Packers: Challenge Is Transforming from Consistently Good to Consistently Great

At this point in their respective tenures, general manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy will be remembered for consistently fielding good football teams in Green Bay.

Good football teams, not great ones.

Certainly, qualifying for the playoffs seven times in nine seasons under the direction of Thompson and McCarthy is nothing to sneeze at. Being consistently good in the salary-cap era requires intelligence, hard work, and more than a bit of luck.

However, the question remains as to whether the Packers can transform from a consistently good football team into a consistently great one.

Under current management, the Packers can best be described as a team with a top-tier, innovative offense playing alongside an average or below-average defense and special teams. The latter part of this assessment suggests there are clearly areas in which the Packers could improve to become a great team.

Since Thompson took over as general manager in Green Bay, the Packers have have attained the following NFL rankings on offense and defense by year:

Year	Offensive Ranking	Defensive Ranking
2005	18th	7th
2006	9th	12th
2007	2nd	11th
2008	8th	13th
2009	6th	2nd
2010	9th	5th
2011	3rd	32nd
2012	13th	11th
2013	3rd	25th
2014	6th	15th

The above rankings illustrate that the offense in Green Bay has frequently been among the league's best while the defense has lagged. The offense in Green Bay has in fact been ranked among the league's top 10 units seven times in the last 10 seasons, while the defense has only held that distinction three times over the same span.

It may be difficult to ascertain whether the mediocrity on defense is more attributable to personnel as opposed to coaching, but it isn't difficult to see that the Packers could use their defense as an avenue for transforming into a better overall team.

A look at the the Packers special teams reveals a similar opportunity. In the last ten seasons, the Packers special teams have only ranked amongst the league's top 10 units on two occasions (2007, 2011), according to Football Outsiders.

Green-and-Gold Takeaways

Given the aforementioned, it seems clear that if the Packers want to improve their lot, they have to find a way to achieve better play on defense and special teams. And after 10 seasons without an established trend in an upward direction, it's arguably time to start trying something new.

McCarthy would likely agree with that assessment. 

McCarthy announced after the 2014 season that he would relinquish play-calling duties on offense in hopes of spending more time coaching up the other two phases of the team: defense and special teams. 

While the team's defense improved last season as compared to the year prior, special teams appeared to take a step backwards from 2013. Accordingly, McCarthy recently hired Ron Zook as the new special teams coordinator in Green Bay to help catalyze change and improvement.

Unfortunately, as pointed out by Bob McGinn at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, McCarthy may have missed his chance to hire one of the best special teams coordinators in the league by delaying this decision at the end of the Packers' 2014 season. Consequently, the team will have to hope that Zook can find the answers in 2015.

Another place that the Packers might consider beefing up their team looks to be in the realm of defensive scouting, drafting, and development.

Under Thompson, the Packers have had limited success drafting high-caliber talent on the defensive side of the ball. Thompson may need to take a page from McCarthy's book and re-evaluate how he and his staff go about identifying and obtaining the talent they need to field the most competitive team possible.

Clay Matthews arguably represents the only consistent, superstar talent on defense that the Packers have drafted during the 10-year Thompson regime. Nick Collins would also likely qualify for that short list had he not suffered a career-ending neck injury soon after the Packers won their last Super Bowl.

With picks like quarterback Aaron Rodgers, running back Eddie Lacy, wide receiver Randall Cobb and center Corey Linsley, there can be no doubting the fact that Thompson and his staff have been effective in making selections on offense.

However, taken in sum, these considerations suggest that while Thompson is deserving of some notoriety for his drafting prowess, his success seems heavily skewed toward the offensive side of the ball and buying bargains in later rounds.

In self-scouting his own staff and organizational processes, Thompson may also need to re-evaluate his somewhat stingy philosophy of signing free agents, particularly on defense. The last two Super Bowl-winning teams in Green Bay were led by top-tier free agents on the defensive side of the ball (Reggie White and Charles Woodson).

Granted, Thompson did have some success in adding Julius Peppers last year, suggesting that more involvement in this aspect of acquiring personnel might be recommended.

Parting Thoughts

The Packers have consistently qualified for the playoffs under Thompson and McCarthy but have only a single championship to show for it after approximately ten years in charge.

The Atlanta Braves qualified for the MLB playoffs a total of 14 times in 15 seasons from 1991-2005 but came away with only one World Series title while fielding arguably one of the greatest starting rotations in major league history.

Although that's an amazing streak of consistency, those Braves teams are not remembered for their greatness. Instead, they are likely remembered with a sense of unrealized potential and disappointment. 

The Green Bay Packers, under Thompson and McCarthy, are now at risk of writing a similar narrative. 

Like those Braves teams, the Packers boast one of the most dominant players in the league at the most important position in Rodgers. However, they have compiled a somewhat pedestrian playoff record of only 6-5 with Rodgers as the starter.

Greatness is an elusive beast that requires constant vigilance and a strong culture of continuous improvement.

If the Packers of this era want to achieve and maintain the standard of excellence set so long ago by Vince Lombardi, they need to dig deeper in terms of scouting, drafting and coaching on both defense and special teams while continuing to maintain their edge on offense.

To date, the Packers of this era will be remembered for fielding an outstanding offense that delivered a title only when the team's defense played at it's maximum potential for a brief four-game window. 

While those results may be acceptable in some NFL communities, the minimum standard for sustained excellence in Green Bay is higher.