The Carolina Panthers have reportedly interviewed former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy for their open coaching spot, according to ESPN.
This would be a mistake.
Before I get into why, let’s give the man his due. McCarthy had success in Green Bay. He won a Super Bowl in 2010. The Packers were consistently competitive, if slightly underachieving, while he was the head coach there for 13 seasons.
He also had one of the most gifted quarterbacks to ever play the game on his roster, and continually under-achieved with a roster that was one of the strongest in the NFL.
His in-game management was a disaster. People called him conservative, but I wouldn’t even call him that — he just looked confused most of the time. I know how hectic a game sideline can be, how many moving parts there are, and I’m not asking every coach to be able to quickly run a down-and-distance win-probability analysis to make the right call every time.
(They probably should have someone on staff to do that, but still.)
With McCarthy, that wasn’t the issue. With McCarthy, he often seemed completely surprised by the situations as they presented themselves. I can’t recall the amount of times I saw Aaron Rodgers anxiously turn to the sideline with the Packers in a fourth-and-short situation, and the camera would cut to McCarthy, and he would look like I just asked him to translate a passage of particularly dense Greek.
McCarthy wasn’t weighing options. McCarthy was lost. Eventually, he’d sort of gather himself, and then send the field goal unit on the field as Rodgers would angrily storm off the field.
Again: That wasn’t something I saw once or twice. That happened all the time.
Now McCarthy is doing a bit of a press tour, saying he’s changed. I think he knew the knocks on him, so he gave an interview to NFL.com in which he said he’s been studying all the other teams, including their use of analytics.
McCarthy wants people to believe he’s seen the light. He’s not the conservative fuddy duddy who held Rodgers back. He’s innovative. He uses the computers, now!
But … then he made clear in the interview that he’s never going to totally change his style. Plus, this is what he said regarding the use of analytics:
“We were definitely on the average side at best in my time in Green Bay there.”
Average? Come on.
This man is paying lip service. Forgive me for thinking this, but to me, this is someone who has no idea. He says he studied analytics, but offers no insight into what that means, or how he wants to apply it. He just says he studied “analytics.”
What did he glean from these studies of his? That teams should be going for it far more often fourth down? That play-action pass is still under-utilized? That teams should be throwing more than they ever have?
No. All he learned is that he can do analytics better.
Right.
Panthers, if you want an old school, conservative coach who has a pedigree, by all means, hire Mike McCarthy. But don’t buy this idea he’s selling that he’s embraced analytics or has some innovative vision for the Panthers.
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