off-season as a Packer, including McCarthy's quarterback school in the spring, bolstering his shot to become the number 2.  Donald Driver talked about his future, hoping it's with the Packers.  Several other players strolled in and offered their thoughts on the Giants game and the off-season.   On the link below, you'll hear some of those players who were willing to share their thoughts on the unexpected last day of the season.

They did it again.  Decided underdogs on the road in the playoffs, the New York Giants unceremoniously ended a glorious season for the defending Super Bowl champions, knocking the Packers out of the post-season with a convincing 37-20 victory before 72.080 fans.   The visitors played the Pack tough at home just five weeks ago and came to town after a 24-2 Wild Card victory over Atlanta, while the Packers' excitement of the first home playoff game since the bitter 2007 NFC title game loss to yes, the Giants, seemed to have been dulled by the turbulent week leading up to kickoff.  It wasn't just the tragedy that struck Joe Philbin's family, the Packers lost their number two personel man in Reggie McKenzie which led to speculation some Green Bay assistants were high on his list to coach his Oakland Raiders.  There was the shocking Monday learning of the death of Michael Philbin, the wake on Thursday, the funeral on Friday and the Packers quite frankly, played very distracted football.  After fumbling only 6 times all year, they lost three and it could have been five.  There were more dropped passes, at least a half dozen from nearly every receiver and there was an embarrassing hail mary touchdown on the final play of the first half that gave the Giants a 20-10 lead at intermission.  Hakeem Nicks out jumped Charles Woodson and Charlie Peprah for a stunning 37 yard score from which the Packers could not recover.  The teams traded field goals and touchdowns on the game's first four posessions.  Green Bay should have had the first touchdown but Aaron Rodgers missed an open Greg Jennings at the five which led to Mason Crosby's tying 47 yard boot.  Nicks then took a medium pass a long ways, bouncing off a Peprah hit for a 66 yard touchdown.  The Pack came right back with John Kuhn scoring on an 8 yard pass from Rodgers.  The Packer special teams and defense then made a couple of plays, Brad Jones blocked a Lawrence Tynes field goal try and Morgan Burnett intercepted an overthrown pass from Eli Manning, about the only mistake he made.  But four snaps later, Kuhn fumbled which led to a Tynes field goal and when the Packers couldn't move, punted the ball away.  The Giants were without a timeout with 41 seconds left in the half and faced third and one at their own 40 with 15 seconds remaining.  Ahmad Bradshaw then reversed his field on a sweep left and gained 23 yards getting out of bounds with :06 to go.  Manning then heaved the ball deep and Nicks silenced the Lambeau crowd with his catch.  The Packers deferred on the coin toss and had it first ini the third quarter, moving to the New York 30 but Osi Umenyiora knocked the ball out of Rodgers' hand and Deon Grant recovered.  The Packers got it back which led to a Crosby 35 yard field goal and Green Bay was within 7 and forced another three and out.  McCarthy gambled on a 4th and 5 at the New York 39 and Rodgers was sacked by Michael Boley.  The Giants tacked on three more before the backbreaking turnover arrived.  Ryan Grant fumbled at the 44 and Chase Blackburn picked up the loose ball and returned it to the 4 yard line.  On the next snap, Manning hit Mario Manningham for a touchdown that made it 30-13.  A Donald Driver touchdown catch of 16 yards pulled Green Bay to within 10 but New York recovered the onside kick and Brandon Jacobs closed out the scoring with a 14 yard with only 2:36 remaining.  New York outgained the Packers 420-388 as Manning outperformed Rodgers to the tune of 330 yards passing and a rating of 114.5 to Rodgers 264 and 78.5.  New York won the turnover battle 4-1 and had far fewer mistakes.  Rodgers was also sacked 4 times and got flushed enough that he was the game's leading rusher with 66 yards on 7 scrambles.   Green Bay is now just 2-4 in it's last 6 playoff games at home with the visitors from the Big Apple winning the last two.  The 15-1 regular season and the number one seed went poof! in an agonzing 3 hours and 14 minutes.  On the link below, post-game quotes from both the winning Giants and the embarrased and very disappointed Green Bay Packers.

It's been a difficult week on Lombardi Avenue and it seems like it's been a month, not a week since the Packers last played but the NFC Divisional Playoff against the New York Giants is finally at hand.   The two teams who have combined for 20 NFL titles kick it off Sunday afternoon at 3:30 at Lambeau Field, the 4th and final Divisional round game of the weekend.  The death of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin's son cast a pall on the organization, understandably so and the funeral for 21 year old Michael Philbin is Friday afternoon.  Several players attended the visitation Thursday night as did former Packers head coach Mike Sherman.  A large contingent is also expected for the service.  Philbin has taken a leave of absence from the team and is not expected to be in his customary spot in the press box Sunday.   Philbin's leave impacted the players during the week, in meetings and on the practice field where he normally would conduct the power point presentations on the game plan and run the offensive portion of team drills on the practice field.  Mike McCarthy will notice the absence on game day where Philbin is usually in constant communication with McCarthy on play calls, suggestions and tendencies.  I'm not sure how the duties will be allocated Sunday but my guess is either running backs coach Jerry Fontenot, receiver coach Edgar Bennett or tight end coach Ben McAdoo will handle that role.

