Should Mike McCarthy Give Up Play-Calling for Packers Offense?

Could Mike McCarthy be a more successful head coach for the Green Bay Packers if he handed off the responsibility of play-calling?

During the 2014 NFL season, 10 NFL coaches called either the offensive or defensive plays on their respective teams, per data from ESPN Stats & Information. 

McCarthy was joined by the following nine coaches who were the primary play-callers for their systems:

Coach	Team	Side
Bruce Arians	Arizona Cardinals	Offense
Jay Gruden	Washington Redskins	Offense
Chip Kelly	Philadelphia Eagles	Offense
Mike McCarthy	Green Bay Packers	Offense
Bill O'Brien	Houston Texans	Offense
Sean Payton	New Orleans Saints	Offense
Andy Reid	Kansas City Chiefs	Offense
Rex Ryan	New York Jets	Defense
Marc Trestman	Chicago Bears	Offense
Ken Whisenhunt	Tennessee Titans	Offense

Now, one look at that list quickly confirms that the Packers were one of the most successful teams this season that featured a head coach calling the offensive plays. McCarthy has a long history of success in Green Bay, where he has always called his own plays. Since he took over in 2006, McCarthy's Packers teams have only missed the playoffs twice. 

No other team with a head coach that calls plays went 12-4 this season; only the Cardinals, who went 11-5, came close. And many of those teams are led by coaches who are known for quarterback development and/or innovative styles (Bruce Arians, Bill O'Brien, Chip Kelly), so it makes sense for them to be at the helm in play-calling.

But given some of McCarthy's questionable calls in 2014, and knowing how much more involved he could be in other areas of the game were he to give up that duty, does it still make sense?

ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky spoke to this very question in his Twitter Mailbag on January 31, and he noted that McCarthy has always said if the team would be better off to have someone else calling the plays, he would give it up.

This is true, and one might assume that McCarthy might have put play-calling on the table to entice Joe Philbin to stay when he received an offer to coach the Miami Dolphins after the 2011 season. It almost happened once before; prior to the 2008 season, McCarthy thought about relinquishing his play-calling duties, per former Palm Beach Post staff writer Ben Volin: 

"I thought about taking a step back, and with that I was going to give the play-calling to Joe Philbin, which I wouldn’t have even thought twice about," McCarthy said in 2012. 

But there's no doubt that a head coach who calls plays is missing important of-the-moment developments in every game. After the conference championship against Seattle, Demovksy noted: "The point is that when the head coach is the play-caller, there are things that could slip through the cracks."

What prompted that observation from Demovsky was something McCarthy said about why Clay Matthews wasn't on the field for two series in the fourth quarter against Seattle. When asked, McCarthy said:

"

As far as the doctors, especially being a play-caller, I don't get every play by play of what every guy was looked at during the course of the game. I really don't even get that until after a home game until I go back through the training room, and we have a list that we go through each guy he has seen. Just the way we're structured, unless it impacts the game as far as a player injury, I'm not really notified.

"

ESPN NFL scout Matt Williamson echoed that there are many aspects of game management that coaches can't focus on if they're calling plays. 

"I think it is awfully tough to pull off," Willliamson said, via Demovsky. "You always have to be thinking a play ahead of time instead of 'living in the moment,' which can interfere with when to take timeouts, time management, etc." 

In addition to the aspects of game play a coach can miss while calling plays, McCarthy's play-calling in 2014 was often questionable. Though every play executed on the field is partially a result of the call and partially player execution, McCarthy seems to suggest that execution, not his play-calling, was the issue in certain situations through the season. 

That didn't always seem to be the case.

One can point to poor moments in McCarthy's calls in seasons past, but quite a few come to mind in 2014. As a general characterization, McCarthy's play-calling skews conservative. 

Take field goals, for example. Mason Crosby attempted 33 field goals in 2014 (he made 27 of them). Perhaps two of McCarthy's most-criticized calls of the season came in the conference championship against Seattle, when twice on 4th-and-1 from the Seahawks' 1-yard line, he called for the field-goal unit rather than go for it. 

Just how conservative was McCarthy in those situations all season, though? 

Week	Quarter	Down & Distance	Score Before	Score After	Result
Week 1 @ SEA	2	4th-and-5	Trail 7-10	Tie 10-10	L
Week 2 vs. NYJ	2	4th-and-2	Trail 21-3	Trail 21-6	W
Week 8 @ NO	2	4th-and-6	Tied 13-13	Lead 16-13	L
Week 10 vs. CHI	3	4th-and-2	Lead 42-0	Lead 45-0	W
Week 11 vs. PHI	1	4th-and-9	Tied 0-0	Lead 3-0	W
Week 13 vs. NE	4	4th-and-5	Lead 23-21	Lead 26-21	W
Week 16 @ TB	4	4th-and-2	Lead 10-3	Lead 13-3	W
NFCC @ SEA	1	4th-and-1	Tied 0-0	Lead 3-0	L
NFCC @ SEA	1	4th-and-1	Lead 3-0	Lead 6-0	L

Nine times this season, in 4th-and-10-or-fewer-yards situations, McCarthy opted to take the points rather than go for it. Four other times, he went for it, per Pro Football Reference's play index. Crosby, thankfully, made every kick in in the field goal situations, but were they still the right calls?

