Thursday Thoughts: McCarthy’s Return

After the next 17 days, there probably won’t be any fans left who haven’t seen just how far the Packers have fallen with their own eyes. That’s because the NFL’s most disappointing team is scheduled to be on national television three times – on three different networks – between Sunday and November 27. Anyway, here are a few more thoughts that ran through my mind recently:

1) Here’s hoping Michael John McCarthy gets the warm reception he deserves when the Cowboys coach returns to Lambeau for the first time since being fired by the Packers on Dec. 2, 2018. Not only did McCarthy win a championship in Green Bay, but his final 4-7-1 rudely interrupted campaign no longer looks quite so terrible. Remember, he was dealing with a headstrong quarterback who wasn’t playing at a high level and seemingly stopped listening. Sound familiar? Look, fans have every right to believe McCarthy should’ve won more than a single Super Bowl during his 13 years in Green Bay. That said, the Packers have only won two in the past five-plus decades, and he’s got half of them. That deserves respect and admiration. About 80,000 people can show both late Sunday afternoon.




2) Quarterbacks fail to see open receivers all the time, but every once in a while, there’s a miss so hard to comprehend that it deserves special attention. Most Packers fans have already seen the video of Aaron Rodgers not throwing the ball to tight end Josiah Deguara on what almost certainly would’ve been a touchdown in the fourth quarter of a game Green Bay would lose by six points. Instead, the reigning back-to-back MVP decided to toss the ball away. After watching this play a half-dozen times, it’s still impossible to figure out what Rodgers was thinking. He appeared to see the 6-foot-3 Deguara, so was he spooked by the defensive back flying off the left side? Does he need new glasses or contact lenses? Whatever the case, the end result was one of the greatest QBs of all-time missing a receiver Stevie Wonder could’ve seen.

This play brought back unpleasant memories of when Rodgers missed an open Allen Lazard in the divisional round of the playoffs last January.

3) General manager Brian Gutekunst made his first good decision in months when he claimed Johnathan Abram off waivers from the Raiders on Wednesday. That’s exactly the kind of move a team going nowhere should make in the middle of November. The former No. 1 pick was a huge disappointment in Las Vegas, and he probably won’t perform significantly better in Green Bay, but there’s absolutely no downside in taking a look at a player talented enough to be drafted 27th overall in 2019. The addition of Abram might also persuade Joe Barry to finally try Darnell Savage in the slot. The heavily criticized defensive coordinator opined last week that Savage would be an “unbelievable nickel” but lamented the team didn’t have a safety capable of replacing him. Thanks to Abram, that flimsy excuse no longer holds up.

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