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Green
Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy looks on from the
sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game
against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 27 in
Green Bay
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GREEN BAY - Despite a bitter end to
the season, the Green Bay Packers appear to be headed in the right
direction as a franchise.
Now they have some big decisions to
make in order to take the next step and contend for the Super Bowl
next season.
In the wake of Sunday's overtime
playoff loss at Arizona, Packers coach Mike McCarthy didn't rule out
the possibility of changes to his coaching staff and acknowledged
the uncertainty the team faces with high-profile players who are
approaching free agency.
"Every year is different, every
football team is different," McCarthy said Wednesday. "You
need to rebuild, reload, restructure. We have a good foundation. We
have a program, a blueprint that works, but we need to improve it
because we did not get past the first round."
Coming off a miserable 2008, the
Packers' defense took significant steps forward under new
coordinator Dom Capers, though it wasn't a success right away.
"We definitely had a transition
as a defense early in the season," McCarthy said. "I
didn't like some of the selfishness that went on on our defense
early on in the season. We grew through that, we got past
that."
McCarthy wouldn't go into detail
about the "selfishness," but might have been referring to
players who publicly second-guessed Capers' game plans early in the
season.
The Packers evolved to become one of
the league's top defenses, only to run into trouble against
high-powered passing offenses in a late-season loss at Pittsburgh
and Sunday's 51-45 overtime loss at Arizona.
"Trust me, we'll take a long
look at Arizona from a defensive standpoint, and Pittsburgh,"
McCarthy said. "You're talking about over 1,000 yards of
offensive production in two days."
The offense was productive but didn't
truly hit its stride until the Packers solved their pass-protection
problems. Mark Tauscher returned to play right tackle, McCarthy
recommitted to calling short passes and Aaron Rodgers began getting
rid of the ball more quickly.
Rodgers never complained publicly
about his lack of pass protection, continuing his evolution as the
team's leader following Brett Favre's rocky departure in 2008.
McCarthy conducted exit interviews with players Monday and Tuesday
and said several teammates noted Rodgers' leadership.
"I think he's clearly taken over
the identity of this being his team," McCarthy said. "That
was very evident the last two days."
But with the offseason beginning,
even McCarthy doesn't know if the Packers will be able to bring back
all his key players.
The status of a new collective
bargaining agreement between NFL owners and the players' union will
affect the free agency status of several players, including safety
Atari Bigby, cornerback Will Blackmon, guard Daryn Colledge, safety
Nick Collins, defensive end Johnny Jolly, fullback John Kuhn, safety
Derrick Martin and center Jason Spitz.
With no new agreement in place, there
will be no salary cap in 2010 and those players will become
restricted free agents instead of unrestricted free agents.
"The landscape for this
offseason has changed," McCarthy said. "There is
uncertainty there, and that makes personnel decisions even
harder."
No matter what happens in labor
negotiations, the Packers will have to make potentially difficult
decisions on unrestricted free agents such as Tauscher, left tackle
Chad Clifton, nose tackle Ryan Pickett and outside linebacker Aaron
Kampman.
McCarthy spoke highly of his team's
veteran free agents but did not provide specifics on the team's
interest in keeping them. McCarthy also did not commit to keeping
his coaching staff intact.
"I like the way the season's
gone from a staff standpoint, but we'll look at everything,"
McCarthy said. "We're going to evaluate every individual,
myself included, because this is an opportunity to improve, and we
need to improve our program."
McCarthy would not comment on reports
that the Packers turned down the Chicago Bears' request to interview
quarterbacks coach Tom Clements for their open offensive coordinator
job or the Oakland Raiders' potential interest in assistant head
coach Winston Moss.
Although McCarthy is pleased with the
direction his team is headed, he said any team that didn't win the
Super Bowl can't claim their season was a success.
"We have some successes and some
experience from this past year that we'll be able to carry over that
we did not have last year, so I'm confident that will help us,"
McCarthy said. "But the goal will never change here."
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