A couple of instances can be disregarded immediately. In Week 10, when the Packers were slaughtering the Bears 42-0, it was appropriate to take a field goal on 4th-and-2 rather than run up the score. The two 4th-and-long instances with the scored tied, against the New Orleans Saints in Week 8 and the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 11, are tossups as well.

Six to 10 yards is a lot to convert in one play, and the defense will be expecting a pass in that situation and be positioned accordingly. And with a tied score, why risk a chance to take a lead, however small? Of course, in retrospect regarding the 44-23 loss to the Saints, being more aggressive early on when the score was still tied may have altered the outcome of the game. 

It's not hard to make an argument, though, that McCarthy could have gone for it in the other situations.

Against New England, McCarthy's decision to kick a field goal kept the Patriots within five points. If Aaron Rodgers hadn't gotten a first down on an improbable seven-yard completion to Randall Cobb at the end of the fourth, Tom Brady would have gotten the ball back with two minutes to go, and the Packers would have been wishing they were up 30-21 rather than 26-21.

While the memory of the pair of field goals at Seattle's 1-yard line still festers, but don't forget the frustrating Week 2 field-goal attempt at the New York Jets' 2-yard line when Green Bay was trailing 21-3. To make matters worse, on the play prior Eddie Lacy had successfully rushed for three yards on 3rd-and-5. 

The Packers came back to win that game, but that doesn't mean McCarthy shouldn't have been more aggressive in trying to close the scoring gap. 

He seemed to express mixed emotions when discussing his calls on the two field goals against Seattle in the conference championship. On one hand, nearly every media outlet picked up his quote in his postgame press conference: "If you want to question my play-calling... I'm not questioning it."

Yet in his season wrap-up presser, McCarthy said, "I regret not doing enough to help the team win." 

He likely meant more than just the two field goals—one of which, he even revealed in his end-of-season presser, was originally a run that he changed when he saw the Seahawks' penetration on the preceding second and third downs. 

But he also called runs at the wrong times. The Packers began their third-to-last drive in regulation leading by 12 points with 6:53 left to go. They went three-and-out after two rushing attempts by James Starks and an incomplete pass by Rodgers. They took just 1:40 off the clock. 

After Morgan Burnett intercepted Russell Wilson, Green Bay got the ball back, this time with 5:04 left. Once again, the Packers went three-and-out after three Lacy rushing attempts, gaining a total of minus-four yards on the drive and taking just 1:12 off the clock as Seattle used two timeouts. 

By taking his foot off the gas and playing to kill the clock, which wasn't even done successfully, McCarthy made it easier for Seattle to seize a comeback opportunity. 

As for an explanation for those two ugly drives, McCarthy said in his postgame presser: "I came in here to run the ball. The one statistic I had has as far as a target to hit was 20 rushing attempts in the second half, I thought that would be a very important target to hit for our offense."

Prior to the drive beginning at 6:53, the Packers had run the ball eight times in the second half. 

That helps illustrate a criticism commonly levied on McCarthy: He, sometimes obdurately, holds so tight to his game plan that he fails to make necessary adjustments. It's something he rarely admits to, except in occasional instances such as after the Week 3 loss to Detroit.

Rodgers had just 12 passing attempts in the first half of that game, and at his Monday press conference, McCarthy said: "The only correction I would make as a play caller is, 'Do you go to it sooner,' as far as just attacking their coverage, attacking their two-deep," via Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

However, if his offensive coordinator were calling the plays, perhaps McCarthy would have the necessary distance to step back and make appropriate in-game adjustments. 

Even Rodgers appeared to question McCarthy's play-calling after the conference championship game. "We had some chances early, had some chances late to do some things and didn’t do it," Rodgers said, via ESPN Wisconsin. "When you go back and think about it, at times we weren’t playing as aggressive as we usually are."

Now, would McCarthy actually give up the responsibility of play-calling? Most likely not; if he ever would have, it would have been to Philbin, whom he trusted immensely, prior to the 2008 season. And from his comments at that time, if he had handed over the reins, it would have been more in the interest of managing his workload rather than because he felt it would improve the offense. 

Offensive coordinator Tom Clements hasn't called plays since his 2004 season as the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, and it's not clear he would do a better job than McCarthy. More likely, the transition would place undue stress on Rodgers and the flow of the offense. 

Still, if McCarthy were freed to view the forest, rather than the trees, perhaps his game management would improve.