Green Bay Packers news | How do Green Bay Packers' last two Super Bowl teams match up? | Green Bay Press Gazette
Check the rest..So which Green Bay Packers Super Bowl championship team is better, Mike Holmgren’s heroes of 1996 or Mike McCarthy’s marauders of 2010?
The easy answer, based solely on statistics, would favor the 1996 team that ranked No. 1 on offense and defense in the NFL and produced a flashy 16-3 record.
But the current Packers championship team (14-6) can’t be dismissed so easily. It produced more total yards and sacks than the 1996 team and committed fewer penalties and turnovers. Plus it traveled a much more difficult playoff road and still came away with the Lombardi Trophy.
Both teams possessed remarkable similarities:
• They featured fifth-year head coaches with similar credentials. Holmgren (51-29) was slightly better than McCarthy (48-32) during the regular season, but McCarthy held an edge in post-season winning percentage (.714 to .700).
• They both had 58-year-old general managers — Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson — that served as the architects of their title teams. Wolf built the Packers from the ground up in the 1990s, and one of his key hires was Thompson, who 14 years later would follow in his mentor’s footsteps on the way to Super Bowl glory.
• They both featured elite quarterbacks – Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers – who led their teams to titles in their sixth NFL seasons at age 27. Both Favre and Rodgers were acquired by the Packers with first-round draft choices.
• They both signed big-name free agents – Reggie White and Charles Woodson – that served as dynamic playmakers on defense.
• They both overcame significant injuries. The ’96 team lost Robert Brooks, Ken Ruettgers and George Koonce. The 2010 team suffered even more damage with the loss of starters Jermichael Finley, Nick Barnett, Ryan Grant, Mark Tauscher, Morgan Burnett and Brad Jones.
So which team would win a head-to-head matchup?
Who better to answer that question than Edgar Bennett, the Packers’ starting halfback in 1996 who served as the 2010 running backs coach.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bennett said with a smile. “It’s about bringing that trophy home and putting another ring on your finger.”
It’s hard to blame Bennett for not addressing the question. My position-by-position analysis didn’t produce a more conclusive answer, with both teams deadlocked in a 4-4-1 stalemate (* indicates which team gets the edge):
Quarterbacks
* 1996: Brett Favre.
* 2010: Aaron Rodgers.
Analysis: This is a dead heat with Favre winning NFL regular-season MVP honors and Rodgers earning Super Bowl MVP accolades. Rodgers had a better passer rating (101.2 to 95.8) and completion percentage (65.7 to 59.9) but Favre threw more touchdown passes (39 to 28). Surprisingly, their interception percentage was almost identical (2.4% for Favre, 2.3% for Rodgers).
Reach Vandermause at [email protected] or at www.twitter.com/MikeVandermause.