The Packers will have a nearly clean bill of health for the game, in fact they'll start the preferred offensive line of Chad Clifton, T.J. Lang, Scott Wells, Josh Sitton and Bryan Bulaga for the first time together since week 3 against the Chicago Bears.  Greg Jennings, James Starks and Randall Cobb are also good to go on the offense.  Sitton, along with A.J. Hawk and Desmond Bishop missed the first Giants game at MetLife Stadium December 4 and they'll be back on the field Sunday.

As for the matchups:  You have to start with the Giants strength, their pass rush.  48 sacks on the season, 41 just from the defensive line led by Jason Pierre-Paul with 16.5.  Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Chris Canty and Dave Tollefson join Pierre-Paul to form an interchangeable group that doesn't need a lot of blitzing help to create pressure.  If Clifton shows any signs of rust, the Packers won't hesitate to turn to Marshall Newhouse who admittedly had a hard time containing Pierre-Paul last month.  Given just a smidgen of time, Aaron Rodgers will have to make quick reads against a lot of 7 man coverage sure to clog route lanes and passing windows.  I expect the Packers to treat this game a lot like they do when they face Chicago, hold the line and work underneath to Jermichael Finley or checkdown running backs, picking spots to challenge downfield.  A significant running game can not only reduce pressure from the rush, but possibly break into the second and third levels of a defense intent on not getting beat through the air.   For the Packers defense, it has to start with the run.  Brandon Jacobs and Amad Bradshaw are finally rounding into form, they ran strong against the Packers in December and were even better in New York's wild card victory over Atlanta.  Taking away the run and denying play action opportunities for Eli Manning will go a long way toward cutting down the explosive gains in the air that hurt this defense in the last meeting.  Tight end Travis Beckum, receivers Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz all had gains of at least 40 yards in that game.  Communication has to improve at the back end and with better coverage comes more opportunities to swipe an errant Manning throw.  He hurried decision on the first place of the second quarter last month led to Clay Matthew's pick six.  Another key for the Pack, the hunger factor from the players who could only watch last year's run to the Lombardi trophy in Dallas. 15 players on injured reserve last season including Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley, Brad Jones and Morgan Burnett, all expected starters this weekend.  They all need to be productive for the Packers to advance.  Finally, 16 players on the roster where bundled in layers the last time these two teams met in the post-season, the bitterly cold January night in 2008 that ended in a most-bitter overtime loss, 23-20.  While the Giants have the same feeling of destiny on their Super Bowl run, culminated by the victory that denied New England an unbeaten championship, the Packers who took part in that NFC title game do not want to let that happen again.   I think the Packers want to help Joe Philbin recover from his loss by delivering a well executed game, and they also want to get one step closer to a second straight Super Bowl appearance.   I like the Pack to win 27-21.  On the link below, hear the quotes from both the Packers and the Giants on how they view the NFC Divisional Playoff matchup.

The first significant snowfall of winter descended upon Titletown today and chased the Packers inside the Don Hutson Center for practice.  Head Coach Mike McCarthy said it was still productive, they left all the doors open and even turned on the fans to simulate a little more winter wind.   It will be the final strenuous workout of the week.  A shells practice, again likely inside Friday will wrap up the preparation for the New York Giants and the NFC Divisional Playoff game Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field.  McCarthy said one of the most difficult decisions coming before the game will be to decide who will sit it out.  For the first time since perhaps mid-September, the entire squad took part in the practices this week.  Settling on the inactives and the 46 who will dress will require some deliberation at the game management meeting on Saturday.   Only two players were limited at practice, Randall Cobb with a sore groin and Robert Francois with a hamstring pull.  McCarthy talked with Cobb during the return portion of practice and said with a light workout Friday and 50 hours to rest before game time, he should be fine.  I spoke with Cobb in the locker room after practice and he has no doubts he'll be ready.  He could give the Packers a big field position boost, finishing number one in the NFC and second in the league this year in kickoff returns.  Full participants again included the starting tackles, Bryan Bulaga and Chad Clifton along with James Starks and Greg Jennings.

The Playoff captains were elected by the squad this week.  It'll be Aaron Rodgers and Donald Driver on offense, Charles Woodson and A.J.Hawk on defense and Mason Crosby and Jarrett Bush on special teams.

Visitation for Michael Philbin is being held Thursday afternoon and evening with funeral services Friday afternoon in Green Bay.  McCarthy said the team will be finished with meetings and practice on both days and he's left it up to the individual players if they want to attend.  The 21 year old son of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin died Monday, his body found in the Fox River in Oshkosh after what's been ruled a drowning.  Toxicology test results won't be back for several weeks.  The death cast a pall on the organization all week and it's not known if Philbin, on a leave of absence, will attend the game Sunday.