Green Bay Packers: Three Things To Improve On Next Season

It's been over a month since the Green Bay Packers played their regular season finale, but the sting from the past season has yet to vacate itself from my football conscience.

But with every offseason comes another new season, and even though that new season doesn't start for nearly seven months, it's never too early to look back at how this new season can turn out differently than the previous.

And while there are probably 10 or more things that a 6-10 team can do to improve, I'll narrow down the Packers' top three for next season.

First Quarter Offense

What better place to look for improvement than right at the beginning of games? Green Bay's offense in the first quarter of games was terrible this season.

In numerous games, the Packers did not score a touchdown in the first quarter, and in many of those games, it took Green Bay a couple of drives to even muster a first down.

So where does the blame belong? You have to start at the top with Packers coach Mike McCarthy. Opening drives are usually planned out, to a certain degree, before the game in practice. McCarthy was out-coached in the first quarter, plain and simple.

On the other hand, however, the players did not execute either. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers needs to get in rhythm quicker in games, because far too many times he missed open receivers on the first and second drives of games. Receiver Greg Jennings also needs to be incorporated into the first quarter plans on a more frequent basis.

What needs to change? I think it comes down to better coaching. In all honesty, McCarthy had an overall terrible year. He needs to become a better in-game and out-of-game coach for the Packers' first quarter deficiencies to improve.

Fourth Quarter Defense

I wrote about this mid-way through the season, and it continued throughout the rest of the year. The Packers' defense surrendered numerous leads in the fourth quarter, and, in my opinion, is the number one difference between 2007 and 2008.

Next season, we will see an entirely different Packers defense. Green Bay fired nearly every defensive coach, and they brought in defensive coordinator Dom Capers to fix the defense. With Capers comes the 3-4 defense, an attacking defense that should help Green Bay improve on that side of the ball.

Too many times last season the Packers defense was attacked, especially in the fourth quarter. If the 3-4 is run effectively, Green Bay should be able to turn the tables on opposing offenses.

The pass rush should be improved with the new defensive scheme, which means that our secondary won't have to cover receivers for days at a time like they did last season.

If Green Bay's defense can get back into the top 15 in total defense, we should see a team that is going to the playoffs.

Special Teams

From this unit, only punt returner Will Blackmon has the right to claim he had a good season. Other than that, our punting situation was one of the worst in the league, our kick and punt coverage was below average, and kicker Mason Crosby missed two game winning field goals.

Statistically, the Packers were last in the NFL in both kick return average (20.1 yards per return) and in special team penalities (24). In a composite special teams ranking put together by Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, Green Bay ranked a pultry 26th in the NFL.

In many NFL games, the overall talent level of the opposing teams isn't that far off. It's the special teams unit that so often has a huge impact on who wins and who loses in this league.

How should we fix this unit? First off, general manager Ted Thompson needs to make a good decision at punter. Is Jeremy Kapinos the answer? He finished last season strong, but is he very inexperienced. Raiders punter Shane Lechler, arguably the best punter in the league, is a free agent and his name has been thrown around Titletown as someone Thompson should pursue.

Coverage units are all about coaching and hard work. McCarthy needs to emphasize better coverage next season, because the field position disparity last season for Green Bay was atrocious.

Lastly, Crosby just needs to forget about last season. He was arguably one of the better kickers in all the NFL his rookie season, so he has the talent to get it done. His two game winning attempts were difficult (one was blocked), but NFL kickers need to make those kind of kicks.

In hindsight, Green Bay shouldn't have been a 6-10 team last season. This team has far too much talent for that to repeat next season. If the Packers can improve in these three major areas, I could easily see Green Bay making a four to five win improvement in 2009.

And I sure hope they do, because no one in Titletown wants to suffer through another season like the last.