McCarthy's 5 man DC lsit

[mattresell]

From Ben Maller.com

Of the five candidates Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy is considering for his defensive coordinator's position, only one would offer him a chance to keep the system the team ran under Jim Bates last season. That's why defensive line coach Bob Sanders is a top candidate - perhaps the leading candidate - to run McCarthy's defense this season. But Sanders is not the only candidate and McCarthy has not made a decision on Bates' replacement. Buffalo defensive coordinator Jerry Gray arrived in Green Bay on Tuesday for an interview and New York Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson was expected to interview this week as well. Also on McCarthy's five-man list is Tennessee Titans linebackers coach Dave McGinnis and possibly Detroit defensive coordinator **** Jauron.

I think all of these guys are qualified for the job. I'd be happy with any of them, but my preference would be Sanders(keep same scheme) or Gray. I've always liked Buffalo's D, though I've heard Gray would consider using a 3-4. Which poses another question for another thread, which I'll start now.

 

[tromadz]

is keeping the same scheme worth having a bad DC though? He might suck bad. I hope not. I just hope if he does get the job its not mostly because it keeps the scheme the same. Yeah, he is (supposedly) well respected, but he is our DE coach. And when you look at our DEs, what has happened there?

KGB was a top 10 sack guy a couple times, and is(or was, he sucked this year) a pass rush 'specialist.' He never improved in the run game, despite what packers.com articles said. Our DE coach couldnt help KGB with the run? Interesting.

Aaron Kampman set a record for linemen tackles this year. Aaron Kampman was ignored and disliked by a lot of people on this site (as well as my boy Cullen, who also had a good year), but he came out and played almost maybe the best football on that line. Grady gets some credit, cuz they dont wanna run at him, so they try to test Kamp, and he answered all the questions on those tests. Kamp was a nobody, who turned into a somebody. He isnt very big, not super strong, not really a DE body, but he has the heart and hustle, and improved. It makes sense to give the DE coach a lot of credit since this nobody turned into a record breaker.

Now I'm not sure what other DEs he's worked with, but when it comes to these two DEs, he deserves a lot of credit for kamp, and a lot of 'what the hell' for KGB. But to his credit, even Bates couldnt get KGB to work. He tried giving him extra space to work and moved him over a little bit more, and it didnt work.

Hiring Bob Sanders could work, it could not - just like MM\Jag could work out well, or not. Gotta wait and see.

 

[subin]

That's the first time I've heard Donnie Henderson's name for the job. I think he'd be good, seeing as how he's done great with the Jets and was saught after for headcoaching jobs (I think). However bringing him in could mean 5 DCs in 5 years, if he does well enough and teams give him a head coaching opportunity next year.

 

[CaliforniaCheez]

I like what Sanders did last year with the young talent, the rotation, and getting some play from Peterson. Keeping him from following Bates is a side benefit. The other benefit would be not changing a successful system by too much.

He is no less deserving than some of these other assistants being hired. I would like it which means it is unlikely to happen. If he stays he may get few of the players in the upcoming draft as politics gets played out and he "gets put in his place" a bit.

The firing of Sherman has sure brought a lot of consequences that have yet to be proven positive.

 

[TOPackerFan]

KGB wasn't really supposed to be defending the run as much. He was supposed to rush the passer with the LBs filling the huge hole left by splitting him out wide. I think that's just one of the aspects of the scheme rather than anything to do with Sanders not being able to coach KGB.

 

[Zero2Cool]

Dom Capers has been mentioned as well.

 

[Greg C.]

Like most people, I lean toward Sanders because they could keep the same scheme. But Trom makes a very good point. The overall quality of the coach is much more important than the scheme. I think a lot of what made Bates so good, if not most of it, was his confidence, which rubbed off on the players. Slowik, on the other hand, was kind of wishy-washy, and that attitude showed up on the field.

There seem to be a lot of good DC candidates floating around, so maybe we'll come out alright after all. And if the players have to learn their fourth scheme in four years, well, at least they should be good at learning schemes by now.