NEWSLETTER
After losing to the Minnesota Vikings last week on Sunday Night Football, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talked the talk about running the table and getting some help to make the postseason. But after losing a home game to the Arizona Cardinals (and you thought losing to the Giants was bad!) in Week 13, their playoff hopes are on life support (FiveThirtyEight has their playoff chances at 1%) and the team has announced it is making an immediate change at head coach.
The Packers announced Mike McCarthy has been relieved of his duties as the team’s head coach, installing Offensive CoordinatorJoe Philbin as the man making the calls on an interim basis. McCarthy was in his 13th year with the team, posted a 125-77-2 record with nine postseason appearances, and won a Super Bowl. But the Packers are 11-16-1 since the start of the 2017 season and haven’t lived up to the lofty preseason expectations set at their feet.
“The 2018 season has not lived up to the expectations and standards of the Green Bay Packers. As a result, I made the difficult decision to relieve Mike McCarthy of his role as head coach, effective immediately,” said team President/CEO Mark Murphy in a statement released by the team.
The Packers’ 2018 season has been an unmitigated disappointment, save for their season-opening win against the Bears. So much so, they’ve parted ways with one of the most successful coaches in franchise history. But with the Vikings and Bears looking like they’ve made strong head-coaching hires in recent years, the powers that be up north figure the time to make a move was now.
Murphy also announced the team will immediately get the ball rolling on finding a full-time replacement. In the mean time, Philbin takes over on an interim basis. Philbin is in his second stint as the Packers’ OC and has prior head-coaching experience he gained with the Miami Dolphins from 2012-15. The Dolphins were 24-28 under Philbin, who was hired after the Packers went 15-1 in 2011. Unfortunately for Miami, Philbin’s teams never got it in gear the way the Packers did, going 7-9, 8-8, and 8-8 before he was canned after a 1-3 start in 2014.
On Friday, we discussed the unrest in Packerland and the potential of change coming down the pipeline. Little did we know change would come sooner, rather than later.
