Clyde Frog
formerly jay02
- 12,617
- 7,475
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
heres a great response about McCarthy that i agree with that saves me a ton of breath. ill spoiler it though, if anyone wants to read.
I spent some time staring at different data point of all the teams who have made super bowl appearances during Aaron Rodgers time as a starter. I hear so much negativity from Packer fans that can get really frustrating considering how fun the last ten years (25 really) have been as a fan.
Here’s a few observations.
Here’s a few observations.
- The Patriots are the only team with two Super Bowl wins. It’s also worth noting that both of those wins could have likely been easily prevented with the reversal of two plays (Seahawks passing on the 1 yard line, and Matt Ryan getting sacked out of field goal range on what should have been a running play.)
- The NFC is way more competitive than the AFC. Perhaps the word “competitive” could be debated, but the point is just that the number of teams that have risen in and out of power in the NFC way exceeds the AFC. If you take into consideration that both the Broncos and Colts relied on Peyton Manning for a lot of their playoff runs the numbers look even more squished. The AFC just has simply not featured the same variety of different talents that the NFC has. The NFC has been a much harder conference to play in because many teams have risen to prominence and gone on “runs” while the AFC has had a lot more struggling teams
- I would also be interested in the breakdowns of the division games. Each year the Patriots have gotten 6 games against the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins, while the Packers have had to play the Vikings Bears and Lions. In everyone of those last 10 years at least one of the teams in our division has been legitimately competitive, while the Patriots have enjoyed a decade of laughable opponents.
- There are many great quarterbacks represented on this list. Ben Rothesburger, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning. Some other ones worth noting too on the Russell Wilson level. I constantly hear the argument that the Packers should have had more success simply because they have Aaron Rodgers. The biggest problem I have with that, is that while I would rank Rodgers slightly higher, compare his 10 year run with that of Drew Brees. Packers have succeeded in a landslide, and has numbers about the same as Rothesburger who is playing in the AFC.
- the “fire McCarthy” brigade has one flaw above all the others. It’s the assumption that there is someone amazing to replace him with. As you can see here, over the last decade there’s only one coach, Bill Bilichick objectively better and a small handful of others in the whole league that are comparable to MM. Essentially when you boil the argument down far enough the reason people are frustrated is because the Patriots are able to win more than the Packers, so really what they are saying is “what is wrong with the Packers, all they need to do is hire one of the greatest coaches of all time, then we will have massive success! Unfortunately that is about as easy as finding a great quarterback. Many of these teams with sporadic playoff appearances have had multiple coaches over those time periods, and typically a new coach means an installment year and missing the playoffs, so especially if you’re afraid of “wasting Aaron’s window” getting a new coach is completely idiotic.
- there’s a complete lack of appreciation for what we have witnessed, and this is the most frustrating part. Every year you have a 1/32 chance of winning a Super Bowl, and about a 1/3 chance of making the playoffs. Playoff games are where all the excitement of being a Football fan lies, there’s nothing like playoff high-fives. Well over the past decade we have witnessed the Packers play 16 playoff games. That’s the second most of any team, and we only had 1 Super Bowl Run. We have gotten to celebrate 9 different playoff victories which is also extremely high. The fact that we just write all of those off is really pathetic. There are easily 20-25 teams in the NFL that would swap with us in an instant. And again the “but we have Aaron Rodgers we should have more!!!” Argument falls apart again. Because the Saints gave Drew Brees and they would switch success records with us.