You can blame Love and Lafleur for their individual performances, but the trend of mediocrity for the packers stems from a FO that is playing the game like it is 30 years ago.
The best teams in the league today chase top tier talent aggressively. They are constantly wheeling and dealing players and coaches.
The Rams and Buccaneers both have been very aggressive about going all in. They both have been to the Super Bowl more recently than the packers, both have more dead cap currently, and both are still more competitive than the packers.
The Eagles have won the Super Bowl more recently than the packers, completely reloaded their players and coaches, have about as much dead cap as the packers, and are one of the best teams in the league.
Teams don’t let QBs sit on the bench for 3 years anymore, rookie contracts are too valuable. The packers hang on to bad players for far too long just because they were high draft picks. The packers would never do what the 49ers did with Lance.
The packers hang on to bad coaches for years past when it’s time for them to move on. Could you imagine the packers doing what the eagles did with Pederson?
The FO mentality is so risk averse and counter productive. I don’t even understand it from the perspective of wanting in ensure steady income. The packers have one of the largest fan bases in the world, no one is going to jump ship because of an aggressive FO that might make mistakes. Better that than this miserable heartless team that we see now.
I think it’s time for Murphy to retire. Then it’s time for his replacement to take a hard look at everyone below him.
Gute’s drafting track record has been not great, but the most damning thing he did was extend Rodgers last year and then trade him this year. We could have gotten more draft capital and be in a better cap situation, but he didn’t seem to have a clear plan. I am losing faith in him.
LaFleur might be good at scheming, but it’s hard to tell this year since none of the players seem to know what they’re doing (which suggests bad coaching). You can’t rely on draft & develop if you don’t have coaches good at the development part. And his most damning moment was keeping Joe Barry this offseason (second more damning thing was hiring Joe Barry in the first place). Yes, yes, someone will say “but the offense is the problem” — no, they’re both the problem. Our offense sucking doesn’t give Barry a pass.
Coaching looks bad from top to bottom—the only part of our team that looks competent is special teams.